Finally, after several years, the barriers have been removed from the bike racks at the front of the railway station by the trees. Hurrah – happy cyclists and happy trees! It remains a mystery as to why such simple solution took so long to materialise. Likely it was low priority amongst those involved and that we never found a champion to make it happen. We had a good dialogue with SWR, however lobbying by Cycle Winchester and others seemed to achieve little actual progress; it was somewhat surprising that there was little concern on aesthetic grounds alone.
The racks are now seeing use and are also appreciated as something to lean on while waiting for buses.
No update about bike parking at the station is complete without mentioning bike thefts. The theft data is held by British Transport Police, however crime data has not been available from their website for a few months. We have submitted a Freedom of Information Request to obtain the data. We will publish an article on bike theft in Winchester generally when we have the information from BTP.
Crime data from Winchester City Police area (excluding the station) shows a further year on year reduction for 2025. Optimistically we will see the same reduction at the station where the figures have been at relatively low levels.
Our advice, based on past experience, is that the racks at the front of the station are the safest place to park a bike at the station. Coupled with the widespread use of D-locks (much more prevalent than elsewhere in Winchester) and a high degree of natural surveillance it is a better option than the notorious Bike Hub.
The little used “secure” bike compound turns out not to be particularly secure as two e-bike users found to their cost last year. Even in the compound it’s important to use good locks. We’d like to see the current access system to the compound replaced.
The use of at least “Gold” standard locks is an important part of deterring thefts. It takes rather more nerve in a public place to use a disk cutter on a D-lock than it does to use a cable cutter to snip through a cable lock. We have heard that a front wheel was taken from the Bike Hub – apparently to replace the punctured one left in exchange… yes minor but still annoying.
