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in Europe in Germany in Switzerland
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The Belgian railways (SNCB//NMBS) web site (www.b-rail.be) is available in Flemish, French, English and German. There are places for bikes on most Belgian trains. A bicycle ticket for a single journey will cost you 4.20 Euro and a tandem 8.10 Euro or you can buy a day ticket for 7.20 Euro or 14.30 Euro. The web site warns that each type of train has a different number of bicycle storage places. You should theoretically contact the station where you wish to join the train a few days before to check whether there is room. In our limited experience for shorter journeys you can just turn up at the station, buy your tickets and pop your bike on the train. The ship services on Lake Lucerne are described in the SGV web site (www.lakelucerne.ch). The web site in English, French and German includes a webcam view of the landing stage in Lucerne and weather information. Lake Constance Passenger Ships There are five web sites: one German, two Swiss, one Austrian and and a joint one representing all of the companies offering trips on Lake Constance. These web sites are all in German, though the Austrian site has an English version with many links to German sites (www.erlebnis-bahn-schiff.at ) Who said the language of the Internet was English? The Rhine (Germany), Bonner Personen Schiffahrt (Bonn-Linz) www.bps-online.com (English and German); Loreley-Linie (Boppard-Rüdesheim) www.Loreley-Linie.com (English and German); Bingen-Rüdesheimer (Rüdesheim-St. Goar) www.bingen-ruedesheimer.com (English and German); The Grandmother of them all: Köln-Düsseldorfer (Rüdesheim-Köln-Düsseldorf) www.k-d.com (English and German) Moselle (Germany) Köln-Düsseldorfer (Koblenz-Cochem) www.k-d.com (English and German) The Romantic Road Deutsche Touring GmbH offers bike transport daily on its long distance buses in the touring season between Frankfurt, Würzburg, Füssen and Munich. Crossing the English Channel If you and your bike are starting your journey abroad from Britain, it is well worth looking at the European Bike Express bus services to France and Spain from eastern England. The company does offer a pick up service in Manchester and the West Midlands. You can obviously put your bike on any of the ferries crossing the channel, but you may prefer to go under it, especially if you are travelling on by SNCF from Paris. This quote is taken from a CTC eMail service to its members in July 2005. This service is another good reason to join the CTC. Travelling on Eurostar this summer? "Bikes which can be packed down into a 90 x 120 cm package and contained in a bag or case (CTC shop has a low cost polythene sack suitable for this) can be taken onboard as one of the 2 large items of luggage. If you want to keep the bike assembled, or the size cannot be reduced sufficiently, the bike travels in the luggage compartment. You then need to book space. To help get around this problem, Eurostar's will take your bike on an earlier service, with the aim of taking no longer than 24 hours to deliver it. This sounds alarming, but you should be able to travel and not have to wait for a following day's service. Many have been frightened off using Eurostar by the ‘24 hours condition’, but CTC has been told that this is generally the longest period you may have to wait, if you arrive without a pre-booked space in the baggage van. It is not necessary to go to the station to book the bike - so in theory you will be able to travel with your machine on the same train if you book in advance. Unfortunately the only hiccough is that you need to make a second phone call to book the bike, but we hope that Eurostar will look at sorting this out soon." It is however much quicker with a folder. Pop it in a bag. Don't say you've got a bike with you and make sure one member of your party is on the train early enough to bag enough luggage space. Updated 8 April 2008 | ||||||
Despite the efforts of the EU and national governments to introduce competition into public transport there are still national organisations running railways in Europe. The well-documented problems following British privatisation should have been a warning to other EU politicians and transport planners not to break something that worked. However most high-ranking politicians and civil servants tend to fly from meeting to meeting rather than travel by train. They tend to see any crackpot idea that offers private gain and reduced public investment as progress rather than a poorer deal for both traveller and taxpayer. . There is a European railway web site, which links to each railway system, but in addition that each national railway system swops data with the others. Thus it is possible to work out how to travel from Niederbain sur Moselle to Bogsworthy Junction via Toccata and Fugue Halt . We have even used the German Railways site to get timetable information when travelling from Walkden to Lancaster. If you are travelling via London then Seat 61 (www.seat61.com) Mark Smith’s web site functions as a European web site. If you dig into his links and follow the methods he suggests, it is possible to travel far and wide by train at reasonable prices. Do not forget however to check whether the trains he suggests will take a bicycle unless you intend to take a folding bike. He also offers valuable advice on accompanied bicycle transport. Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) is the best public transport web site (www.bahn.co.uk) in the world. Its timetable information in English, French, German and Italian can be used to plan and book journeys all over Europe. However if you are thinking of going to France, it is worth checking the French Railways site, because some information about accompanied bike transport on the SNCF appears to be missing on the Bahn site. Information on cheap travel in Germany can be also found. In addition sometime this summer it wil be possible to order bicycle tickets online. Swiss Railways www.sbb.ch/en A good web site in English, French, German and Italian. It offers excellent timetable information. As an added extra you can book hotels and check the weather in your Swiss holiday resort French Railways (SNCF and regional services TER) French Railway services are divided into two groups: Main line and regional services. If you only wish to travel a short distance you can click on a link on the SNCF home page that leads to a map of France to allow you select your region of interest. Not all but some of the main line services will take bicycles, including some of the high speed TGVs, whereas about 95% of all regional trains do. You can find out which mainline trains take bikes by clicking on conditions of service (in French) or check theSNCF bike site as well (in French). (Do not bother downloading the films. They tell you very little.) The English language conditions of service do not mention this. Probably no Frenchman expects les Rostbifs to know anything about cycling. If there is room in your train of choice you can pop your bike on the train in its SNCF-approved plastic cover and away you go. You can also reserve bike places on trains beforehand. We have travelled by train in France and have not seen anybody using these plastic bags. One word of warning though, mainline trains do not take tandems. However we would recommend that when travelling on the TGVs that you reserve bike places. Not only are there but few, but also bikes block 4 additional seats that can be used by travellers without reserved tickets, of whom there can be quite a few. You can travel with your bike on the railways internally in the Netherlands (NS ) (www.ns.nl) on most trains during non-peak hours. You have to buy a ticket and your bike needs one as well (6 Euro a day). You cannot travel on inland trains with your bike during the weekday morning and evening rush hours: (6:30 to 9 am and 4:30 to 6 pm), except during July and August when the Dutch migrate to other countries. There is a list of international trains offering bike places on the international section of the web site. Some of these like the trains from Venlo to Cologne or Heerlen to Aachen are local commuter trains that cross borders, but there are also trains to faraway places such as Berlin, Munich and Zurich. Putting your bike on an international train will cost you 12 Euro for a single ticket and 24 Euro for a return ticket at the time of writing. The web site is clear and easy to use in English and also in Dutch (I assume, though my Dutch is limited to "Let Op!" - beware!). | ||||||
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The Forsyths Bergstrasse Bike Books Post Box 1331, D 68503 Viernheim, Germany | ||||||
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