Stations in East Anglia are set to receive 392 spaces for cycle storage, to encourage users of the railway to cycle to their local station, instead of driving.
The boost is thanks to Greater Anglia investing in their stations, The Department for Transport’s Cycle Rail Programme and the local authorities of Essex County Council, Fenland District Council and Suffolk County Council.
The investment will add the additional cycle spaces at Audley End, Braintree, Manningtree, March and Newmarket stations.
The new bike spaces will be open and undercover, as well as increasing the original single-tier bike rack to double tier.
These stations will also feature improved lighting and CCTV.
| Station | Spaces | Greater Anglia funding | Local authority funding | Total |
| Audley End | 60 | £120,000 | £30,000 | £150,000 |
| Braintree | 32 | £65,000 | £18,000 | £73,000 |
| Manningtree | 200 | £175,000 | £20,000 | £195,000 |
| Newmarket | 50 | £40,000 | £16,000 | £56,000 |
| March | 50 | £58,000 | £8,000 | £66,000 |
Simone Bailey, Greater Anglia’s Asset Management Director, said: “Although the current advice is to only travel if you really need to, the cycle spaces will be welcomed by customers when they do return to the railway.”
“With more people choosing to live in our region and travel by train, we are seeing increasing numbers of people cycling to stations so we’re keen to expand our cycling facilities, especially as it helps people to minimise their carbon footprint for the entire length of their journeys.”
“We would like to thank the Department for Transport, Essex County Council, Fenland District Council and Suffolk County Council for making this possible.”
Cllr Chris Seaton, Fenland District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transport said: “Making our stations more accessible to local residents, businesses and tourists is one of our key priorities as a Council and an important part of our Railway Station Masterplans scheme, which was made possible by £9.5million in funding from the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority.”
“It’s great to see such a project moving forward, especially one that encourages an environmentally friendly journey from start to finish, and we hope that these new facilities will encourage more people to stay active and enjoy our railways in a sustainable way.”
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Responses
Has some of the Class 720s been on the Crouch Valley Line (Wickford-Southminster), Braintree Line (Witham-Braintree), Mayflower Line (Manningtree/Ipswich-Harwich International & Harwich Town), Sunshine Lines (Colchester-Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, Colchester-Colchester Town shuttle, Hertford East Line (Broxbourne-Hertford East) and Stratford-Meridian Water shuttle whilst doing test runs. Before Greater Anglia can start introducing the Class 720s in service on the West Anglia and Great Eastern routes and branch lines throughout 2020 and next year (2021).