Is there secure bicycle parking at the Reading train station?
Is there secure bicycle parking at Reading train station? By secure I mean: staffed and with a system that ensures other people cannot take my bicycle, where I can leave a bicycle safely for 3 days.
The page Car and cycle parking at Reading station makes mention of three alternatives for bicycle (Outside the city centre entrance, Underground short stay car park, or Long stay car park), but it is not clear to me whether any of those are staffed, secure parking locations, nor what the fees are. The Reading station map does not contain this information either.
Best Answer
As I have only ridden through Reading on a through train, I can only give the answer as Internet allows me. But from the lack of information I would say that the parking is not safe enough to leave an expensive bike for 3 days.
The railway station information page gives 'stands' as main option for parking the bikes, the car parks are given as extra without any information on bikes, as you have found for yourself.
No bike blog about safe parking but there is a photo map where they show a missing (stolen) bike and mention how usual stolen bikes are in the location.
An English blogger who lives in the Netherlands and is very much aware of cycling and cycle safety mentions in one of his blog entries:
The new parking takes the total number of bicycle spaces at Reading to 160
which is 160 spaces and no mention at all about safe, under cover or secured places.
I take this as negative proof, no mention about secure bicycle parking, not even on those sites that would mention it when it would be there. Yes, you can park your bike in a car park, but knowing security in car parks, I would not rely on that, anything smaller than a car can be taken out without ringing bells.
Pictures about "Is there secure bicycle parking at the Reading train station?"
Where do you park your bicycle?
Bike parking can be divided into three main categories: Bike racks or bike bollards (short-term) Bike lockers (long-term) Bike lockups (long-term)How do you use bike parking?
1. There are no additional charges for bikes. As long as you have a valid ticket for your journey, you can take your bike on the train with you at no extra cost. Great news for commuters!Can cycles be taken on trains?
It has a huge car park but also an extensive and well-used bike parking area, under partial cover.Bicycle parking at Zaltbommel railway station (NL) [482]
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Loc Dang, Lgh_9, Andrea Piacquadio, Vladislav Vasnetsov