Chesterfield Cycle Campaign

All trains in Britain carry folding bikes free with no reservation if folded and covered. 'Normal' bikes usually require a reservation. Very few trains will carry tandems or tricycles.

Chesterfield has a good train service with a standard daytime pattern of 5 trains northbound and 4 trains southbound per hour. The apparently unbalanced service is because one of the two trains per hour from Sheffield to London doesn't normally stop at Chesterfield southbound (some do especially early morning and evening).

East Midland Trains run a service from Liverpool to Norwich as well as their main line service to London from Sheffield. These trains will allow 2 full size bike spaces to be booked unless the Sheffield to London train is a High Speed Train (very few) in which case 4 bikes may be booked. Their website doesn't mention this but if you speak to them by telephone they may reserve 4 bikes because increasingly the trains are made up of 2 x 2 car trains.

Cross Country trains operate a service from Plymouth to Edinburgh with some trains going beyond to Penzance or further into Scotland. There are also trains to Reading added into the timetable at certain times. These trains also carry just 2 full size bikes in a rather cramped locker in the middle of the train. You have to hang a full size bike up by its front wheel.

Northern Trains operate a Nottingham to Leeds hourly service. They too advertise only 2 bikes per train but are well known for being lenient especially at off peak times.

Basic summary of trains departing Chesterfield (M - F daytime)

Northbound Platform 1

• xx.02   Edinburgh via Leeds, York, Newcastle
• xx.18   Leeds
• xx.37   Sheffield
• xx.47   Sheffield
• xx.52   Liverpool via Sheffield, Manchester

Southbound Platform 2

• xx.06   Plymouth via Derby, Birmingham and Bristol
• xx.22   Nottingham
• xx.39   London via Derby
• xx.52   Norwich via Nottingham

Further in the future a company called Glasgow Trains has suggested it would like to operate a Glasgow to Nottingham service

East Midland Trains also operate the Matlock to Nottingham service which from December 2008 will become hourly, 2 bikes per train.

All bike reservations in the UK are now free. The very informative page from A to B Magazine on UK rail cycle carriage is available here.

If you log onto the East Coast Rail website they will reserve bike spaces on line. You can book any rail journey in the UK on this site. This is the  'nationalised' rail service on the East coast main line.

Sheffield Trams

Folding bikes in a bag are carried at the discretion of the conductor. Non folding bikes are not carried - except - once a month on the last Sunday Sheffield Cycle Campaign organise a Bicycle Special from Cathedral tram stop to either Waterthorpe for Rother Valley Country park or Middlewood for Wharnecliff Woods. Departing at 10.00am and returning at 3.00pm. Spaces need to be booked in advance. Download their leaflet here. This is also the area of a new route to be built by Sustrans as part of their Connect2 project.

Travelling abroad

You are now able to reserve a place for your bike on the same Eurostar train that you are travelling on. (This is subject to space being available). This service operates on London, Paris and Brussels routes only.

You can make a reservation or find out more about this service by calling 08705 850 850 or visit the EuroDespatch Centre in person at St Pancras International. Charges are £20 one way and it’s necessary to quote your Eurostar reference or show your ticket.

This puts Eurostar on parity with low cost airlines such as Ryanair on cycle carriage, but with the benefit of offering you a carbon neutral journey.

This change in policy has come about as the result of sustained lobbying by cycle campaigners such as the CTC and Camden Cycle Campaign.

East Midland Trains offer through ticketing from Chesterfield to Paris, Brussels and beyond - not sure how you would coordinate that with booking your bike with Eurostar though!

There is at least one Eurostar per hour to Paris during the day, slightly less frequency to Brussels. One of the Paris or Brussels trains usually stops at Lille once an hour. This is a great place to change onto other European high speed trains with frquent connections to all parts of France as well as trains to Germany and the Netherlands

Members of the Campaign have used ferries from Harwich and Newcastle to get to continental Europe. The railway station at Harwich is adjacent to the ferry terminal whilst Newcastle ferry port is about 6 miles from Newcastle station linked by mainly off road cycle track.

Le Shuttle run the car shuttle trains from Folkestone to Calais and will also carry cyclists, you bike is put in a trailer and you travel by minibus!

The Secretary has cycled between station in London whilst his family have hired two taxis - one for two childrens bikes and a Brompton and one for the people.

Onward travel by train with your bike in Europe is generally easier that in the UK but very few high speed trains in Europe carry bikes, however, many overnight sleeper trains do. A marvellous website for train travel information is The Man in Seat 61, the specific bike pages are here.

if you have any information you would like to add please contact the Secretary or Webmaster.