COMPLAINTS have been made that the city's main station's bike rack area is still broken and dirty months after it was first raised.
Bike Worcester, a cycling campaign group, is calling for Foregate Street Station's bike racks which have been broken for six months to be fixed, as well as the area to be cleaned.
Bike Worcester tweeted: "The cycle parking still hasn’t been fixed and cleaned - we first flagged this in October 2021."
The storage area is the responsibility of West Midlands Railway, which manages the station.
Staff at the station apologised about how long it is taking to fix through the Worcester Foregate Whiteboard twitter account.
West Midlands Railway (WMR) said: "I've requested an update from Worcester and I will let you know when they come back to me."
WMR said in October the issue had been reported, while in November it said the station manager was "looking into" getting the racks cleaned and fixed promising then "it won't be too long".
We first reported on the state of the bike racks back in June last year after it came under fire from the campaign group which described it as "completely inadequate".
The campaign group said then: "Not suitable for non-standard cycles (handcycles, trikes, cargo bikes).
"Dirty and smells of urine. Poorly lit at night (warm LED lighting, please). Women say they don’t feel safe."
Hi @WestMidRailway can the broken cycle racks at Foregate Street Station get fixed, please? pic.twitter.com/gGNvd96iGI
— Bike Worcester (@BikeWorcester) October 13, 2021
Danny Brothwell, chairman of the group, compared them to an impressive new cycle storage area that had opened at Birmingham New Street, and the cycle storage area at Crowngate Shopping Centre.
At the time a West Midlands Railway spokesman said: “We are fully committed to encouraging sustainable modes of transport wherever possible and have made significant investment in cycling facilities across our network.
“Improvements to the lighting at Worcester Foregate Street are planned as part of major upgrade works at the station and CCTV covering the bike storage area has already been installed.
“The existing dual-height storage system ensures we can cater for as many bikes as possible in the limited space available but we are happy to consider to the feasibility of alternative suggestions.”
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