St Pancras to be Saddled with Bike Demo

THE REVAMPED St Pancras station stands accused of letting down cyclists by failing to provide adequate bike facilities.

“St Pancras will have the worst provision of any major UK station,” said Ralph Smyth of the London Cycling Campaign.

The LCC points out that the station will have only 30 bike stands, that these are a type that that have been known to break front wheels and that they are a long walk from St Pancras’ platforms.

“We will expand cycle parking as we go,” said a St Pancras spokesperson, in reference to on-going building work, but this is not a hard enough promise for the LCC, who are to saddle the station with a demo on 14 November, the date St Pancras’ new Eurostar lines open to the public.

Cycling in London has gone up through the gears in recent years, with thousands more people commuting to work by bike.

In recent weeks we’ve had a big Cycle Show at Earls Court, Freewheel Sunday, which saw the closure of central London to cars for the benefit of 38,000 riders and Mayor Ken Livingstone has encouraged London’s boroughs to make more use of the UKP23 million he’s offered to improve cycle lanes and other bike facilities.