I’d already parked my bike, per usual, at the “bike end” of the Rail Runner car yesterday amid the useless straps and pointless wheel “holders,” when I espied this at the other end of the rail car…

Holy Chips Ahoy, that’s a new, seemingly infinite better way to park one’s bike on the train!

At least such conveyance convenience is new to me, a fairly frequent RR rider (the RR security guy said they’ve been in place “a while”). I didn’t get a chance to strap into the setup in either direction yesterday (the train was already moving northbound before I noticed it and southbound the area was blocked by some large picnic coolers), but it looks like you roll your wheel, front or back best I dunno, and the black roller thing facilitates entry and then closes upon the now-hopefully trapped wheel.

Then you pop up the top/black roller thingee to disengage.

One thing to note is that this setup is located at the designated “handicap” end of the car, not the designated “bike” end (the one with the useless straps, etc.). In typically super NMTrue Rail Runner information dissemination, I haven’t seen anything about these thingees and there was nobody from RR pointing out their existence when boarding at the old useless strap end of the car.

Still, the photo doesn’t lie, at least this time, and these dohickeys were there ready for action. Who knows how difficult the setup will be when four cyclists simultaneously try using the thingees, but it will be fun to find out. This system also has the benefit of actually looking like a “system” for bike storage, something RR never had the useless straps, etc. method.