More than 40% of passengers come to the station by bicycle. They are able to use supervised bicycle storage facilities for around 120,000 bicycles, unsupervised facilities for more than 310,000 bicycles and more than 14,000 bicycle lockers at stations. NS is working with partners to develop bicycle storage facilities where passengers can easily and conveniently store their bicycles. Our offering includes 24 hours’ free storage (in 16 storage facilities), digital indications of the free storage slots, the option of paying with public transport smartcards, and a high-quality uniform design. In 2016, NS and ProRail agreed with the municipalities to provide this at Amsterdam Amstel and Leeuwarden stations, among others. We also opened new bicycle storage facilities in 2016 at Assen (temporary storage facility), Amsterdam Centraal (on the IJ side), Breda, Amsterdam Zuid (Mahlerplein), Utrecht Vaartsche Rijn and Harderwijk. There are 40 storage facilities where passengers can store their bicycles on account using their OV-fiets subscription. In Breda, Amsterdam Zuid (Mahlerplein), Utrecht Vaartsche Rijn and Harderwijk, passengers can park their bicycles free of charge for the first 24 hours.

Self-service bicycle storage facilities

At Bilthoven and Heerenveen stations, we ran a trial with self-service storage. Elements of this are an open, spacious entrance, access using your bank card or public transport smartcard and the availability of public transport bicycles (OV-fiets). If the trial is a success, we will roll the concept out at additional stations in 2017 and 2018.

Bicycle Parking covenant

NS expects the number of cyclists to increase over the years to come. Together with other relevant parties, we seek to tackle and resolve the issues concerning the storage of bicycles in a concerted approach. To this end, NS has signed the national administrative agreement Fiets (‘bicycle’). In addition to sufficient quality and capacity in the facilities for bicycles at stations, the agreement sets out innovative goals and projects for making optimum use of infrastructure and space, and savings and efficiency improvements.