Sustainable Transport

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) on securing this debate. On paper, this may seem a minor and technical subject, but it definitely is not. People say that they use their cars because it is convenient to do so and because they get a door-to-door service, but a proper mixture of bikes and trains would be the alternative door-to-door service—it makes perfect sense. Last year, one of the most heavily supported early-day motions was one that I tabled on behalf of the all-party group on cycling. It was on bike-rail integration and was signed by 170 Members. How will we go about getting such integration? I speak as the chair of the all-party group, which has been working with the Cyclists Touring Club and the London Cycling Campaign to promote bike-rail integration in the hope that it will receive serious consideration in the various policy papers that the Department for Transport is planning to publish this summer. We believe that this is a great opportunity to improve our transport system. Over the past few weeks, many hon. Members have met local cyclists—I see that many of the Members concerned are present—and undertaken an audit of the state of their local station’s parking facilities for cyclists; I know that many hon. Members have been very shocked. I glad to see that the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir George Young) is present. He is a former chair of the all-party group and one of the first to campaign on proper cycle-rail infrastructure. I understand what he says about how bad things were in the past, but inconsistency has increased since the privatisation of the railways. Recent questions from various hon. Members have elicited a response from the Department that suggests that it is awaiting a report from Cycling England on the role of cycle-rail integration. I hope that the report will be useful and will provide support, but I would suggest to the Minister that Cycling England was never intended to be an advisory body; it was meant to be a body that delivered improvements for cycling, rather than be a policy body first and foremost. Perhaps Cycling England would be best off if it were provided with a special cycle-rail innovation fund. That could build on existing best practice and test new ideas. Personal car use has increased significantly in the past 20 years, and while the majority of households have access to cars, a significant minority—nearly 50 per cent. in my constituency—do not. Transport alternatives to the private car must be provided, both for the sake of social inclusion and for the wider agenda of reducing car use for all the environmental, health and road-safety benefits that doing so will bring. Cycling and the railways could play a much greater role than they do. As has been said, 60 per cent. of UK households are within a 15-minute cycle ride of a station, but according to the Department’s statistics, just 2 to 3 per cent. of all rail trips include cycling in the journey. Part of the problem is the structure of the rail network. Train operating companies arbitrarily choose cycle policies. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind them. Such policies are often supported by ludicrous franchise agreements with the Department—yes, I said ludicrous. I shall give an example of that. First ScotRail agreed to provide cycle parking at every station. People might think that a laudable aim, until they realise that stations such as Corrour in Lochaber are included. It has no road access and no permanent inhabitants within 8 miles of it, yet it has four cycle parking stands. Network Rail, which ultimately owns the system, leases stations and car parks back to the train operating companies, but will not allow them to remove car parking spaces, even for cycle parking, without a formal agreement and penalty clause. That is hardly a supportive structure for cycling. I want to pick out three different types of rail passengers, who represent most of the traffic on the network: commuters; long-distance business travellers; and tourists. Each of the passenger types could benefit in different ways from improved bike-rail integration. Commuters are presently the heaviest users of the rail network—half of all trips on the railways are commuting trips—and in recent years the large increases in both rail users and cyclists in London have led to the imposition by train operating companies of peak-time bans. As we have heard, that policy was agreed by the Strategic Rail Authority in its cycling policy, recently reissued by the Department. I understand that trains running in excess of capacity cannot really allow cyclists to take up what would otherwise be standing space for commuters, but the bans are inflexible and fail to offer an alternative. They vary greatly between six-hour daily bans in all directions on Southern and four-hour bans on First Great Western. Southeastern, which is run by the same company as Southern, has recently decided to ban all cyclists from its trains during the three days of the Tour de France. That is hardly supportive of cyclists and it hardly encourages cycling. Many commuters have resorted to buying small-wheeled folding cycles, such as Bromptons, a practice which has been promoted by the operating companies. Why is there such a demand for commuters to carry their cycles on trains? The simple reason is that there is nowhere to leave bikes at stations. In Holland, there are similar blanket bans on cycle carriage before 9 am, but they do not stop many more cyclists using the railways. In fact, up to a third of all passengers in Holland get to the station by bicycle, the difference being that it has adequate parking facilities, whereas we do not. In a presentation that I attended six months ago, the Dutch national rail company explained how a small station in Holland could put in 1,000 bike parking spaces. Even Britain’s most successfully integrated bike-rail station, York, has just 1,000 spaces. If we could just make more effort, we could provide many more spaces. The bike parking spaces in all of the London mainline terminals add up to less than 1,000. If commuters were offered plentiful and secure cycle parking at stations, they would not feel such a strong need to carry their bikes with them everywhere. I know that improvements have occurred at regional stations. In 2003, the Department started a project that brought in an additional 2,500 cycle parking spaces. Those spaces are greatly welcome, but we must remember the figure of 1,000 such spaces for one tiny station in Holland. Franchise agreements have brought some improvements. First Capital Connect, which run trains in my constituency, has a commitment in its latest franchise to spend £100,000 on cycle parking in 33 stations. Unfortunately, the Department has not specified which stations should be included or what the quality of the parking should be. First Capital Connect has decided to concentrate on those stations where cycle use is already high and where facilities will be covered by CCTV. Cyclists should be confident that when they leave a bike at a station it will still be there when they come back, but, unfortunately, cycle crime is soaring at our stations. Whereas motor vehicle crime at stations has fallen by 50 per cent. since 2000, reported theft or vandalism of bicycles has increased by almost 80 per cent. Nearly all of that crime—3,000 instances a year—is in London and the south-east. I wrote on behalf of the all-party group to British Transport police asking why they thought that that worrying trend was occurring. They say that it is because of the increase in cycling witnessed in London. I would say that that is right, but that the problem could be tackled. I believe that the trend results from the failure of Network Rail and the train operating companies to provide decent facilities. If we are to encourage cyclists to leave their bicycles at stations, we need to provide them with secure parking and ensure that their bike is still there when they get back. Six out of 10 people who have had a bike stolen do not immediately go back to cycling, but instead return to driving, thus reducing revenues for the train operator, with all the resulting environmental problems. While the bans on peak-time cycle carriage spring from the train operating companies, the solution to the problem—providing adequate parking—is stalled by another, entirely unrelated, organisation, Network Rail. Of course, it is in neither of their interests to help one another, so we have the ridiculous example of South West Trains, which has excellent cycle parking facilities at many of its stations, running trains to Waterloo, the UK’s busiest station, where cycle parking facilities are terrible. When I once tried to park my bike at Waterloo I was nearly knocked over by a taxi. The facilities are dangerous, badly looked after, not secure and full of abandoned bicycles.