CP will once again allow bicycles on urban and suburban trains from next Monday, ending a suspension of this service that had been in force since March 23, as Público reports.
Although the bicycle is an excellent companion for the train, the CP decided, at the beginning of the lockdown on March 23, to ban the transport of bicycles on urban and suburban trains.. The ban, although provisional, lacked a scientific basis from the outset. In fact, many people use their bicycles to make the last mile before and/or after a train journey and this was no less true for health professionals and others who, despite the lockdown, had to continue to leave the house on a daily basis.
But if the ban on bicycles on trains seemed unfounded during confinement, it seems to make even less sense post-confinement. In fact, with the need to maintain social distance and keep transport capacity at 2/3, bicycle transport would not be an obstacle on the trains.
MUBi - the Association for Urban Mobility by Bicycle - has already spoken out on this issue. "The intermodality of the bicycle with public transport is, for many people who are now resuming their commute, one of the best alternatives to the use of the individual car. It contributes to decongesting cities, to reducing air pollution, a factor associated with higher COVID-19 mortality rates, and to the resilience of transport systems.", he argued in a statement released on Friday.
