Bikes on Northern Trains

Northern Trains wins today's prize for worst cycle allowance, having made essentially no provision for bikes at all. Mind you, given the age of their rolling stock it would be difficult to argue they'd made much provision for passengers, either.

They win points for having friendly helpful staff but lose them again for turning away a fifth cyclist, ostensibly because there was no more room for bikes.

Overall: 1/10. Extremely poor, must do better.

Bikes on Cross Country Trains

Taking bikes on East Midlands' trains turned out to be a doddle compared to Cross Country, who provide the most appalling bike hangers. Theoretically their trains hold four bikes but the spaces are so poorly designed that hanging even a single bike is a test of dexterity, endurance and strength; hanging two side-by-side is damn near impossible.

And if you had a non-standard bike or you lacked upper body strength you're stuffed.

Overall: 3/10, very poor, must improve.

Bikes on East Midlands Trains

I'm on a five car train, with my bike. There is space for one other bike in the single cycle storage area but luckily I appear to be the only cyclist travelling today.

Reserving the space was easy - you just email the customer service team (it's unclear why you can't reserve a bike space when booking a ticket). Getting your bike to the platform at St Pancras is easy.

Getting onto the train is more difficult because the door is narrow, the train is much higher than the platform and there's a fair-sized gap between train and platform. I suspect many people, especially those with limited strength or heavy panniers, would struggle.

Manoeuvring on the train is very tricky - there's very little space - but securing the bike is straightforward using the straps provided. There isn't a rack the straps are the only things holding the bike in place. Getting your bike out at the other end is similarly tricky.

Overall: 7/10, could do better