Here, the light rail has vertical racks on board; easy to load if you follow the picture diagrams - lift front wheel up, roll the front wheel up the guide, holding on to the handle bar, and pushing on the back of the saddle, hook the front wheel (watch out for the valve stem).

No problems, bike gets jostled a bit - the worst is a sudden stop when some moron motorist cuts off the train.

Some people, never looked at the instructions, and try to brute force thier bike on to the rack, most give up before causing damage.

My commuter, with the kitty litter paniers is 40+ lbs (not much lighter than our tandem), and on the rare occassion (rain or total fatigue) that I take the light rail, no problems.