Taking a folding bike on the S-Bahn - Munich

I'm going to start cycling part of my route to Hallbergmoos and will be using a Brompton folding bike - plan is to take the s-bahn part of the way. The S-bahn rules say:

- no bikes in the rush hour (the time I will be travelling)
- bikes need their own ticket

The Brompton will be folded while on the train and sheathed in its protective cover - total size/footprint is considerably less than the average 25kg suitcase that is often to be found on the S-8.

Does anyone have experience of taking a folding bike on the MVV - I see plenty of Bromptons and a few Birdys around, but never on the trains.

Thanks in advance.

In the UK you don't need a ticket for a folding bike that it inside its protective cover. I would imagine this is the same here since, as you say, a folding bike isn't much larger than a suitcase. If you can't find any mention of it on the MVV website, then you may wish to ask at a train station just to make sure.

The other option is two normal bikes, one at each end of your journey. This wouldn't cost any more than one folding bike. This isn't really an option in the UK because the bike would get nicked within fifteen minutes, but here it would work and I think is the main reason folding bikes aren't as common here.

Edit: The answer is on the MVV website:


Translation: It's free.

Fahrradmitnahme

thanks - in case you were thinking I was a lazy arse I did check the MVV website a while ago and couldn't find it - have just checked now and found the same info.

Hurrah! for the MVV and Andrew Ritchie.

You may also be interested in this article from the BBC News website yesterday!


The bicycle backlash unfolds

I read this - I've had the misfortune to be at a major London rail station as the commuter trains dis-gorged their contents and think the main issue is commuter v. commuter, rather than commuter v. folding bike.

Fair to say the human traffic at Englschalking and Hallbergmoos is on a slightly lesser scale.

Agree; as the article goes on to suggest, it's the scummy rail operators not providing sufficient seats and storage space that's the problem.

On the subject of scummy rail operators, I was horified to see an Arriva train trundling along near Munich the other day.

Yes, sore point, since it now trundles along my route into Munich and in the opposite direction towards Landshut. Why the Germans would allow the British to run their railways is completely beyond my comprehension.

Nice little bike. How much do they cost

I've used these Arriva trains to go from Freising to Munich, they appear to be old carriages that have been re-furbished, quite well actually, seats with tables and slightly garish soft seat fabrics.

Is Arriva British?

Actually I thought they were French, not sure.
According to wiki they are British.

@Fastbucks - they cost anywhere between 900 and 2200 euro depending on options. See Brompton.de for more info.

Arriva is not the UKs proudest export. That'd be Marmite.

They're British, although to be fair the management here is German. But as soon as you allow a private company to operate a public service, quality is sacrificed for higher profits. The Arriva trains are not only at least forty years old, but they are also too short and frequently late. Part of the problem is that they only had about four months between winning the contract and starting the service, and I'm hoping (but not expecting) that they have some lovely new trains on order.

It's Connex -spit- that are French. They operate in Germany under the Veolia name. They are so bad that they lost their franchise in the UK – which is quite an achievement.

Thanks Pelican

keep the bike in a bag so the no one can see whats in the bag problem solved