Bikes on Trains Experience for Sheppey Community Cycle Club
Earlier this year we began talking with Sheppey Community Cycle Club about how we could get involved in their Big Bike Revival work.
The answer was obvious, deliver a Bikes on Trains Experience to show their members how easy it can be to take a regular bike on Southeastern off-peak services and explore somewhere new.
We were met at Sheerness-on-Sea station by our Swale Rail volunteer Chair and Deputy Chair, Linda Brinklow and Jonathan Fryer. Linda and Jonathan welcomed the riders as they arrived, telling them about our other projects and activties whilst Gary and Therese undertook M-Checks of each person’s cycle to ensure they were safe to ride. In total seven riders joined us for our adventure.
Safety checks complete we bought GroupSave tickets from Ruth at the ticket office. We explained that Southeastern welcomes bikes on all of its off-peak services. There are limited numbers of cycle spaces on each train, however when services are not busy staff usually allow people to place their bikes in doorways. You should always stay close by your bike, especially if it is in a doorway where you may need to move it to avoid obstructing people getting on or off at stations.
We spread ourselves along the platform to avoid overcrowding any of the doorways or delaying departure of the service, and waved goodbye to Linda and Jonathan. It was a one stop hop to Queenborough, to give a taster journey to our participants and allow for a short enjoyable return cycle trip.
At Queenborough we wheeled our bikes from the platform to a nearby park. We had a few novice riders with us in the group, so explained to everyone that we would be riding gently, keeping together and using a mixture of quiet roads and parts of National Cycle Network route 174 to return to Sheeness-on-Sea. As Gary had ridden the route a few hours earlier, we knew we could pass with care through the unexpected road works.
Therese was our Ride Leader, Oliver Edwards of Sheppey Community Cycle Club acted as a Ride Assistant and back-marker, and Gary kept a watchful eye on the whole group and our progress through junctions as Ride Manager.
After a safe and enjoyable ride back to Sheerness-on-Sea, we chatted about all things Bikes on Trains and made sure our new riders were properly introduced to the Sheppey Community Cycle Club to join in their regular Big Bike Revival adventures.
Testimonials
“Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the event. It was a fantastic experience, and we were thrilled to see so many smiles throughout the day. We’re hopeful that some of the new riders who joined us have since taken up the invitation to join our regular rides.” – Oliver Edwards, Sheppey Community Cycle Club.
