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Chris Fleming (@chrisfl)
31/05/2013 16:44
I'm not quite sure what to make of these @CyclingEdin signs at Edinburgh Park Station... http://pic.twitter.com/IhvQ2gJUkE
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CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Advice from ScotRail (good or bad?)
(5 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Was that supposed to be POP-specific?
It was certainly the advice we gave people.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It is good advice IMHO. Why shouldn't ScotRail encourage people to use the trains that have more space for bikes? I expect the natural desire to get where you want to be asap, combined with a fear that if you let this train go there will never be another one ever, means that most people will get on the 1st train that comes... it is good that it is a problem, isn't it, if you see what I mean? Lots of people using bikes?
Posted 12 years ago # -
This was discussed at last Scotrail Cycling Forum, and the electric trains with wider doors, not located at the ends are better suited to loading bikes and people faster.
The message is targetted at the demand for the Edinburgh/Haymarket commuting journeys to Edinburgh Park where the bike becomes a key tool in making rail a popular choice for spending your resources to fund an employer's choice to move to potentially cheaper accommodation outside the city centre, and because of this you can no longer walk/cycle/get the bus to work. A similar position to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where a sustainable transport profile with around 90% of staff, clients and visitors travelling on foot, bus or bike at the old site was blown away and the figures practically inverted with those for journeys made (often alone) in a car.
Then again the thoughtful connection of planning a major journey generating activity with no regard to using available resources effectively may be anathema to those who like to design and build bright shiny boxes sitting in green open space, rather than the more taxing detail of doing a more challenging delivery in a living and working city.
Of course with the arrivals of a fast (but not as fast as the train) and frequent (possibly better than the train offers) tram service may change the pattern yet again. However as the tram route does not run right in to the heart of some of the journey generating areas it looks like bike carriage or a suitable alternative proposition is required, and should be in part supported by those organisations, who by their location in a place poorly served by public transport, should be contributing to the remedy.
Options might be to have a Dutch-style OV-Fiets cycle hire point at Edinburgh Park, or a folding bike hire Brompton Dock at Edinburgh Park, or one of the Edinburgh stations. Both operate with a tariff system that delivers a financially sustainable operation, provided that certain criteria are met - eg for a Brompton Dock a utilisation level of around 40-50% means that the hire charges begin to cover the basic running costs.
What may or may not work is a bike sharing scheme (the Barclays Bikes only begin to work if each bike has between 8 and 15 users registered and it makes 8 or more trips per day, with most of the fleet earning around £30/month/bike from the sale of bike branding to advertisers. It requires a density of diverse activity largely absent in big-shed sized developments, with distinct tidal flows for journeys being made.
In my book the Edinburgh Park issues on cycle carriage have 3 off-train options.
1) a secured cycle park, with controlled access and tagged bikes, so that only the person with the PIN, or other identity, linked to a tagged bike can leave with that bike, but with rapid entry and exit for bona fide users.
2) a Dutch style day-hire system where staff issue the key to unlock a bike to pre-registered (a detail that can be almost immediate using on-line systems) users who pay a daily rate to take a bike and return it to the station when they have finished using it to travel to & from their workplace/destination. In the UK Abellio has just launched Bike'n'Go the UK version of OV-Fiets. Now if Abellio wins the Scotrail franchise next year ....
3) a Brompton Dock unit, issuing folding bikes for hire, which can be kept on hire for days, weeks, months and returned to this or any other public access Brompton Dock, or a 'closed system' with bikes available only to those registered with/working for a subscribing organisation in Edinburgh Park
In each case the use of the bike or the parking facility requires a payment to be made. This can be directly by the individual, or by an employers, much in the same way that they already pay to provide 'free' car parking spaces for employees and visitors who drive to the sites.
In London one employer is installing a Brompton Dock facility exclusively for their employees, as for every employee not requiring an on-site parking space they estimate savings and benefits to the company of around £9000/year - makes giving the employee a free bike and a place to put it (under the desk usually) a trifling cost for the financial benefit.
Now I do have a rough figure for the cost of building a basic ground level parking space, and the leasing costs for one in Edinburgh are between £2000 and £4000/year (plus you might factor in the value of the land which could be used for more profitable activity than giving it away as free parking) (NB in an open plan office you get around 50% of the area of a car park space to work in - speaks volumes on priorities for use of space).
I'd love to see the parking opportunity cost figures for Edinburgh Park, and Central Edinburgh, and also have a 'most costly parking space' challenge. Currently way out ahead of the field is Penrith Station, where an increase of just 30 car parking spaces using a single storey car park expansion, cost £2.5m with the associated works. that's £83,333 per space, a figure which will hardly be amortised at the current daily charges for parking.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It is good advice IMHO.
Absolutely.
I was on an electric train to Glasgow Central on Friday with my bike. So convenient and easy to get the bike on and off, space for two bikes end-end, more could be lashed together side by side if you were travelling as a group.
The interior of the train has been designed more thoughtfully to enable cycle carriage. The diesel Turbostars are okay but I find the electric trains better as the bikes are not stuck next to the toilets, folk trying to past all the time, etc.
Posted 12 years ago #
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