From January 16th, folding bicycles will be allowed on peak-time train journeys on the Southern Railways network but 'ordinary cycles' will be banned, says Southern's website. Presumably Southern means 'standard' road bikes and MTBs and only the pedantic would argue that the phrase 'ordinary cycle' actually refers to the bicycles popularly known as 'Penny farthings'.

Penny farthings banned by Southern Trains

Southern revealed its bike ban in a letter to those who completed the ‘Southern cycling survey’ earlier in the year.

The company will be running a poster and leaflet campaign urging bike commuters to switch to folding bikes. The ‘welcome to the fold’ campaign starts on 16th December.

Concerned cycle commuters have created a ‘stop the ban’ website. The Cycle Train Commuters Group’s site will "co-ordinate efforts to try and get Southern to rethink their cycle carrying policies on peak time trains running from the South Coast to London Victoria."

The ban will impact on cycle commuters travelling to London from Brighton. Last month, Brighton was revealed as one of Cycling England’s ‘cycle demonstration towns’.

http://www.ctcg.org.uk/

Here’s the ban on ‘ordinary cycles’:

http://www.southernrailway.com/main.php?page_id=131

Lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth from cycle commuters here:

http://forums.theargus.co.uk/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3936

In other news...

Danish software company Bikedesk expands to UK, aims to streamline bike store experience

Off the back of unprecedented success in Denmark, Bikedesk has announced it is expanding into …