Campaign Theme

Public Transport

Introduction

Boarding train with bike

Combining cycling with trains, buses, trams and other services often offers a good alternative to driving for longer, door-to-door commuting or leisure journeys. While public transport and cycles are ideal travelling companions, operators don't always make it that easy.

What are the benefits?

In the UK, cycling could:

Triple the number of households within 15 minutes of a rail station when measured aginst walking
Put almost all households within reach of a regular daily bus service
Increase the catchment area for passengers by a factor of sixteen.

Cycling brings passengers to rail and bus stations from all points of the compass, helps minimise connection times and is particularly useful for people who don't have access to cars in rural areas and where services are more sporadic. Cycling and walking also disperse huge numbers of passengers at busy stations in a way not possible with car-based travel.

Cycling is well integrated with the rail network in other countries. In the Netherlands, for instance, 1,000 cycle parking spaces at a railway station is considered a small amount.

To make it as easy as possible to combine cycling with public transport, cyclists need:

Good access to, from, through and within stations and interchanges for cyclists
Safe, secure, well located and sufficient cycle parking, storage and hire facilities at stations and interchanges
Adequate, useable space for carrying cycles on services
Better information and publicity about combining cycling and public transport, plus straightforward, user-friendly ticketing and reservation systems.

Latest News

Government boost for sustainable door-to-door travel

Leeds Cycle Point - a good example of cycle-rail integration

CTC has today welcomed the Government's new strategy for sustainable door-to-door trips by public transport, walking and cycling.

Gong for Brompton Dock at the National Cycle Rail Awards

Brompton Dock won the award for innovation at this year's awards

A revolutionary automated bike hire scheme and the addition of 2,000 cycle spaces across one operator’s network were some of the achievements celebrated at this year’s National Cycle Rail Awards,...

Southport Park and Ride CTC style

Rickshaw arriving into Southport as part of the Visit Project

Visitors to Southport ditched the bus for a journey to remember, traveling into the town centre in style aboard a state of the art pedal-powered Rickshaw.

Cycletopia – turning cycling dreams into reality

Cycletopia includes 15 real life examples of good schemes to promote cycling

CTC, the national cycling charity has created ‘Cycletopia’ – an imaginary town made up of 15 real life examples in the UK of the best ways to promote, protect and inspire cycling.