Sustainable travel can mean many things, but reducing journeys by car is a key part of it. The effort many of us put into getting Kenilworth railway station re-opened some years ago was designed to provide those travelling to and from the town with another option, but of course individual journeys rarely begin and end with a railway station. Getting to the station and to your final destination requires another mode of transport and it has long seemed to me desirable to offer a cycling option at Kenilworth station. I am delighted to say that this is now going to happen. Warwickshire County Council and I have been developing a bid for funding from West Midlands Railway which has been accepted, and bikes should be available for hire soon. They will be Brompton folding bicycles, available to hire or to pre-book at Kenilworth Station in a solar-powered set of lockers so that they are a truly sustainable option. You will be able to rent them at a daily rate of £5 for as long as you need them and, because they fold, you will be able to pick one up at the station and take it on the train with you to wherever you are going. Visitors to the town will be able to collect a bicycle when they step off the train and use it to explore Kenilworth and the wider area.
Combining cycling with using the train will not be practical for everyone, but making it a more useable option will open it up to more people. In the same way, regular readers will know I have been focused on the creation of cycling networks separated from road traffic to allow not just for leisure cycling, but for end to end journeys people need to make to be made on 2 wheels too. There is much more to do to achieve that, but infrastructure like the Lias Line which will connect Leamington Spa and Rugby, or the K2L project which will provide a safer route between Kenilworth and Leamington, represent significant progress. Lecturing travellers on the use of sustainable travel options rarely works. Providing useable, accessible, convenient ways to travel sustainably has a much better chance of success, for the benefit of all of us.
