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"Many TOCs [Train Operating Companies] have also sought to improve the cycle parking at their stations in line with our desire to see 95% of rail journeys originate from stations with adequate cycle parking facilities within the next five years."
Letter from Alastair Darling [Secretary of State for Transport] to Tessa Jowell MP, 28 March 2006
Unfortunately most of the main stations in London are run by not by the train companies but by Network Rail, the publicly owned privately run company that is in charge of the railways. The more forward-thinking train companies want to encourage cycling as it means more customers, more tickets sold, so more money for them.
However Network Rail gets its money from letting space in stations besides track charges and subsidy, so it does not have this incentive. In fact it is difficult to exaggerate the lack of regard that Network Rail has for cycle parking, which makes the 95% target most unlikely to be achieved since so many journeys originate from the largest stations that it runs.
Liverpool Street will not have an increase in cycle parking despite the space around the tiny cycle park being currently used to store rubbish bins. There's plenty of space and scope for putting in modular units on top of each other but the will isn't there. The redevelopment of Cannon Street station will have no cycle parking so as to maximise letable space. Calls from the City Corporation and the City Police - aware of the theft problem - have gone unheeded. The plans for Waterloo to have urgently needed more cycle parking have been scrapped as Network Rail decided the space earmarked for it could be used for "something else".
The fact that Marylebone, which despite being one of the smallest stations yet has hundreds of cycle parkings stands, has high occupancy shows that there's a massive surpressed demand for cycle parking. TfL have found some spare arches by London Bridge station and will be opening a secure cycle park at the start of 2007 with space for hundreds of cycles. However the new St Pancras International and Thameslink station will have just 30 spaces for cycles when it opens in 2007 despite being one of the biggest transport hubs in Europe: given its importance it's credible to suggest that if a 1000 space secure cycle park was added to the site, it would be very well used if not full by 2010.
| Station name | Annual passenger flow in millions (order of flows) |
Cycle parking stands (approx) |
Occupancy (approx) |
Security | Cycle access |
| Blackfriars * | 8 | None | - | - | ok |
| Cannon Street | 17 (9th) | None | - | - | ok |
| Charing Cross | 28 (5th) | None | - | - | ok |
| City Thameslink * | 4 | None | - | - | ok |
| Euston | 26 (=6th) | 75 | nearly full | poor | ok |
| Fenchurch Street | 16 (10th) | None | - | - | poor | King's Cross | 21 (8th) | 60 | full | poor | poor |
| Liverpool Street | 50 (2nd) | 24 | Full | Poor | ok |
| London Bridge | 37 (4th) | 20 | full | poor | ok |
| Marylebone * | 7 | 300? | 3/4 full | ok | good |
| Moorgate * | 7 | none | - | - | ok |
| Paddington | 26 (=6th) | 200? | Full | Poor | poor |
| St Pancras | 5 | 10 | Full | Poor | poor |
| Victoria | 48 (3rd) | none | - | - | poor |
| Waterloo (inc. Waterloo East) |
67 (1st) | 100? | Full | Poor/ok | good |
Notes
Station: those located within the City are shown in red, main line terminii in bold and stations not run by Network Rail are marked with an *
Annual passenger flow: based on ticket sales 2004/5. Some stations also have significant flows generated by Underground services.
Occupancy: observed during peak hours
Security: poor=just cycle racks, ok=cycle racks behind ticket barriers, good=secure (i.e. lockers or card access only)
Cycle access: poor=lack of permeability, ok=average, good=high quality cycle routes
