Thanks Andrew - very interesting. Just to bring you and others on the list up to date on Waterloo:

Network Rail have now installed over 500 cycle spaces at Waterloo - £200,000 was spent on the latest set of double-decker racks. Here's a picture of the new Transport Minister Norman Baker MP at the formal opening http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/4576 

Also Waterloo has for the last year or two been the venue for the one of the first long-term cycle hire schemes, using Brompton bikes and operating out of the Left Luggage office! It was invented and is managed by South West Trains, the train operator using the station. It is targeted to regular commuters and is working well. More info here: http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/bromptonbikes.aspx 

Personally (this really is just a personal view) I'm disappointed that TfL didn't put some docking stations right next to major stations, and I'd like to see your studies on this if that would be possible to get more background on the issues. Perhaps we could liaise off-list?

All the best and thanks again for the information, very interesting

Alex Veitch
Integrated Transport Manager
ATOC - Association of Train Operating Companies
(T) 020 7841 8052
(M) 07825 376 130

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Smith [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 03 August 2010 18:35
To: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list
Cc: Veitch, Alex
Subject: Re: [CYCLING-AND-SOCIETY] Cycle hire at UK rail stations - web survey

Hello there Alex,

> Over the summer we have been doing some research into the potential for
> cycle hire at UK rail stations, which has involved gathering case study
> evidence and interviewing stakeholders. We are keen to get the views of
> as many cyclists and rail passengers as possible, so we have produced a
> short web survey.

A TfL study at Waterloo found a potential after-rail cycle market of 
around 30%. As ever, London is spoiled for high-quality high-volume 
travel data, including lots of info on how far people travel after 
coming off the train.

I did one of the demand-assessment studies for the TfL cycle hire 
scheme, including demand at rail stations. Rail termini offer a huge 
potential market. The commercial issue is that the bikes would only get 
used twice a day - once to go from station to place of work, then once 
back again, making the Vélib model entirely unsuitable.

In the Netherlands, there's a long-term hire scheme (or at least, there 
used to be, a few years back): there were enough cyclists using the 
busiest stations to merit an on-site bike hire, storage and repair shop. 
You could hire an old clunker from them for a day, a week, a month, or 
so. I think the place at Den Haag HS was called "Hans Rijwiel". I 
haven't been back there in about a decade, but it could well still be there.

Bottom line is that it's hard to make it make sense, commercially, 
unless it's a small part of a big bike+rail programme.  Good cycle 
facilities at a station can significantly broaden the station's rail 
market, so it's certainly worth the rail system's while to improve 
station rail facilities: the key to this is secure parking, and lots of 
it. Kings Cross could do with a couple of thousand spaces, Waterloo 
could do with three or four times that. Usual ped accessibility rules 
apply - the cycle park needs to be visible from the station entrance, 
and within a very short distance of it. Burying them at the far end of 
platform 17 is an epic fail.

Hope this is useful - happy to discuss further, if you like.

It's probably worth asking over on the [log in to unmask] 
list too, if you haven't already.

Regards,
Andrew
-- 
Director, London Analytics Ltd
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