List of Countries where can take your bike on the train
I only know of the US and Canada for this and was hoping this was a common practce. Looking to do a bike/train tour and this could help me decide where to go.
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In my experience:
Australia, just about all of Europe, Britain, and Taiwan (but in the luggage van). Japan (or at least some parts of it such as Hokkaido) was problematic. We have decided that folding bikes are in our world travels future. Bike Fridays. The fold-down might take some time, but it will save money and be more convenient, in our estimation. |
I can only speak for Italy. With the bike in a bag you can take any train with no problem, if you want to get the whole bike on the train you have to search the timetables and see if there is a bike sign among the services, unfortunately none of our high speed trains offers that opportunity, and sometimes even if the service is listed the dedicated racks are missing. So carrying bikes on trains is possible but it could do better. Austria and Germany are much better organized for example ;)
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I've taken a bike on train in Thailand, Malaysia and Russia. The latter was a bit of a pain (only certain trains have baggage cars and one has to make several stops to make payment, drop bike off, etc) but it worked.
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Australia - depends. I've done 25 cycle tours in the state of Victoria and I still get confused by the exact rules. Generally you can take your bike on, but sometimes you're meant to book it in advance, sometimes it goes in a special carriage, sometimes they'll actually add a special luggage carriage to the train if your group is big enough. The NSW trains require you to book it, pay for it, and pack it in a bike box.
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List of Countries where can take your bike on the train
Sweden Rail is not bike friendly.
In the summer bikes are allowed on a few departures on a couple of routes. Otherwise forget it :( Germany has a good system |
France is pretty good. However, there are several types of trains in France and the situation can vary. It's a good idea to check whether or not the train you want will take a bicycle in advance. You can check by going to a train station and picking up a little route brochure. Most train stations will have lots of those. If bicycles are allowed, there will be a little symbol above the time.
In some cases you can just roll on ... in others it's a good idea to book the bicycle. And prices will vary. In Switzerland, you will need to book the bicycle, and it will be a bit expensive. I n the UK, it is highly recommended to book the bicycle, especially during the summer when there might be lots of people travelling by train and bicycle, and limited bicycle space. We ran into that difficulty in Scotland and ended up staying in a particular area an extra day because we couldn't book the bicycles onto the train until the next day. |
Did So in Poland ..
my experience was in '91, though i stood it up in the end of the corridor . |
In Thailand and Sri Lanka, it was easy to bring a bike on a train.
In many countries with limited passenger rail service, it is often easy to take on a bike on buses. I found this to be true, for example, in Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, and Tunisia. |
Thanks for all the replies. This helps me decided where to tour in the future.
I just found a page indicating that Vietnam is pretty bike/rail friendly: http://travellingtwo.com/resources/1...ing-in-vietnam |
Not all trains in Canada accept bikes on board, only the ones with a bagage car.
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Italy, Switzerland, Austria. I would imagine most places in Europe. They are far ahead of the US in being bike friendly.
But even bike crazy Italy has some rules. You can only use RORO on Regionale trains. |
years back .. group trip.. Paris To Bern CH, we surrendered the bikes 2 days early at the French station
and SNCF shipped them on an Overnight train, we took the TGV to Lyon, then a local to Bern.. the bikes were there when we arrived. |
Originally Posted by badgnome
(Post 16458019)
I only know of the US and Canada for this and was hoping this was a common practce. Looking to do a bike/train tour and this could help me decide where to go.
That said, I've taken a bike on a train in most every country between Croatia and England, Sweden and Spain, and only once was I denied the train I wanted. |
Originally Posted by Machka
(Post 16458552)
In Switzerland, you will need to book the bicycle, and it will be a bit expensive.
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I was riding from UK to Budapest last Summer. Got to Lille, France and decided I wanted to be in Tours, France to start to ride the EuroVelo 6 route along the Loire without peddling for days. So, I rode into the huge Lille train station and bought a ticket for me and bike right there (about $110) and rode an hour later to Tours, only having to get off the train, ride across Paris through about 5 million tourists to another train station, and put the bike on another train. On both trains I rolled the fully loaded beast into a luggage area shared with baby carriages in the same car as me. A lady conductor helped me load the heavy bike. While not TGV, the trains were very fast. Got on in Lille at 11 am, got off in Tours at 3 pm. This was a great adventure for me. I had not planned this, and it all worked out. You can plan all this if that is your style, me I like to let it flow. This time it all worked out.
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Not Spain. What a nightmare.
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+1 on not Sweden. At least that's the official line with Swedish Rail, long distance buses too. I've seen bikes in their trains on a couple of trips, but maybe those guys were just lucky and got away with it.
For Finland, depending on the train, it's one of the following: - straight in through the doors (commuter trains, outside of rush hour) - baggage car (old long distance trains) - designated bike stands (newer InterCity trains, booking in advance is highly recommended as there are only a couple of stands per train) - no go (the Pendolino high speed service) Another thing, it's quite easy to take your bike in Finnish long distance buses. Their geographical coverage is far better than rail. --J |
Originally Posted by becnal
(Post 16467652)
Not Spain. What a nightmare.
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NZ, not that we have a lot of trains.
It pays to book in advance because sometimes its limited to 4 bikes. |
Sweden.
Pretty much only on the smaller trains/railway companies. In Southern Sweden it works well as you just buy an extra ticket for your bike (like $5). On SJ trains, which is the biggest/official railway company they have pretty much rebuilt all their cargo space into bars and other stupid stuff. You can bring your bike, if you wrap it up in something. |
Originally Posted by fietsbob
(Post 16458861)
Did So in Poland ..
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In the Netherlands you can take a bike on the train (except during rush hour), day ticket cost 6 euro.
In Belgium also you can take a bike on the train. |
Originally Posted by psee
(Post 16469053)
Sweden.
On SJ trains, which is the biggest/official railway company they have pretty much rebuilt all their cargo space into bars and other stupid stuff. You can bring your bike, if you wrap it up in something. Unfortunately in recent years at terminal stations the train doors stay locked until a few minutes before departure. This makes it much harder to get your cumbersome stuff out of the way in time...Not to mention waiting on the platform in the freezing cold in winter! But hey! It's probably all for our own security and comfort... innit! |
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