Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall have reported their findings on the state of England's rail stations to the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis.
It doesn't make for pretty reading. The ten worst stations will now receive £50 million in funding to retrofit improvements. This comes in addition to £14 million to invest in cycle parking and ten 'Cycle Hubs' (offering cycle hire, repair services and secure parking) with the first appearing in Leeds soon.
The report recommends that in future 'Cycle Hubs' be installed at all 91 of the biggest UK railway stations - so far only one or two have these sorts of facilities. An example of a good 'Cycle Hub' is this image (right) of the secure storage and repair centre at Leiden in the Netherlands.
Another of the recommendations gives minimum standards for cycle parking at railway stations at 5% of the daily passenger level. This is a welcome and sensible suggestion, but many stations fall well below this level - with only a few major stations (Oxford and Cambridge) meeting this level. Yet cycling levels in Oxford and Cambridge are much higher than the average and cycle parking at these stations is under extreme pressure. We suggest that in locations with high cycling, stations need to cater to the potential demand rather than limit parking levels to the 5% standard.
The following tables shows current cycle parking at various stations, including good performers (Oxford, York) to very bad ones - the London mainline termini are particularly poor.
The first column shows the current number of cycle parking spaces, the second the number that meets the 5% of daily passengers level recommended in the report.
| Station name |
Cycle spaces '09 |
5% of passenger/day 2008 |
ratio |
| Oxford |
616 |
645 |
1 |
| Cambridge |
728 |
1,100 |
1 |
| York |
446 |
895 |
2 |
| St Albans |
396 |
868 |
2 |
| Bristol Temple Meads |
340 |
970 |
3 |
| Woking |
300 |
1,028 |
3 |
| Benfleet |
119 |
410 |
3 |
| Peterborough |
150 |
557 |
4 |
| Aylesbury |
40 |
155 |
4 |
| Surbiton |
240 |
1,323 |
6 |
| Exeter St Davids |
48 |
272 |
6 |
| Brighton |
260 |
1,845 |
7 |
| Guildford |
148 |
1,100 |
7 |
| Norwich |
50 |
472 |
9 |
| Stoke-on-Trent |
20 |
233 |
12 |
| Paddington |
276 |
4,000 |
14 |
| Leicester |
36 |
680 |
19 |
| Leeds |
124 |
2,482 |
20 |
| London Euston |
100 |
4,019 |
40 |
| Manchester Piccadilly |
50 |
2,830 |
57 |
| Waterloo |
200 |
13,740 |
69 |
| London Bridge |
100 |
7,414 |
74 |
| B'ham New Street |
24 |
2,344 |
98 |
| London Victoria |
84 |
10,611 |
126 |
figures from www.nationalrail.co.uk and the Office of Rail Regulation.
Complete tables for all Category A and B stations (i.e. the 88 busiest stations in Britain) are in CTC's full respose to the Better Rail Stations Report.
