Government urges rail commuters to get on their bike

The government has today unveiled a major new £14m investment programme designed to make it easier for rail commuters to use bicycles for part of their journey to and from work.

Five million pounds will be invested in "cycle hubs" at 10 major stations, which will provide cyclists with secure covered parking, cycle hire and repair services. A further £3m will be spent on providing an additional 4,500 cycle park spaces, while £2m will be used to improve cycle access.

The Cycling England initiative will also provide a further £4m to four train companies - Merseyrail, Northern Rail, South West Trains and Virgin Trains - to improve services for cyclists and establish themselves as flagship "Bike 'n' Ride" operators.

The Department for Transport had originally planned to invest £5m, but doubled the funding after strong interest from train companies.

Transport secretary Lord Adonis said that the aim of the new scheme was to better integrate rail and cycling services in order to "boost the significant number of people cycling to catch their train".

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

Tony Bosworth, senior climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, welcomed the pledge of new cash, but warned that it had to be matched by further investment in cycling infrastructure from local councils.

"Carbon dioxide emissions from UK transport must be urgently slashed to prevent dangerous climate change [and] this new cash for cycling will make it easier for people to leave their cars at home," he said. "Local councils must also play their part in kick-starting a cycling renaissance by building better cycling facilities into their local transport plans and making it easier and safer for people to get on their bikes."

The pledge of new funding comes just days after a major government survey of over 1,000 people provided further evidence that rail passenger numbers are continuing to rise in the UK.

It found that 55 per cent of people travelled by rail in the last 12 months, up from 29 per cent in 2006.

It also revealed relatively high levels of satisfaction with over three-quarters of rail users rating services as "good". However, levels of satisfaction with public transport links to and from stations were less impressive with just 54 per cent of short-distance rail users describing these links as "good".