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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 -- Director, London Analytics Ltd T: [+44] (0)330 6600 132 M: [+44] (0)791 046 0601 W: http://www.LondonAnalytics.info/ Registered in England and Wales. 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