Surfers call on GWR to review board-on-trains ban

[Ianno87]

Airlines won't take more than basic hand luggage for free, but sports equipment is normally clearly defined and welcome in the hold when prebooked.

I used to take a bicycle by train but have given up any idea, it's just too complicated and unreliable. Yes, it's free, but that's all that can be said for it.
It goes in the car every time now.

I've flown with a bicycle many times. The rules keep changing, but are relatively straightforward. Look on almost any airline booking web site and bicycles, surfboards, golf clubs, etc are welcome, but prebooked and paid for. Until covid, my bicycle was due to fly again this year, but that idea got canned. I don't have a surfboard but the same criteria would apply to my decision process.

Exactly; you can't just turn up with one and expect it to be carried. It has "faff" associated with it.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

It might just be that GWR don’t want the custom of the very, very few passengers who want to take their surfboards on an 80x service. Perhaps they are more trouble than they are worth?

It's possible, but when you add the small number of people who want to travel with a surfboard to the larger number of people who want to travel with a bike, to the larger still number of people who want to travel with heavy suitcases, to the larger still number of people who want to travel with a pushchair - none of whom are at all well-served by the 80Xs - then that's actually quite a lot of people. And as GWR's season ticket revenue evaporates, I suspect they may start wishing they had slightly more leisure-friendly trains.

 

[northernbelle]

It might just be that GWR don’t want the custom of the very, very few passengers who want to take their surfboards on an 80x service. Perhaps they are more trouble than they are worth?




I don’t see how you can reach that conclusion, as I’m reasonably sure that the leisure market does not consist entirely of people who want to travel with surfboards. As I write my parents are on an 80x in the West Country for leisure, and have had no problem. Although they don’t have surfboards with them.

Indeed. We really are talking about a very small proportion of (admittedly noisy) leisure passengers

Time far better spent on getting things right for suitcases and bikes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Exactly; you can't just turn up with one and expect it to be carried. It has "faff" associated with it.

You can't just turn up and get on a plane anyway.

The equivalent is that it is offered at the time of ticket purchase.

 

[infobleep]

Well this generated a lot of heat.

So, how many people actually want to take their surfboard on a GWR 80x each year? A couple of hundred individuals?

And surely there is an answer to this problem anyway. Just get a folding surfboard (they do exist!)

The problem is you can't take a surfboad on full stop. They don't take into account it's size. It's a blanket no. Now common sense might suggest a guard turn a blind eye but would someone want to risk it?

This means we can’t take surfboards on our IETs.

You can still take surfboards on our Night Riviera Sleeper and local services.

Train Luggage Allowances | Great Western Railway

Luggage allowances on our trains

www.gwr.com

Obviously GWR could amend their policy but would they want to do that?

 

[DB]

Indeed. We really are talking about a very small proportion of (admittedly noisy) leisure passengers

Time far better spent on getting things right for suitcases and bikes.

Decent sized luggage space can be used for whatever - luggage, bikes, surfboards.

 

[northernbelle]

Decent sized luggage space can be used for whatever - luggage, bikes, surfboards.

Indeed - I'm surprised about this ban to be quite honest. There's a good number of large luggage stores on the IETs in which surfboards fit quite well.

 

[class26]

Whilst I take your point, this summer plenty of 5 car 802s left plymouth for cornwall full and standing and so removing seats is still problematic in places. Whilst I agree that the 9 car 800s which are essentially used in the peaks could reasonably lose 8 seats, removing 8 seats on a 5 car 802 would prove more problematic , especially in the summer.

Take seats out of the GWR 800s and give them back to Hiatchi to save a few £ on the EMR 800 build !!

[/QUOTE]
No thanks, we don`t want those seats in the East Mids !