News Release issued by
the COI News Distribution Service on 28 September 2009
£14m package to
benefit cyclists10 major rail station 'Cycle
Hubs'10,000 extra cycle park spaces
Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis today launched a major £14m
package 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.
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.
- £4m from Cycling England for four Train Operating Companies -
Merseyrail, Northern Rail, South West Trains and Virgin Trains -
to transform the cycling facilities up and down their network to
become flagship 'Bike 'n'
Ride' train operating companies.
- £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.
Notes to Editors
1. The £14m fund is made up of:
· £10m to implement recommendations from the Station Champions
and Network Rail. This is made up of £5m announced in June 2009,
with an additional £5m coming from the Department for Transport
and Network Rail.
· £4m from Cycling England to four Cycle Demonstration
'Bike 'n' Ride' Train
Operating Companies.
2. The £5m for 'Cycle Hubs' will build on
Network Rail and Northern Rail's plans for the Cyclepoint
facility at Leeds Station by extending fully supervised storage
facilities with a range of opportunities for cycle retail and
repair to a further 10 stations.
3. The four winning bids for the 'Bike
'n' Ride' operating companies will each
get £1m over the next two years. Three of the four winning
franchised TOC areas receiving grant include one of our Cycle
Demonstration Towns - Woking, Stoke and Southport.
4. Winning cycle demonstration 'Bike
'n' Ride' Operating Companies are;
· Southwest Trains
· 35 stations to benefit, creating 2,300 extra parking spaces
excluding Woking who will benefit from additional parking through
the town’s Cycle Demonstration Town status.
· Double-decker
parking and planned secure parking compounds at stations including
Salisbury, Petersfield, Surbiton and Winchester.
· Plusbike
scheme: an integrated rail and cycle hire ticketing system, so
your rail fare includes cycle hire in the price.
· Extend the
Brompton folding bike hire scheme with Richmond Borough Council.
· Northern Rail
· Provide door-to-door experience for bike/rail travellers by
providing cycle parking/hire/maintenance at satellite stations
around Leeds.
· Transform Skipton into a cycle gateway to the
Yorkshire Dales.
· Improved signage for cycling commuters and
visitors to and from the station.
· Virgin Trains
· Improved cycle parking along the Stoke to Manchester rail
corridor, with improved cycle accessibility at the stations.
·
Stoke to become a 'Cycle Hub' twinned with
facilities at Stafford aimed at university and college
students.
· Cycle hire schemes at Manchester Piccadilly, with
opportunities to expand to other stations.
· Merseyrail
· Additional 750 parking spaces across 18 stations.
·
Double-decker cycle parking along their Northern and Wirral line
routes with CCTV and swipe entry access system.
· Cyclepoint
service at Southport station with cycle storage, hire and
maintenance facilities.
5. The Cycle Rail Task Force (CRIT) was set up in 2007 when the
Rail White Paper 'Delivering A Sustainable
Railway' was published. CRIT consists of Senior members
of the Association of Train Operating Companies, Network Rail,
Passenger Focus and Transport for London. The Task Force is
chaired by Philip Darnton, Chairman of Cycling England.
CRIT's remit is to promote best practice (particularly at
stations), to advise on cycle-rail aspects of the franchising
regime, and to monitor the effectiveness of measures to promote
cycle-plus-rail travel.
6. The Station Champions were announced in May 2009 to advise
Government on ways to improve facilities at railway stations. They
are Sir Peter Hall, President of the Town and Country Planning
Association, and Chris Green, a non-executive director of Network
Rail and a former Chief Executive of Virgin Trains. Further
details can be found here; http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=202&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=400548&SubjectId=36
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