Cycle hub facilities at rail stations planned to encourage healthier, greener travel

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis has launched a major £14m package, Bikerail, to transform facilities for cyclists at rail stations and encourage healthier, greener travel.

Over the next two years a series of measures, including 'Cycle Hubs' at 10 major rail stations and 10,000 extra cycle parking spaces across the country will be introduced by Government, Network Rail, Cycling England and train operators. The new cycle hubs will include extra cycle storage facilities, repair services, hire schemes and improved cycle access to and from the stations.

Campaign for Better Transport has welcomed Lord Adonis’s Bikerail initiative, but says it has to be accompanied by measures to make cycle access to stations easy and safe.

Stephen Joseph, executive director of Campaign for Better Transport said: 'This is a welcome first step. Cycle parking and repair hubs will make cycling to stations a sensible option for many people, but the initiative has to be accompanied by interventions to make our roads more attractive to cyclists by reducing the danger posed by cars, vans and especially lorries, to more vulnerable road users.'

Lord Adonis was inspired by the Dutch town of Leiden which has 6,000 supervised cycle parking spots for a population of 118,000.

The projects announced today include:

• £5m for fully supervised cycle hubs, offering a range of facilities for cyclists including secure covered parking, cycle hire, information, retail and repair at 10 stations. These include Leeds station (which will be completed by May next year) and London St Pancras, London Victoria, London Waterloo, Grimsby, Hull, Liverpool Lime Street, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and York (all to be opened within the next 2 years).
• £3m for over 4500 additional cycle park spaces at nearly 350 stations across the country, including Nottingham, Stevenage, Cambridge, Exeter, Scarborough, Sunderland, Barrow-in-Furness, Crewe and Middlesbrough.
• Virgin Trains - to transform the cycling facilities up and down their network to become flagship 'Bike 'n' Ride' train operating companies.
• £4m from Cycling England for four Train Operating Companies - Merseyrail, Northern Rail, South West Trains and
  - £2m which will improve cycle access at rail stations to ensure that bike users can get to and from the station conveniently and safely, and to improve cycle facilities across the rail network as opportunities are identified.

Andrew Adonis said: 'More and more people are turning to cycling as a healthy, green and convenient way to travel - I want to encourage this choice.

'Although half of us own a bike and 60% live just 15 minutes from a train station, only 2% of train passengers travel to the station by bike. This is in contrast to Holland where cycling accounts for a third of all trips to and from the station.

'The aim of the programmes announced today is to boost the significant number of people cycling to catch their train. This will tackle congestion, promote rail travel and help people develop healthier lifestyles and protect the environment.'

This announcement follows the Government's commitment in June for £5m to be spent over the next two years to improve cycle storage facilities at up to ten major railway stations nationwide, including in London. Due to the quality of the response to this announcement, the funding has now been doubled to £10m. 

The announcement of the 'Bike 'n' Ride' operating companies takes forward the recommendation from the Cycle Rail Task Force as a way to improve bike and rail integration.