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Cambridge station’s cycle parking chaos will soon be much reduced thanks to the opening of CyclePoint, a secure storage facility with room for 2850 bikes.
CyclePoint Cambridge will open on Monday 15th February, with space for 1500 bikes. The second floor will open in March bringing CyclePoint up to full capacity. A CyclePoint bike shop, to be run by Rutland Cycling, opens in April.
Bikes can be locked – for free – in two-tier racks and next to Sheffield stands. Access between the floors is by a shallow stepped cycle ramp from the front entrance, with a separate pedestrian exit giving direct access to Station Square and the station itself. All three floors are covered by a CCTV system. Access will be round-the-clock, seven days a week.
The two-tier racks were provided by Falco UK, and are of the type used extensively used in the Netherlands – they have attained the Dutch national “FietsParkur” standard for secure cycle storage. There will be space provided for cargo bikes, trikes and other larger cycles on the ground floor, which is also the location for the CyclePoint bike shop. Rutland Water already operates Station Cycles outlets at three other locations within the Greater Cambridge are.
Cambridge CyclePoint was created by Abellio Greater Anglia, Network Rail, and developers Brookgate. The facility adjoins a soon-to-open Ibis hotel next to the station, built by Brookgate.
The Cambridge Cycling Campaign has been campaining for a high-capacity cycle parking facility for 15 years but has slammed the arrangements for its opening, calling it a potential "fiasco".
Martin Lucas-Smith, liaison officer for the campaign group said: "The railway company is proposing to give merely 18 hours for users of the over 1,000 bikes in the current cycle parking to move their bikes.
"What happens if people go to London or elsewhere for a night or two? It’s not unreasonable for a bike to be left for more than a mere 18 hours."
Lucas-Smith likens the removal of bikes from the temporary racks with such short notice to "theft", adding that "it certainly doesn’t comply with the local bye-laws requiring a notice for 14 days."
Cambridge Cycling Campaign also said it has concerns that the new racks are of "poor design" that appear not to enable the frame of the bike to be locked.
"The last two years have seen a trial of different types of racks, but these new types haven’t been tried here, and were not presented as options at any stage of consultation," said Lucas-Smith.
"The racks are designed for Dutch bikes which have built-in locks, unlike most cycle in the UK."
Lucas-Smith believes the issues should be resolved so that the opening of the new cycle parking "can be a source of celebration, not marred by problems."
