Innovation is today’s word in railway passenger transport. Urban population is constantly generating an increasing demand for commuting transport between rural and urban areas is also increasing. Transport operators, either railway or urban, have to be prompt and extremely inventive for persuading as many passengers as possible to choose this transport mode.
Youth is a population segment that need to be attracted towards railway transport. To that end, operators have been forced to adapt the inside of commuters trains to persuade youth to choose railways. A first step was reducing the cost of the ticket.
Secondly, operators thought to adapt trains for the transport of sports equipments since most young people (and not only) are keen of sports. Therefore, the inside of a train has to permit the transport of bicycles in summer time and ski or snowboard equipments in winter. The railway industry in turn has answered to the operators’ demands so that we can find commuters trains manufactured by players in the market, Alstom, Bombardier,
Siemens, Stadler, which have been adapted to the transport of sports equipments, almost on the entire European territory.
Train transport and bicycle transport are thus jointly encouraged.
For now, a train journey in Europe permitting the transport of bicycles can be very difficult because every country has its own fee and restriction policies. However, few trains will refuse to let you take a bike if it is dismantled and carried in a special bike bag as normal luggage.
“Regarding sports equipments, these areas must be established near entrances, and they must also allow the maximum storing capacity. To increase the security sense, it is advisable to install the sports equipments in a visible area to the user in order to avoid possible thefts.”, declared Aitor Llorente, Regional Manager of the Spanish company CAF.
Many European transport companies, either state-owned or private, have adapted their offer so as to face the transport demand and for passengers to be able to take their bicycles with them when travelling with Eurostar trains to Paris or Brussels. Also, countries such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Romania offer services for the transport of sports equipments by trains.
by Elena ilie
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