You might have read over the past week or so that 14 million pounds has been earmarked by the UK’s Transport Secretary Andrews Adonis for cycle & rail integration. The plan is to build bicycle facilities at railway stations in England in order to promote the use of cycling to the train station as opposed to using a car. These ‘Hubs’, as they are branding them, are based on a proven piece of Dutch genius they call bike-rail, which; if you watch Carlton Reids great video piece you will see is a very good idea… cough cough; at least in the Netherlands.
The reason I can’t see this as a step in the right direction is that it seems to miss the point of better cycling facilities within cities and suburbs. I am aware that point of view is a narrow one, but let me run through some reasoning.
Firstly; schemes like this work in Denmark, as they already have the bike infrastructure to support journeys to the station by bicycle. These hub’s came about as a way to encourage people to leave their bikes at the station, as opposed to taking them on the train. As you can see, this is an entirely different problem than we have in the UK. Right now; we cant even get the bikes to the station.
Secondly; in some parts of Britain, you may have to walk 2 or more miles from the train station to your place of work. If this is the case, then that’s when you really want to have a bicycle with you, not in a bike rack at your home town. In these situations you would need to have facilities such as Velib to fill this gap; which once again exist in the Netherlands but not in the UK.
Finally; with the price of train transportation constantly on the rise; the almost yearly deterioration of service and already severe overcrowding problems in carriages, should we be considering the train as a viable mode of transport for the future? Do i need to point out again that the rail infrastructure in Denmark is far superior to anything we have in the UK?
To put this simply, it can be said that the Netherlands introduced the cycle parking schemes at train stations because they needed to provide better parking facilities for the already huge numbers of bikes left at stations by commuters, who used the efficient trains and arrived there safely using excellent cycle specific transport infrastructure. This is not the issue we have in Britain, and definitely not the same situation.
I think that London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has a far better way of pushing Britain’s cycling revolution with his ‘Cycling Superhighways’ idea, as it recognises that a bicycle is a very practical alternative to expensive & unreliable trains or buses. It also recognises that once people are cycling more, that you need to provide facilities such as secure bike parking facilities everywhere, but not just at train stations.
