I am baffled by how bad this train design is in Skåne. After FOUR TRAINS which I had to skip due to insufficient bike space, I finally can park my bike in the carriage, along with 5 other bikes, all of this after more than 1 hour of waiting. Meanwhile the seats behind the bikes cannot even be used. Did a 5 year old design this train carriage? Why not removing those seats and have a conventional bike rack which could fit 5 times the number of bikes?

by Andratos95

43 comments

  1. Maybe the trains are designed for people and not bicycles?

  2. It is much better in India where you sit on top of the train with your bicycle.

  3. Boasting of there being space for bikes on your trains, do you? How fancy one can be…

  4. I think the stupidest design is to assume a passenger train is supposed to keep space for ten bikes.

  5. Not the most stupid but definitely stupid. I think bikes should be easier to bring on trains, yes they are for people but sometimes people need a bike to get from the station to where they’re going.

  6. It feels like this is a vertical bicycle ”holder” or whatever you call it. So it’s a parking space for 3 bicycles, and they shouldn’t block passenger seats. This is just a wild guess. I don’t live in Malmö

  8. As staff on board these trains, we all agree. We complain every year, but nothing is done about it…

  9. Sorry but its not sustainable for everyone to commute by train with their bike. If you are commuting you should be parking your bike at the train station and getting another bike on the other side. This is how Amsterdam does it and they probably ARE the most bike people in Europe.

    These spaces are really for one off travellers doing a long bike trip.

  10. If ‘space for bikes’ wasn’t an afterthought in the design here, I would be surprised.

    Some of the trains in Västra Götaland has a similar design, but with no space between the seats and the bikes, so it’s really spacious.

  11. Bikes and trains in sweden don’t mesh well unfortunately. High speed trains and regional trains you just straight up can’t bring bikes which sucks. Then for local trains, you’re lucky if they have a few spots at all. And usually it feels like an afterthought, like in your picture.

  12. I think there are two times when the space is not sufficient for bikes:
    1) certain commuting hours like 15-17, usually the trains are packed as is, so no room for bikes.
    2) summer when a bunch of tourists bring there bikes on to the trains.
    Otherwise never been an issue for me, but I also usually walk or take the bus as that is included in the fare.

    Also consider the sign, it’s not a bike carriage. It’s a carriage for big luggage, strollers and bikes. Hence the seating arrangement, if you have a stroller or luggage you might need/want to hold on to it.

  14. This shouldn’t be a problem because the commuter trains in Copenhagen (s-tog) has perfectly sensible cycle space. I don’t know why we can’t do the same thing

  15. I actually like this better than how it is on øresundstågen.

    On pågatågen we with babystrollers can fit behind the bikes and share the space, but on the øresundståg we have to fight for the space on the traincarriage that allow bikes, strollers, wheelchairs with normal stupid people without luggage.

  16. The solution DSB did on their S-trains is how it should be done. They are wider but similar stuff could be done on these trains.

  18. Just stand them up and secure them to the rails would be a good idea to just make a small addition and they would not cover all seats

  19. I live here and I use the Öresundståg as much as I can for mainly this reason. The commute being 13mins instead of 16mins is only a small benefit. Having a much better bike section is a way bigger benefit.

    They still have work to do there though. Usually people with a bike can get really fucked when the stay at home Muslim moms gang up and coincidentally decide to travel all over Skåne during the afternoon when people are going home from work.

    The lack of availability is the main reason I bring an electric scooter on the train.

    Skånetrafiken are a bit goofy there too though. They demand you to fold the scooter even though it’s safer in 95% of situations to have it unfolded.

  20. The Dutch trains have some wagons like this but the bike wagon (typically in the front) has no seats so they can maximize the number of bikes onboard… This is just not efficient.

  21. Yeah it’s really horrendous!! One of the arguments is that the weight needs to be distributed evenly that’s why you have seating on both sides. People > bikes. Also, lots of time it’s people with baby strollers sitting there. 

  22. The purpose of this design is that when no bikes are there, there be more seats available. I mean those seats are to be used if and only if there are no bikes, and bikes are the priority. You can see similar concept with the wheelchair places in some vehicles.

  23. I Skåne prioriterar man cyklar helt klart. I Stockholm så får du ställa cykeln vid dörrarna och var varann station byta till motsatt sida eftersom tåget spår. Sen faller cykeln då och då även med ställ och så du gör bäst stå upp där hela resan. Du kan max få in en två cykel per dörrpar.

  26. I think if you want to regularly commute by bike and train, getting a foldable bike is the way to go, very common in the netherlands.

  27. It’s not a bike section, it’s a bike/stroller/luggage section. Did you seriously think they would allocate an entire carriage for just bikes?
    The best way of ensuring you can bring a bike on the train is to get a foldable commuter bike.

  28. You know what is even more annoying? Being stuck at the station with a crying baby when there is not place for the stroller because of all the idiots who refuse to realise that everyone can’t bring their bikes every time they take the train. I’m not saying it’s not ok to bring your bike, but there are way too many bikes on the trains these days

  29. Fint väder och söndag eftermiddag? Japp, detta har hänt förr i Skåne, många vill ta sig hem med sina cyklar. Det är förresten fortfarande gratis att ta med cykeln, vilket är väldigt trevligt när man behöver det.

  30. Bikers should use those seats. Its only fair to other passengers

  31. It is, should be only a place for bikes nothing more no seats

  32. Suggest a better solution then. This was selected by the public out of several options, and it is light years better than the old trains.

  33. Why isn’t there a design that like allows you to put the bike on its rear wheel, front upwards, and lock in place? Could be even more space efficient than removing the seats and putting a conventional rack… maybe too difficult to use for weak ppl?

  34. The worst part is that it’s not just bikes, but strollers and pets as well, all crammed into this single compartment with almost no seating. Completely dysfunctional 🫠

  35. More comfortable to stand than to sit on those seats anyway, to be fair

  36. I agree. Have had the same problem and said the exact same thing many times. The old trains that these ones replaced used to have bike stands at the ends of the train. I don’t remember if they could fit more bikes, but at least they didn’t block so many seats, so it seems like a downgrade in any case.

  37. Design is obviously, partially an afterthought but also partially a compromise.

    To start with, those cars are not designed for bikes at all. In the past, like 20 years ago, you could take a bike only on some trains, and they would take like very few bikes. So the situation is slightly better now.

    What they could have done differently would be, obviously, to re-design the compartment and put a vertical bike stands, or use a car specially for bikes, for example. That would probably cost more money and would remove those seats permanently out of a car. But hen they would be driving around with empty space when those bike stands are not in use.

    With those belts, which must have been much cheaper to install, those seats are disabled only when there actually are some bikes on board.

    Whether it is an efficient solution or not, I am not qualified to say, and I am in no way associated with Skånetrafiken. I am just a passenger myself. I am just trying to understand the thought process behind that design and why they did it the way they did.

  38. Get a foldable bike.

    Seriously, bikes should be banned from trains during rush hour and generally lines that tend to be full. Trains should be designed to let as many humans as possible sit.

  39. Sometimes people are forced to stand because someone has their bike with them, seems unfair imo

  40. Honestly never mix trains and bikes in Sverige. Det går inte😂😂och jag antar alla som jobbar där är också irriterade.

  41. Be glad they even allows bikes on train. It’s a smart design giving choices for bikes on train.

  42. Mälartåg has got a slightly better design, putting the bikes in a separate space. But there’s only room for 6, which works ok if you step on at a major city but if you’re somewhere in between, good luck.

  43. If you’re going to put bikes on a train then make a dedicated carriage that can fit many of them. These half-measures is the worst of both worlds. Barely any bikes go on and they make it hell for everyone else.

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