Taking a bike on a train is more difficult these days, with some commuter services not allowing full sized bikes. You will need to check with local operators to see whether you can take a bike on your service. National Rail says it does try to encourage bikes to be taken by train, but, there are cases where you will need to book in advance or limit yourself to a foldup (and in a box)
On Metro services in West Yorkshire, there are a reasonable number of places. Bikes can be tucked away, without taking up too much space.
All services should be willing to take foldup bikes, so if you have any problems, this is best one to take.
Bike Parking at Leeds Station
How Many People Cycle to Station?
Independent surveys by Passenger Focus show that nationally in 2009, 2.2% of rail passengers got to the station by bicycle. Of these, 1.3% took their bike on the train, and 0.9% parked at the station.While these are small percentages, in real terms this means there were around 28m bike-rail journeys in 2009 – or 77,000 a day (based on Department for Transport rail journey figures). In 2007 there were just 19.5m bike-rail journeys in total. From: Blog on bikes on train – Guardian
Useful Links
- Cycling by Train at National Rail Enquiries
- List of bike restrictions by Service provider
I used the train from Bristol to Bath and was suprised how many cyclists were using the rail system (I’m not a frequent train user) but none of them had folding bikes-mainly steel apollo units.