While planning my trip this summer I thought I had it all worked out and underway. I went on-line, booked my ferry places with berths and ticket for the train to Aberdeen as well as a cycle place reserved. That was all sorted and paid for so what could go wrong?

Well! I wanted to give myself a bit more time to check in for the ferry in Aberdeen so decided to change the time of the train to arrive in Aberdeen with more time to spare. I went on to the ScotRail web site to change the ticket to an earlier train. Turns out it’s not possible just to change the journey. You need to book another ticket and apply for a refund. OK, so that will cost £4. Then I went through the process of booking a new ticket. All my details were transferred to the new time and the refund process set in action. The confirmation came through but my bike place wasn’t reserved. It would appear that the cycle reservation is not carried forward. There’s also no option to add a cycle to an existing booking.

After some searching it looks as though the only solution is to actually go to the station and ask in person. Either that or to cancel my booking (with no refund) and to start the process all over again. I don’t know if ScotRail’s on-line system treats all their customers so poorly or maybe it’s just those who want to travel on trains with a bike!