From Rails to Handlebars with Vélo Modalis

Vélo Modalis is the first bike service at train stations in France, launched by Fifteen and Nouvelle-Aquitaine Mobilités.

Since June 29th, in each of the eight stations on Line 16 of the TER that connects Angoulême to Royan, a self-service bike rental station has been available for TER travelers as soon as they step off the train to help them cover the last miles of their journey to their final destination.

While the modal share of cycling reaches an average of 27% in the Netherlands, it caps at 3% in France. The OV-Fiets service deployed in 75% of Dutch stations plays a key role in this success, which only needs to be replicated in France.

In 2019, it recorded 5.3 million trips made by 21,000 shared bikes across more than 300 stations. Note that 1.5% of train trips in the Netherlands end with a bike rental at the station, a figure that is steadily increasing.

The service is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. It offers a 100% electric fleet of 160 bikes equipped with automatic electric assistance.

This project aims to experiment, for a duration of 18 months, the station bike model (already tested in the Netherlands and Belgium) to promote train-bicycle intermodality while offering an alternative to carrying personal equipment on the train.

In parallel, a traditional self-service rental service is being deployed by Fifteen in Angoulême, Cognac, and Royan.

After 4 months of operation, the initial results are encouraging:

• 1,322 unique users
• 4,072 trips made
• 22,125 km traveled
• 1,466 kg of CO2 saved
• 85% of users are satisfied

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