Andrew/Alex

From what I can gather, there's two schemes working in parallel in Holland.
The one you describe is the older scheme, that's been operated at many
stations there for as long as lived there (since the mid 70's).  

The scheme is operated by NS with the cost of hire being harmonized with the
cost of taking a bike on the train (in fact, when I last used it they've
were the same).  One of the advantages over the newer (and higher profile)
scheme is that you only have to produce your rail ticket at the local rail
station, get a token and hand it over to the hire staff along with a
deposit.  There was no need to pre-register and give bank details
(impossible for visitors without EU bank accounts).  Most of these bike hire
shops are at stations with indoor secure parking and, in many cases, on-site
repair facilities so (as has been suggested) is limited to stations adjacent
to town centres or commercial/industrial locations.

In some cases there are hire facilities provided by local bike shops that
are close to the station (which are advertised on the NS list of cycle hire
facilities).  As Andrew describes the bikes, both the NS scheme and bike
shops linked to that scheme, tend to be "clunkers", so cheap to acquire and
maintain.  The whole system is easy to access and on-demand, unlike
equivalents that require membership and (pre-)booking.  That said, I'm not
sure demand for hire bikes at individual stations is that high, as commuters
more often than not leave bikes at destination stations, so the demand comes
almost exclusively from spot hires (at stations).  I'm sure NS would be in a
better position to provide an insight into their provisions.

Tourist (term) hire is separate issue, and there are a host of companies in
the Netherlands that specialize in term hire, although more often than not
located away from the immediate environs of NS stations (e.g. Mac Bike in
Amsterdam).  Campsites and hostels (such as farms with accomodation) often
have their own schemes or run one in conjunction with local bike shops).


I am not convinced that the economic case for bike hire is there at this
stage in the development of cycling in this country....the costs are too
high in comparison to just simply providing more good quality cycle parking.
It's quite interesting taking the economic case for improved cycle parking,
done by Steer Davies Gleave for the Cycle Rail Task Force, and extending the
analysis by adding the equivalent cost profiles for bike hire.  On that
basis the (economic) preference will always be for increased parking until
the limit of passenger owned bike-to/from-the-station potential is reached.


I'd note that, from the point of view of estimating demand for cycle
parking, the SDG analysis is particularly weak.  Despite statements claiming
that the model validates well against the three stations surveyed,
examination of the model applied to a wider range of other stations, and
their associated actual cycle parking usage, the error band proved to be way
out, in some cases under-estimating demand by up to 550%.

Rather interestingly, I've been monitoring parking usage at my local station
for a number of years, and seen a progressive ramping up of demand over the
years since the DfT/CTC survey was carried out.  It was particularly notable
during the petrol price peak in summer 2008, since when it has fallen back
and stabilised, even though petrol prices have slowly climbed back to around
the same peak (which I would put down to the "frog in water" syndrome).
That suggests that the presence of external stimulae and locational factors
is as important as the presence of cycle parking (probably more so).

Separately I've had the opportunity to carry out a large scale survey (1300
respondents) in the station catchment area.  A notable finding is that cycle
ownership amongst rail season ticket holders is considerably higher than in
the general population, 65% as opposed to 48%.  That suggests that the
market for multi-modal rail-cycle facilities has a lot of potential, indeed
far greater than the SDG study would suggest.  

That leads me to conclude that the value-for-money priority is to increase
cycle parking (for multi-modal commuting and general utility use), as
opposed to relatively high front-end cost, high (operational and financial)
risk cycle hire with limited market potential.  In the meantime a much
better model for estimating demand (at stations) is required.


I went through Waterloo yesterday and had a look at the new facility and I
have to say I was somewhat under-whelmed (although I was told it had only
opened a few weeks ago and it was in the middle of the day when most
commuter users were in work).  The biggest omission is a roof.  On the
continent most utility bikes, as they have enclosed chain cases and (as a
consequence) hub gears, are reasonably weather/corrosian resistant (well
that plus the copious quantities of grahite grease they put on chains!).  In
this country open derailleur drivetrains pre-dominate and, when subject to
constant deluge, corrode like crazy.  So why is it that there's no roof over
the parking?  

I also think there's too little manoevring space along the back for people
going into the parking, potentially creating conflicts with those cycling in
on the segregated cycle path down to York Road (avoiding the tails of
British Transport Police vehicles that are parked sticking over the kerb
onto the path).  

This highlights another issue, the lack of thought that goes into access
arrangement from principal routes at stations.  A great example of this is
the way that dutch (NS/ProRail) transport planners and engineers have
thought through the new cycle parking provision at Amsterdam Station,
creating a new tunnel under the station adjacent to the new covered parking.
Admittedly this takes advantage of the revised public transport/taxi
arrangements (and an ultra-large re-development project) at the re-developed
station, but it does mean that they thought about it on day 1.  The Waterloo
layout looks like extensions will continue to be made on the British
traditional piecemeal basis....(forgive me, I've worked as professional
engineering designer, planner and analyst in a number of countries around
the globe for the last forty years, and the British approach drives me
crazy).

I've had hoped to attach a Powerpoint slide (and animation) showing the
layout at Assen station (in Drenthe) to highlight layout considerations of
modal integration and the emphasis put on user convenience....but this forum
can't accept attachments, pity!

It'd be nice if our transport planners and providers thought about
travellers (let alone the nature of their experience) once in a while.....!

John Meudell
C.Eng, MIMechE
CTC National Council






-----Original Message-----
From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Veitch, Alex
Sent: 04 August 2010 09:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cycle hire at UK rail stations - web survey


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
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