New Cycling Facilities for New Street Station, are they good enough?

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Permalink Reply by Nick on December 8, 2009 at 23:05

I wonder if this has been approved by council cycling officers and Push Bikes? If not, why not and are the people who made the decisions cyclists or aware that the number of people cycling is increasing - even in Birmingham ( or is that just myimagination?). The document states that there is restricted headroom below the recommended limit which suggests they have found some dead space and decided that it will be ok as it is only for cyclists. I doubt very much that the car park will have restricted headroom. It looks like a missed opportunity to me but I've come to expect that in Brum. I read somewhere that the new station will have 8 entrances, it would make sense to have cycle parking at every entrance.

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Permalink Reply by MartinW on December 11, 2009 at 22:27

The planning application is out for public consultation until the end of December. To have your say on the proposals, go to: http://eplanning.birmingham.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Gener... (ref no: 2009/05720/pa)

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Permalink Reply by John G on December 14, 2009 at 22:54

How do we have a say?

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Permalink Reply by LS on December 14, 2009 at 23:58

Follow the link that Martin posted and search for Application 2009/05720/pa comments can be made online. Also in the Related Documents area there is the results of a survey where quite a few people wanted better cycle parking.

It may be the only chance to try and get something better than what is being proposed which is pretty poor in comparison to most other cities.

Leeds Cyclepoint will open next year which I think will start with 500 spaces with the potential to increase to 1000 (can't find link with these figures at the moment), 52 spaces for Birmingham is very underwhelming.

John G said:

How do we have a say?

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Permalink Reply by LS on December 15, 2009 at 0:12

Bike and Trains Study Tour, Netherlands from carltonreid on Vimeo.

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Permalink Reply by George Riches on December 19, 2009 at 14:33

Have your say on the next stop for Britain's railway stations: Network Rail Questionnaire

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Permalink Reply by LS on January 28, 2010 at 16:52

Comments about the poor cycle parking provision appear to have been noted -

Birmingham New Street Station plan gets CABE seal of approval (Birmingham Post)

A public consultation exercise attracted broad support for the proposals, although there were complaints about the lack of cycle racks at the new station.

There will be space for only 52 bicycles, a figure which is significantly below facilities found at other major UK stations.

City planning officer David Wells said Network Rail was willing to provide more space for cyclists.

I wonder if this refers to approx 8 more stands or are they willing to provide more space elsewhere? Hopefully there will be cycle parking at every entrance as cyclists will want to park at the entrance nearest to their route in.

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Permalink Reply by Graham Lennard on February 1, 2010 at 21:04

There have been concerns from many quarters about the level of cycle parking proposed by the New St Gateway developers (including from within BCC Transportation) As a consequence the report going to planning committee includes recommending a planning condition that a revised cycling strategy for the development is submitted to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority (BCC). The report is at:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/democracy/Pages/AgendaDetail.aspx?Agen...

I will be pushing for more weather protected parking convenient for all approaches/entrances to the station (Hill Street, Stephenson St and Smallbrook Queensway) Parking needs to be of high quality, in convenient, well overlooked and high profile locations and of sufficient quantity to cater for growth in cycle trips. I would also like to push for left luggage lockers for bike kit that you don't want to take onwards by train - but there are national rail security regulation hurdles with this to counter. For info, Network Rail have developed plans for increasing the level of parking at New St now - upping the current 24 spaces to 120. We would clearly like to see them move on with this asap.

Graham Lennard

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Permalink Reply by LS on February 5, 2010 at 17:55

The link doesn't work but I received an email from planning as I submitted comments. Here is the relevant section -

Within one year of the date of this consent, a revised cycling strategy shall be submitted to and be approved in writing by the LPA and include monitoring of cycle parking demand and provision of capacity to meet any projected future growth. Cycle parking facilities shall be implemented in accordance with the approved revised cycling strategy within 5 years of commencement of development.
Reason: In order to secure the satisfactory development of the application site in accordance with Paragraphs 3.8 and 3.10 of the Birmingham UDP 2005.


120 is a small step in the right direction but it's still only 1/3 of Bristol's current provision.


Graham Lennard said:

There have been concerns from many quarters about the level of cycle parking proposed by the New St Gateway developers (including from within BCC Transportation) As a consequence the report going to planning committee includes recommending a planning condition that a revised cycling strategy for the development is submitted to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority (BCC). The report is at:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/democracy/Pages/AgendaDetail.aspx?Agen...

I will be pushing for more weather protected parking convenient for all approaches/entrances to the station (Hill Street, Stephenson St and Smallbrook Queensway) Parking needs to be of high quality, in convenient, well overlooked and high profile locations and of sufficient quantity to cater for growth in cycle trips. I would also like to push for left luggage lockers for bike kit that you don't want to take onwards by train - but there are national rail security regulation hurdles with this to counter. For info, Network Rail have developed plans for increasing the level of parking at New St now - upping the current 24 spaces to 120. We would clearly like to see them move on with this asap.

Graham Lennard

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Permalink Reply by Graham Lennard on February 5, 2010 at 23:52

Just to make clear, 120 spaces is what Network rail are talking about installing now (soon I hope) - before the Gateway Development. Yes it maybe a third of what Bristol have but realistically just installing a high level of parking because that is what they have got elsewhere is not going to magically increase cycle trips to that level. Even at 120 stands I think it is likely that they will not be full to capacity in the immediate future. Clearly we dont want demand to exceed supply but there's not much point spending money on large numbers of stands that won't get used. My approach would be to keep the stage by stage installation of stands ahead of a hoped for growing demand.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Holland on March 6, 2010 at 16:31

Have just read in Cycling Plus (April 2010) that Cyclepoint at Leeds station, scheduled to open in May, will provide secure, manned storage for over 300 bikes, a repair service and bike/accessory sales and rentals.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Holland on March 29, 2010 at 17:32

Just read on the PushBikes site that there are plans for parking for only 75 bikes at New Street Station?

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