BOLTON News reporter DALE HASLAM uses the train to commute to and from work. Here is his weekly blog about life on Bolton’s trains.

TRANSPORT bosses seem very keen on getting us out of our cars and onto our bikes when travelling to and from the train station.

But cyclists and other passengers often do not like squeezing bikes onto packed trains, so the obvious solution is to let people store them at the station.

At present, riders have to cram their (often very expensive) bikes into lockers or take their chances chaining them to a post on the platform, though a new development in Bolton will solve all that.

Once the tumbleweed has blown away, that is.

At the cost of several thousand pounds, engineers spent two weeks in October building two cycling hubs at Bolton Station and finished the work impressively quickly.

The only problem is they have still not yet opened and a sign on the platform says the launch will be “in early 2014”.

The hub on platform 3 holds about 50 bikes and the one on platform 4 holds about 30 bikes and they were put up in a joint partnership between Northern Rail, which owns the station, and Transport for Greater Manchester, which runs the county’s transport network.

Northern Rail has said the delay is down to bosses sorting out red tape issues, such as sending out membership packs and ensuring station staff can effectively monitor the hubs, but once they are open for business, they will be a great new addition to the station.

I hope this is the case, especially considering the generous membership fee of £10 a year.

More people cycling is bound to have a knock-on effect over the long-term as healthier people need NHS services less, and I applaud Northern Rail and TfGM for doing something positive.

I just wish they would get on with it.

l THE Bolton News has launched the Let’s Get Back On Track campaign. We are calling for peak time services to be restored while electrification work is being carried out. Hundreds of people have already signed our petition and Prime Minister, on a visit to The Bolton News, has said he will look at the issue. Bolton North East MP David Crausby is also calling on the Department of Transport to intervene.