With the 09.52 Birmingham New Street to Leicester service very

lightly loaded I had no problems finding a seat and also keeping my trusty bike close by rather than putting it in the designated cycle storage space. I like the flexibility afforded by taking my bike on a train as part of an integrated journey but operators are making it increasingly difficult by providing less space for cycles and by putting in place all sorts of restrictions of carriage. The guard's area on a first-generation DMU or a standard coach of the past is much lamented but they simply don't seem to have any place in a modern railway.