Merseyrail BANNING EBIKE even legal ones

[Merseyrailebikeban]

Hi.

I thought I would come on here all the parents know that on the first of January 2027 electric bikes THAT DONT FOLD will be BANNED from the merseyrail network.....Just so were clear that means any e bike that doesn't fold...your Haibike,Cube,Carrera,Voodoo the list goes on.

https://www.merseyrail.org/journey-planning/plan-your-journey/e-bike-ban/

How your children get to school, get to the sports centre, get into town...the list goes on its absolutely UNACCEPTABLE.

They've given outrageous reasoning complete nonsense, the real reason is they don't want to train staff to tell the difference between an e-bike that is legal and one that is for example bought from eBay... they want to save money at the expense of people in Liverpool in general.

Now that people that says a good thing.... what about the loss revenue from bike shops? what about the lost revenue from maintenance of electric bikes ? What about parts ?what about the employment of those people the list goes on....

Liverpool Echo have hidden this behind a paywall a outrageously stupid article

"Merseyrail set to ban common item from every train and station"

Utterly spineless,WHERE WAS THE CONSULTATION.

EMAIL transport secretary see what she thinks of this

[email protected]
Heidi Alexander

I just thought everybody should know if you go out buying electric bikes for Christmas

There’s always been an exemption to this law for when it would be dangerous to cycle on the road so if a council aren’t providing safe cycle routes this will apply on lots of streets.

This exemption won’t apply to the more powerful e-bikes as these class as motorbikes (so they need to be ridden on the road & riders need a licence, insurance & a motorcycle helmet).

I do agree with this - if illegal bikes were not flooding the market and if legal bikes were safe, then why not on public transport (if there is room, etc)?

I wonder if there are any records of fires from legal ebikes or is it always illegal ones?

Just ban e-bikes or require all e-bikes to be fully licensed like motorbikes. Also make it illegal for them to be written after dark without adequate lights and dangerous riding to be a criminal offence.

They just seem to be ridden by dealers round here.

Always or almost always illegal ones - It’s something bicycle manufacturers (who safety test their bicycles) are concerned about as it’s damaging their trade. Apparently this isn’t a problem in Germany as they have stricter legislation so don’t have this problem & you can take bikes on trains there.

You can go on Amazon or eBay right now and buy an ‘e-bike’ (really, an electric motorcycle) that is completely illegal to ride on public roads and bridleway in the UK.

Why is this, and why do the authorities seem utterly powerless to do anything about it?

I have never heard of a legal e-bike, which almost all have Bosch or Shimano motors and batteries, involved in a fire. The difference between a road legal e-bike and the eBay/amazon specials ridden by hoodlums is night and day.

Yes, I saw one of these daytime TV shows about it once. Forgive me for not having the technical lingo but basically certified /legal batteries have the chambers in the battery isolated so they are much less likely to go on fire as opposed to cheap batteries. My ebike cost me almost £2k and that was 8/9 years ago from a proper bike shop.

That’s one of the things covered in the APPGWC report - their recommendations include making online marketplaces legally accountable for unsafe listings & a kitemark for legal batteries to help
lift bans.

I’ve no idea why the Government hasn’t accepted the report recommendations as I suspect they would be popular - judging by posts on the FB page of my local newspaper people really don’t like the illegal motorbike types of e-bikes due to their use in anti-social behaviour.

It is not like riding a moped at all! It is pedal assist, it cuts out at 15mph which is the speed you'd be riding at on a normal bike and/or downhill.

Which Brand and model did you buy please, I'm thinking of buying one, I've been looking at the Specialized electric bikes, my neighbour has one, plus a friend does and they both love them.

Again. Does anyone think there are enough staff at stations to inspect each bike and determine which ones are safe and which are dodgy? That’s why it has to be a blanket ban.

Exactly, and most merseyrail stations are pretty small so don’t have manpower to do it.

Their trains actually all do have decent provision for pedal bikes but that should be kept for them as their is a limit to how many they can carry.

Why do kids need e-bikes? They can just use normal bikes. It's not like the Liverpool area is super-hilly.

That said, cycle provision on a lot of trains is a joke. But it's completely different if people take on e-bikes or even worse, e-scooters. They are really heavy as well, imagine if they fall onto someone.

You could ask why adults need cars for many short journeys which could be undertaken on foot/bike/public transport. We are inherently lazy.

https://www.merseyrail.org/new-trains/bikes-on-the-new-trains/

merseyrail have all new trains now which are actually very good for pushbikes

@sirzythe trains sound great!

@igelkott2026I can see an e-bike being useful for a teenager who lives say 6 miles from school / college (a distance that is just a bit far to cycle) - that’s about the distance that adults start to find them useful for work. But that would need schools to have safe cycle parking.

6 miles is too far for a teenager to cycle?! Come off it

It wouldn’t be 6 miles - it would be 12 miles (there and back).

It would depend on how hilly it is or how fit the teenagers is.

I can see that that might be a bit much for some - I don’t have an electric bicycle but this is the type of distance that friends who do mention when talking about using an e-bicycle rather than a normal bicycle for work.

It all sounds a bit unlikely when I’m typing it - but then there have been parking issues local to me recently with 6th formers driving to school. An e-bicycle does have the advantage that it is a lot cheaper than a car & would be kept on the school premises.

I should probably say that I’m thinking of e-bike that classes as a bicycle here (so the battery meets safety standards & the rider needs to pedal).

Vape batteries are much smaller than ebike batteries and will not be blocking exit routes.

Like PPs have said, all ebikes and scooters are banned from the London underground due to the fire risk. Merseyside residents deserve the same levels of protection.

For kids travelling to school - surely they can either cycle on their ebikes, or travel by public transport. Why do they need both? If there's a short distance to be cycled the other side of a rail journey, use a public hire bike (ebike or not) rather than lugging unfoldable ebikes on and off trains (and buses?). Don't most of them give 30 mins free/very cheap?

All bikes, other than folded folding bikes, not just e-bikes are banned on the London underground, and only allowed on the overground sections of the tube outside peak times.

Unicycles are also banned.

No wonder there’s an obesity crisis

The ban is probably to try to discourage the ratty little North Face ninjas that do wheelies up and down Smithdown from using the train and terrorising the passengers.

Disclaimer: Yes I am aware that not ALL e-bike riders are running county lines.