Study Visit from the Deutsche Bahn

Dutch Cycling Embassy hosts study visit from the Deutsche Bahn focused on the bike-train combination.

On April 8 and 9, 2022 the Dutch Cycling Embassy hosted a delegation from the Germany. This visit of the delegation from Deutsche Bahn was the first study trip of two, which will be followed by a visit in May.

This delegation was interested in the combination of bike and train, with focus at the Dutch examples of bike parking in Utrecht and Rotterdam. Considering this interest, the first day of the visit Dutch Cycling Embassy Marketing and Communication Manager Chris Bruntlett welcomed the delegation at Utrecht’s townhall near the central station, where we had very interesting presentations about the Tour de Force cooperation from Ronald de Haas (APPM), the bike-train combination and the role of ProRail and NS in encouraging and investing in it (Lidwien van Kessel, Rebecca van der Horst), stakeholder management and how the municipality is involved in building new bike parking by Herbert Tiemens (Gemeente Utrecht), technical developments that make bicycle parking easier by Corstiaan van Elteren (Siemens) and a look at the design of parking facilities by Simone Jorink (Movares). After the rain was blown away and the sun came through, Monique Harmsen (LumiGuide), Alina Prey and Raymond Huisman (Goudappel) and Gert-Jan van Heteren (Royal HaskoningDHV) took the group of almost 25 Germans to the bike parking beneath Utrecht Central Station, and after that on the bike to the City of Houten.

The second day of the visit took place in Rotterdam. The delegation was welcomed at the Humankind office by Jorn Wemmenhove, who gave his view on a sustainable and liveable city. Later, Roland Kager from Studio Bereikbaar, did a presentation on combining cycling and transit, Martijn Heufke Kantelaar (Royal HaskoningDHV) brought his personal view on travelling with bike by train in international perspective. Fred van Schoonhoven (AbelLeisure) spoke about public transport and recreational cycling, before Nathana Parise (Loendersloot Consultancy) closed the series of presentations with a story on trains and gender. In the afternoon, the Deutsche Bahn group joined Lior Steinberg (Humankind) for a walking tour through Rotterdam to see all what was been said in the presentations on the streets. The closing discussion led by Jorn Wemmenhove and Arjen Klinkenberg (Dutch Cycling Embassy) gave a view on how the German group could learn from the Dutch, but also how it works out in the other direction.