Cycling organisations on both sides of the English Channel are working together to fight a change in bicycle carriage policy being introduced by the rail operator Eurostar next month. From 1^st November it will no longer be possible to transport complete bicycles on Eurostar trains.  Instead, they will have to be dissembled and placed in a bag or box.  Eurostar, who currently enjoy a monopoly on the line connecting London to Paris and Brussels, have indicated that the change is due to increasing pressure on their baggage space generally but whether intended or not the new policy will inevitably make Eurostar’s services less attractive for anyone wanting to travel with their bikes for work or leisure. CTC (UK), GRACQ (Belgium) FUB (France), Fietsersbond (the Netherlands) and ADFC (Germany), as well as several other organisations in the countries served by Eurostar, all supported a letter sent by the ECF’s Secretary General, Dr Bernhard Ensink, to Eurostar’s CEO Nicolas Petrovic asking for the decision to be reversed.  In the letter, Dr Ensink called the new policy “extremely inconvenient”. Following the sending of the letter, many of the national organisations launched connected campaigns against the decision. As a result, nearly 9,000 people have written to Eurostar to express their frustration with the new policy.  Over the past few days they have been joined by the Mayors of London and Paris. Boris Johnson in London said that “I am writing to Eurostar asking them not to end their simple, effective bike carriage service used by thousands a year. It is a backward step which undermines Eurostar's green pretensions.” Whilst Anne Hidalgo – the Mayor of Paris - tweeted: “Dissemble your bike to take the @Eurostar? ... Wrong signal in the weeks of #COP21. #Paris Supporting soft mobility” [translation from French] At the end of last week they were joined by Pascal Smet, Brussels Minister of Mobility, who tweeted: “Please don’t make this step backward @Eurostar Make cycle-rail integration easier, not more difficult.” In the UK, the All Party parliamentary cycling group (APPCG) also piled on the pressure on Eurostar to reverse its new scheme. Ruth Cadbury, their co-chair, said: “Eurostar, as a self-avowed champion for sustainable transport, should be looking to make cycle-rail integration easier, not more difficult. As things currently stand they’re coming across as anti-cyclist. Across Europe we’re seeing high-speed rail accepting complete bikes, and here of course in the UK, there is no need to box up your wheels. Eurostar is bucking the trend and stepping back to the detriment of its cycling customers.” The campaign has received widespread coverage in the British media (e.g. BBC, Guardian, Telegraph) and is starting to be picked up elsewhere too (e.g. Les Echos in France). Despite all the protests, a Eurostar spokesman said the company still intended to press ahead with the change.  They have said that staff will be on hand to help dismantle the bikes and will make some boxes available for their customers to use but there are few details available about how it will work in practice. Let Eurostar know your views on their new policy by using the easy-to-use online forms available on CTC’s website in Dutch, English and French: http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1689&ea.campaign.id=43067   Latest update: