Greater Anglia customers are set to benefit from 3,500 new cycle parking spaces, following an announcement today by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The train operator’s Cambridge station will gain 3,000 of these new cycle parking spaces, in proposals which will see the largest CyclePoint ever created in the UK with facilities for repair, hire and cycle sales all included in the project. The DfT funding will augment funding already pledged by CB1 developer Brookgate, as part of a wider station upgrade delivered in partnership with Network Rail.

Greater Anglia’s Chelmsford station will be the location for a 500 space CyclePoint, which will include maintenance, information and cycle hire facilities. The train operator has already dedicated some of its own funding to this project, which will be augmented with contributions from the DfT and Essex County Council.
A further, innovative scheme to improve cycle facilities for Greater Anglia customers will be the introduction of PlusBike cycle hire schemes at 15 stations across the Greater Anglia network. In this pioneering project, cycle hire or ‘plusbike’ will be an option for customers when purchasing their rail ticket, giving rail passengers the option to hire a bike for a day in addition to their rail travel.

In total, Greater Anglia has successfully bid for funding worth £1.2m from the DfT’s Cycle Rail Working Group which will be invested in these three cycle schemes, in addition to the commitments it has already made to improve cycle facilities across its network, with additional cycle storage at stations and trial of a new cycle hire facility in Norwich.

Greater Anglia’s Managing Director Ruud Haket said: “We are committed to improving cycle facilities for our customers, by installing many more cycle parking spaces and increasing cycle hire opportunities. We are proud to be in the vanguard of train operators pioneering schemes such as PlusBike and building new, state-of-the-art CyclePoints for our customers. At Greater Anglia we are working hard today to deliver better services and facilities for our customers, by working in partnership with other organisations, such as the DfT, Network Rail, Essex County Council and Brookgate who are helping us with these positive initiatives.”