Government to splash £5m on bike storage

The Government has allocated £5 million for the improvement of bicycle storage facilities at 10 of London’s rail stations, according to The Guardian.

The stations affected have yet to be named, and will be revealed later in the summer.

It is hoped that the funding will boost cyclist numbers by targeting the 60 per cent of the population that live within a 15-minute bike ride of a railway station. The Government is also aiming to take advantage of the fact that almost half of the country’s population over the age of 11 owns a bicycle and two in every five journeys made are under two miles.

Transport secretary Andrew Adonis revealed the spend at a recent conference, and blasted the current state of cycle storage in train stations: "For the most part cycle storage is very limited, unsupervised, badly signed and difficult to access."

The transport secretary added: "By enabling people to make the choice to cycle as part of longer public transport journeys, we can make a massive difference, not only in tackling congestion, promoting rail and protecting the environment but also in making Britain a much fitter, healthier country."

Adonis also praised the example set by Holland, where a third of all trips to and from train stations are made by bicycle.