Travelling by bike to the station, parking in a dedicated space and then travelling onward by train has become easier and more reliable in some areas, but compared with the infrastructure that is provided over the water in the Netherlands, there is plenty of scope for progress to be made.

Starting from Manchester and travelling along through the stations managed by Northern on the Hope Valley route, here's a list of the dedicated bike parking spaces available at stations.

NB: At both ends of the line the station is managed other than by Northern, with Manchester Piccadilly managed by Network Rail and Sheffield managed by East Midlands Railway

Manchester Piccadilly  (254 + 40 Brompton),  Ashburys (0),  Belle Vue, (0), Ryder Brow (0)

Reddish North (0),    Brinnington (0),   Bredbury (5), Romiley (16),   Marple (12),  Strines (0)

New Mills Central (2),    Chinley (10),   Edale  (14),   Hope (7),  Bamford (16), Hathersage (4)

Grindleford (16),  Dore and Totley (20),    Sheffield  (452)    TOTAL  868

In the Netherlands, provision is rather more generous. Taking the medium-sized town of Leiden (pop. 130,000) as an example, there are 5,000 free parking spaces at the central station alone, so a ratio of 1: 26.

Sheffield (City) has a population of some 583,000 and there are 452 spaces at the station hub, giving a ratio of 1:1,300. Manchester (City) fares less well. Comparing the city's estimated population of 590,000  with Manchester Piccadilly's 294 spaces (incl.Brompton),  the ratio works out at 1:2,006.

Are these comparisons useful? Given the generally flat landscape in the Netherlands and its history of creation of managed new land over the centuries, perhaps not. What's certain however is that if a model for active travel, cycle use and cycle infrastructure is needed , the Netherlands is a good place to start.

A better comparison lies a little further East in Germany. Wuppertal (pop. 364,000) in Nordrhein-Westfalen with its history of heavy industry and its hilly topography has in many ways a similar profile to Sheffield - and similar problems of old infrastructure and vehicular traffic.  Like Sheffield a few years ago, its main station has been upgraded, and like Sheffield it has invested in modern cycle parking facilities.  The numbers are modest - 160 spaces at the main station, including 20 lockable boxes  means that the ratio of places to people works out at 1:2,275

Northern has a very clear cycling policy here

Read about the EMR managed bike hub at Sheffield here

For travel by bike and train in the Netherlands click here

For more information on cycling in Wuppertal, click here (not in English)