Xavier Brice, CEO, Sustrans

Sustrans is the UK-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and custodian of the National Cycle Network. CEO Xavier Brice says end to end journeys involving rail need to be reliable, possible and pleasant

Post-covid, the rail sector has, arguably, recovered, but the journeys are very different. From a revenue perspective the traditional rail market is less important. 55% of revenue is now coming from leisure – the rail sector needs to recognise this and passengers need to think about how they travel and their journey needs.

I take umbridge with the idea that the answer lies in reducing end to end journey times. It’s not about saving 3, 4, 5 minutes here and there. It’s about reliable journeys, ones that are possible and pleasant.

What really matters, if rail is to succeed, is attracting different types of people from the traditional rail market – and more of them.

When I worked at TfL, initially London Underground didn’t really care about cycle parking at their stations – and that’s part of an integrated transport body, showing the challenge of thinking about integrated journeys. It got a lot better at TfL and LU of course, so it also shows that change is possible. But on mainline rail it’s no longer really about cycle parking.

Sustrans has been running the Cycle Rail Working Group, which has focused on cycle parking at UK rail stations for the past 10 years. And we’re now at a point where most stations have adequate cycle parking, but the challenge is to get people to think about how they get to the station now. You need safe routes. Ideally we wouldn’t need a cycle rail grants programme, it should be integrated into how we think about stations.