Cambridge Travel for Work
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NewsNews Headlines:Press Releases Page Launched If you are looking to see what TfW and our employers have been up to, check out our new Press Releases page (link to the left), where you will find all press releases issued since 2010. A synopsis of any press release is provided on this page.
December 2011:Are you ready for the Olympics? The London 2012 Olympic Games will take place between 27 July-12 August. The Paralympic Games will run between 29 August-9 September. Do your staff travel to London for business meetings? Have you thought about how difficult this might be in August 2012 with London awash with sports fans? Travel for Work has spoken with the 2012 travel team at Transport for London. They have said: "We are anticipating six weeks of severe travel disruptions across the transport network next summer, so you should start planning now to make sure your business is fully prepared and can keep on running effectively." The TfW suggestions are that you should: 1. seriously consider whether people really need to do that trip (reduce) OR 2. re-time journeys to avoid the peaks and once in London to avoid the Tube and walk (revise mode). We suggest that sooner rather than later you look at the advice on www.tfl.gov.uk/2012. There is a link to the London 2012 Toolkit and more info is being placed there all the time. Three posters below are provided by TfL (these are focussed at London companies but have useful advice and messages to all companies doing business in London). Click on titles below to download posters for your workplace. New Award -Most Successful Communications Award 2012 The award is open to all Travelchoice/TfW member employers, whether or not they are applying for an award at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Travel Plan Awards in 2012. This award is presented to the organisation that can demonstrate having raised good awareness of a travel initiative and/or, their travel plan since November 2010. Your organisation's communication or campaign may have promoted a national event (Bike Week, CamShare/Liftshare week) or a workplace travel initiative such as homeworking, teleconferencing, car sharing, public transport etc. It could also be for communications within an organisation promoting awareness of the staff travel plan through, for example, a launch event. An application form is available to download here. Information about how to apply is available here. 7 Nov 2011 Huntingdon Travel for Work Employer Cluster meeting The second Huntingdon TfW Cluster meeting will take place on Thursday 10th November at 9. 30 am and will hear about:
The meeting is free and takes place at Please arrive at Pathfinder House reception by 9.20am Map and access details here http://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/Pages/contact%20us.aspx Parking: if needed please see this link http://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/Transport%20and%20Roads/Parking%20and%20access/Pages/Car%20Parks.aspx and download the Huntingdon car park map on the right hand side of the page. An agenda can be downloaded here If you have anything you wish to discuss not on this agenda please call TfW on 01223 715550 or email info@tfw.org.uk. Mark Webb at Travel for Work said "I am looking forward to meeting many Huntingdon employers next Thursday morning. I would encourage you to let as many employers as possible know about this meeting." 2 November 11 Electric Hook-ups - Latest from EValu8 EValu8 Transport Innovations Limited at the University of Hertfordshire are delivering a Government-supported “Plugged in Places” programme to install electric vehicle (EV) charging points across the East of England. EVs can be an important component of the travel plan policy mix, and as well as supporting journeys to and from work can also have a potentially important role in business travel and vehicle fleets. The programme offers a grant of 50% against the total costs of post purchase and installation (up to a maximum of £3,500 per post), and provides free 'green' electricity for two years. The grant offer to the first 100 SMEs is increased to a 75% discount. This will be offered on a first come, first served basis, so is likely to run out much earlier than the March 2013 cut-off date for the project. Interested parties are urged to contact us as soon as possible. The exciting opportunity currently open via EValu8 means that Travel for Work members can now make their sites 'EV-ready' at a significantly reduced cost. For more information TfW has interviewed Mike Salter - Project Manager see more. Please take a look at http://www.evalu8-ti.org.uk/get-involved or contact the EValu8 team direct at info@evalu8-ti.org.uk or on 01707 28 4742. October 2011Travel for Work and Travel Plan plus Annual Report 2010-11
If anyone has any questions that are raised by the Annual Report please contact the TfW team on 01223 715550.
Car Share - promotional posters for CamShare week 3-7 October 2011 (part of Liftshare Week)
Whatever else you do to promote CamShare, make sure you display CamShare posters by clicking on the images above and download them to your computer. Then post them round your site(s) to raise awareness of CamShare Week (part of liftshare week). Keep it original – where will you have a guaranteed audience? (In lifts, the staff kitchen, the back of toilet doors, the canteen queue, meeting rooms). Hand them out at car park entrances, do desk-drops, give them out from a special CamShare Week stand... flyers are versatile and ideal for taking away with you. You can use the CamShare flyer as well as it includes more information about car-sharing on the back, to help you explain to potential members what it’s all about... Just print them out, turn the paper over and print again, then guillotine them in half for two-sided flyers. Bike Friendly October Tuesdays for Ely Station On Tuesday 4th October free cycle repairs and safety checks will be offered at Ely Station. Commuters will be able to leave their cycles from 7am make their onward journey, and then collect them when they return to Ely before 7pm. The event is a trial for what could become a permanent ‘cycle hub’ facility at the station offering cycle repairs, and perhaps cycle hire, with cycles and accessories for sale. The ‘Bike Friendly Tuesday’ sessions will take place also on Tuesday 11th October and Tuesday 18th October. There are posters for you to download, print-off and display on staff notice boards - A4 and A6.
The Cycle Hub project is a partnership involving National Express East Anglia, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Sustrans and Cambridgeshire County Council. The County Council is funding the trial through its ‘Bike Friendly Cities’, European funded programme that seeks to deliver low cost innovative solutions in encouraging cycling levels to grow, working collaboratively and sharing best practice with European partners in France, Belgium and Holland. In parallel with the Bike Friendly Tuesdays event a questionnaire will be distributed for completion by all station users to seek their views on whether they would use a cycle hub and what sort of services would be a priority to them such as repairs, secure cycle parking, cycle hire, purchase of equipment etc. Completed surveys will be entered into a free prize draw with free train tickets for the winners. Travelling to / from Cambridge Train Station - 2 new platforms from 11 December 2011 There will be a new National Express East Anglia Train Timetable in operation from 11th December 2011. Please find details of this new timetable at www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/dec11'
Don't Make it Easy for Thieves! An extremely good and FREE way in which you can ensure your property is identifiable all over the UK is to register it on www.immobilise.com This site is searched thousands of times every day by British police officers. The Cambs Police offer businesses and their staff on-site help with immobilise registration and can give a talk about keeping your bikes and equipment safe. Please contact TfW 01223 715550 to arrange your workplace site visit by police. When registering on www.immobilise.com a user I.D. and password is generated allowing YOU to access the site and add or delete items at any time. Any item with a serial number can be registered FREE of charge. For items like bicycles there is the facility to upload digital images of as many items as you wish. Go onto the immobilise website and see how easy it is to register your property and help protect yourself from thieves. [28/09/11] Roz gets on her bike to test new cycle route to Granta Park - TfW Interviewed her Granta Park Marketing and Asset Manager Roz Bird got on her bike to test out the cycle route from Cambridge to Granta Park, 8 miles south of Cambridge City Centre, and produced a video of her commute. Complete with headcam, Roz cycled the route that takes in the cycle path from Cambridge Station to Stapleford, the A1301 cycle path to Sawston, the newish Granta Park funded path to Babraham and then on the path to Abington. TfW has interviewed Roz so you can find out more
Wellcome Trust Becomes International Environmental Hero The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, based in Hinxton, have been presented with an International Green Hero wall-shield, in recognition of their environmental project – Energy Campaign. The trophy was presented by The Green Organisation during a presentation ceremony at the University of Westminster, London, on Monday (June 20th 2011) for their Green Policy covering transport, recycling and green energy. To read the full story click here
Dawn Wise & Duncan Parsley receive the prestigious award on behalf of Wellcome Trust Genome Campus. TfW employers have fun during national Bike Week 2011 With mixed weather fortunes during June’s Bike Week some employers really pushed the boat (or cycle) out! There were events all week at TfW employers such as ProQuest and Wellcome Genome Campus. Others marked this annual occasion with some well attended one-off cycling events; but best of all they all had great fun. Just a few of the TfW employers taking part were CCDC, Mott MacDonald, HDC, Granta Park, Mills & Reeve & Cambourne Business Park. Here’s a taster of events held at their workplaces ... PC Jim Stevenson & PCSO Sarah Finbow from Cambridge Police logged ProQuest staff bikes on www.immobilise.com ProQuest Grand Bike Week Finale – photo opportunity for all staff who took part. Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) funded cycle hire and cream tea at the Orchard in Grantchester for staff on their Bike Week cycle ride. Wellcome Trust provide staff with Cycle Training Level 1 by provider Outspoken trainer John Stanley. Mott MacDonald’s cycling breakfast was so successful that organiser Janice Sloan quickly ran out of croissants as 50 hungry cyclists quaffed the lot by 9am!
Mott MacDonald and CCDC harnessed the talent of staff with cycle mechanic ability. Andrew, Michael & Bennet at Mott McDonald gave basic training and a handout for staff and they’ve been asked by staff for more sessions. There are another two handouts for puncture repair and parts of a bike. CCDC used Bike Week as an opportunity to promote their staff cycle maintenance tool box packed with equipment, complete with a list of volunteer staff mechanics to call on when a cyclist needs help.
ProQuest held events each day of Bike Week with Outspoken – a fantastic effort. The events included Dr Bike, The Electric Transport Shop supplying their electric bikes to try-out, cycle security coding and registration by Cambridge Police staff; as well as a green quiz, free breakfast & picnic tea at the Orchard, Grantchester.
There’s a lot more summertime left so don’t wait for Bike Week 2012 to organise similar events at your workplace. Organisers do contact TfW for advice and ideas. Employers get off to an Electric Start Top employers in Huntingdon have met to see how they can work together to help their commuting staff get to work, and they also got a chance to try a brand new electric car. In May 2011, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, the Environment Agency, Forensic Science Service and Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust attended the first meeting of the ‘Huntington Travel for Work Cluster’ which was held by Huntingdonshire District Council and the Cambridgeshire Travel for Work Partnership (TfW) to look at ways of providing commuters with healthier and greener ways of travelling to work. To read the full story click here. Discount Page Launched & More DISCOUNTS! To recognise the growing number of local transport providers offering discounts to TfW members we have created a specific Discounts page on our website! Two new transport providers have recently joined forces with TfW, offering fantastic discounts on cycle training and maintenance sessions at your workplace! Outspoken Cycle Training has kindly offered TfW employers a massive 10% DISCOUNT off all their cycling services for businesses (except 1:1 cycle training) and 15% DISCOUNT for bookings arranged to take place during school holidays 18 July—end August 2011. For more information go to Outspoken's information leaflet. Ridingabike are also able to offer TfW employers a brilliant 10% DISCOUNT off Adult Cycle Training, maintenance Training and Dr Bike sessions for employers based in St Neots, St Ives, Huntingdon and Cambridge. For more information go to Ridingabike's website: http://www.ridingabike.co.uk/html/bespoke_courses_0.html Contracted Bus Service Tenders Commencing 4 April 2011 In October 2010 Cambridgeshire County Council's Passenger Transport Team sought feedback about county council contracts that were due to expire in April 2011. The tenders have been analysed, taking into account comments received. A covering letter with a table is available showing which contracts have been awarded and to whom; and the impact upon the service if relevant. Stagecoach Bus Changes Announced Stagecoach have announced changes to bus routes from 17th April 2011.
The bus company say that: "Many of the changes are minor alterations to timetables, and a number of contracts currently held with the local authority are either discontinued by the local authority or are being surrendered by Stagecoach." (8 March 2011) Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Travel Plan Awards were Held Tues 25 January 2011: The Travel Plan Awards were held on 25th January 2011, and presented by Phillip Darnton at the Town Hall Peterborough on Tues 25 January 2011 at 2.30 – 6.00pm. The awards recognised the efforts of 25 organisations, some of whom presented at the event. Claire Goody of Eversheds showed how the level of car use for business travel has reduced considerably since staff were encouraged to use public transport and video conferencing. To read the full story click here. CamShare Winners of Free Prize Draw During October 2010 Cambridgeshire County Council and the Travel for Work Partnership have drawn prize winners from new and existing members of CamShare and car sharers who were registered as 'car BUDis' in October on www.camshare.co.uk. A BIG thank you to TfW employer, John Lewis and the Cambridge Valet Centre for supporting our CamShare prize draw by donating generous prizes. Their generosity helped to attract 90 new car share members in October, and 88 in September. Both months showing a fourfold increase on previous months! Members registered at least one journey, searched for a match and made contact with another member to qualify for the prize draw. Existing members needed to simply log-on their CamShare account, ensure a journey is registered, search for matches and make contact to share. Congratulations to commuting car sharers Sara Croft (pictured below), Lana Smith of Addenbrooke's Hospital and Ruth Martin commuter of IQ Cambridge; also Pat Morris of Cambridgeshire County Council who contacted her car share match. Respectively they have won the following prizes:
Left to right Charlotte Powell (sharer), Sara Croft (winner), with Elmarie Swanepoel (presenter) & Elaine Claydon of Cambridge University Hospitals' (CUH) Estates & Facilities Division. Sara says its cutting commuting costs that benefits her most in car sharing and she found it easy to find good matches on CamShare website. Lana added "I've been car-sharing for over 2 years and I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to find like-minded people." Car Share Month October 2010TfW is joining in with national liftshare week and running our own local CamShare promotions throughout October. You could jump on board with several initiatives we're running and/or run your own promotions. With over 2,300 members on CamShare it's even more likely your staff will find a good car share match. CEO CamShare Challenge TfW have received pledges from its Steering Group Partners' CEO's to car share for the campaign. A press notice has been released on the CEO's car sharing. TfW is challenging all Cambridgeshire CEOs to car share at least once during the campaign. Picture Caption: CEOs Antoinette Jackson & Alex Plant, regular car sharers travelling to their meeting in the County
The CamShare Prize Draw SIX fantastic commuter prizes are on offer for car sharers and those looking for a car share throughout October! This is worth promoting during CamShare week:
Prize winners will be drawn early November. Please see the Terms and Conditions of the Two Prize draws in October 2010. Promotional posters are available to download print-off and distribute at your workplace.
TfW Annual Report - 2009/10Click here for an electronic version of the 2009-10 annual report which is now published. This contains a review of the last financial year and lists the TfW achievements. This has been a good year for the Partnership and we are pleased to make available our results. We are happy to receive comments on the annual report and any suggestions for what to include in future years. (updated 26th October 2010) Bike Week employer events held June 2010This year TfW teamed up with Cycle Cambridge to help employers run an even better Bike Week. Many TfW employers were helped by Cycle Cambridge cash to fund a variety of events and were given lots of cycling freebies. Dawn Wise of Wellcome Genome Campus said "The reflective slap wraps were well received and didn't take long to be snapped up by Campus cyclists - some then wore them on the five mile organised lunchtime ride."
Lesley Scobell of Cambourne Business Park ran a successful Bike2Work breakfast (picture above) with Dr Bike service to all who cycled in which was gratefully received by 21 staff. Lesley also ran a lunchtime cycle ride to a local pub accompanied by 'Bikeability' cycle trainers provided by Cycle Cambridge Bikeability Team (www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/bikeability) to advise cyclists about the training they give. Mike Richmond from Global Graphics who came on the Lunchtime Cycle ride said "bike to the pub was a great way to meet with people from neighbouring companies and of getting some exercise in the middle of the working day." Lesley said "The money received from Cycle Cambridge enabled us to try out lunchtime cycle rides and we now plan to do more of these events. We would like the Bikeability Cycle Trainer to come to a lunchtime session at the Business Park to help with confidence building when we launch our pool bikes trial." Dawn Wise set up a 'Bikeability' Cycle Training beginners class at the Wellcome Genome Campus and benefitted from the lesson herself. Dawn said "The money from Cycle Cambridge ensured that we could run more events this year with 90+ participants, they funded both child (on-site nursery) and adult cycle training."
Bikeability Trainers Simon Haydn & John Stanley flank trainees including Dawn Wise 4th from left. Yasmin, who received training said "It was a most fantastic opportunity to be able to actually get on a bike and learn skills that help build up your confidence to ride. This Beginners Training class has given me the confidence to get on a bike and pursue riding whenever I can. The trainers were brilliant to have been able to teach so many skills in 1 hour." Dawn commented "The Adult Cycle Training was excellent and something we will run again soon - encouraging new cyclists and building confidence of those who hadn't cycled for years, including myself." Linda Cox, Environment Manager at Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust, commenced a Bicycle User Group (BUG) which is popular with staff interested in cycle training,
bike maintenance and social events. Around 60
staff took time
to visit the cycling information table in the
From left to right: Shiralee Freeman Linda Cox and Gareth Price gave cycling information at their stand MRC staff, based at Peterhouse Business Park, cycled their way to a smoothie at an event organised by their Green Team in collaboration with Team Green Britain Bike Week. A smoothie making bike was an ideal way to promote both environmentally friendly transport and healthy eating and exercise messages for the summer.
The state of the art bike rented from Huntingdon District Council's Environmental Health Dept, uses kinetic energy from pedalling which powers the blender. Just a few minutes of pedalling, combined with a selection of favourite fruits and fruit juice, created a delicious and nutritious smoothie. The smoothie bike event was very popular with staff at MRC HNR, The Wellcome Genome Campus and Cambridgeshire County Council. The County hired another cycling smoothie maker at a number of its employer sites throughout bike week supplied by Tom at www.blendavenda.com and event organiser Sarah Bedford was pleased to see the "Smoothie maker appealed to even more staff than the free breakfasts." If your employer has run events for Bike Week that you'd like to tell TfW about and provide us pictures please contact info@tfw.org.uk or telephone 01223 715550. Ely Station joins Cambridge and Huntingdon in train discountsEly Station is the latest commuter destination to join Cambridge and Huntingdon in offering discounted rail travel. Both National Express and First Capital Connect are so pleased with the take-up of their discounts at Cambridge and Huntingdon by staff of full TfW member employers that they chose to extend the 'Cambridgeshire Green Travel Discount Scheme' to Ely Station. Also PLUSBUS is available at the time you buy your discounted train season ticket and provides unlimited bus travel around Cambridge or Huntingdon (excluding Ely), including to and from the train station. Further details are available within the latest 'Staff Brief' see www.tfw.org.uk/services.php#Traindiscounts 20July2010 Travel Planning Essentials Workshops - 2010Designed to promote travel planning best practice, two Essentials workshops were run in 2010 by TfW. Workshop 1 was titled "What makes a good Travel Plan and how to gain support", held on Monday 14th June 2010. Held at The University Centre, Granta Place and attended by 14 delegates, the workshop combined group exercises with presentation materials designed to help new TfW employers and those at the Certificate of Commitment stage with travel planning. Course materials, plus photographs from the event are given below: Workshop 2 titled "What to do with data and marketing events & Campaigns" was held on Monday 20th September 2010 at 8.30am - 1.00pm at the SmartLIFE Centre, Cambridge Regional College Cambridge. Workshop 2 comprised: - an examination of the TfW data resources available to employers and how to use them to develop effective travel plan targets and actions. - presentations by organisations that have demonstrated local leadership in travel planning, to highlight how different organisations implement events and campaigns. The presentations were followed by an introduction to marketing basics. Resources from the meeting are available for download here:
A presentation was given by Sarah Johnson from Anglia Ruskin University regarding how she communicates travel information to staff. Handouts given to delegates are available here: CamShare - Congratulations to Winners of April's prize draw - 2010 Cambridgeshire County Council and the Travel for Work Partnership held a prize draw for those who log-on to www.camshare.co.uk, search and contact their match during the whole month of March 2010. Prize winners were drawn early April.
At the same time there was a prize draw for those sharing their journeys with others. To qualify car sharers and cyclists needed to register their bike BUDi journey or car BUDi journey. A cycle BUDi and each BUDi member within the car share team (drawn randomly) received £10 Halfords gift voucher. See how to become a BUDi below. With over 2,000 members it’s even more likely your staff will find a good car share match. So if you are a car share promoter at your workplace do promote to your staff using our editable posters, and ask to borrow our free standing CamShare banner. You may already be someone's buddy (BUDi). To become either a cycle or car share BUDi register yourself and your journey at www.camshare.co.uk and follow the instructions below. Your car sharer will also need to register.
CamShare Easter 2010 Campaign As well as using the Easter/March Prize Draw poster also give leaflets to anyone who arrives in single-occupancy vehicles. The leaflets also include a registration form, so you can ask staff to fill them in on the spot. Hinxton Hall did something similar last Easter - and got 25 new members in one day. They held a sustainable event, which included a car-share stand, and offered free Creme Eggs to everyone who joined their liftshare scheme, as well as freebies such as air fresheners, leaflets and pens. Give it a go. It’s amazing how a bit of chocolate can raise people’s interest! For raising awareness of CamShare outside of the prize draw here are editable posters for you to up-date (using Adobe writer) with your contact details and distribute:
If you have car sharing anecdotes, helpful hints or beneficial outcomes + photos to share with us we'd like to hear from you, please call 01223 715550. (posted 4 May 2010) Previous Awards
The Travel Plan Awards were held on 19th January 2010, and presented by Shaun Spiers Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). The 40 awards recognised the efforts of organisations, such as Anglia Ruskin University who have worked hard to reduce the percentage of staff driving alone to work to just 12%. The ceremony was held at the SmartLIFE Centre, Cambridge Regional College, Kings Hedges Drive, Cambridge.
Framed Certificates for all levels of award For further information see the Travel Plan Awards information sheet or contact TfW on 01223 715550.
Plaque for Travel Plan Award and Travel Plan Excellence Award
Awardees at Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Travel Plan Awards Jan 2010
Your Letters - Gritting Cycleways S Hinton, Sagentia's TP Co-ordinator Following Mark Webb's piece about cycling to work in the winter month's in February's (2010) TfW newsletter we heard from Sarah Hinton, who had unfortunately fallen off her bike in the icy conditions. Here is the full exchange with Richard Preston of Cambridgeshire County Council regarding possible gritting improvements. Richard Preston’s response Dear Sarah, Sorry to hear of your problems when cycling to work. Unfortunately, the severe shortage of salt has meant that we have had to significantly curtail our gritting operations as salt supplies are being rationed on a national basis. With regard to your comment about the need for cycleways to be gritted, we are in the process of reviewing our winter gritting policy and one of the issues that is on the agenda for councillors is the desire to see more attention given to cycleways as part of our gritting operations. However, the calls for more and more gritting to be provided grow each day and budget pressures on the County Council mean that if more resource is put into our winter operations then it may have to be at the expense of other services. Councillors will be considering these matters over the coming weeks but it is unlikely that any changes will be made in time for this winter season. Mark Webb’s response I am so sorry you had a tumble - it is such a horrible thing to happen. I shall pass on your mail to Richard Preston the County Council Manager responsible for this area of work. Sarah Hinton (Sagentia) response "Right clothing, right lights and it is still possible to cycle in the winter" - oh, really? Interesting to read of Mark's pride in cycling to work in the snow and enjoying it. I agree, cycling in the fresh snow was great fun – It's all very well having the right clothing and good lights, but this is the first winter in 15 years that I've hardly cycled to work at all. I've been reluctantly car-bound. The reason? .. the council ran out of grit and the roads haven't been safe. I love my rides to work and I was getting so frustrated that I decided to give it a go in case it wasn't as bad as it looked. Less than a mile down the road I didn't feel safe and turned back. Twenty yards later I hit a patch of ice and went splat! Result: cuts and bruises to my right leg and arm. Many cyclists have experienced the same thing, I'm just grateful that I didn't end up in the accident service. Last year cycle campaigners were calling for cycle-paths to be gritted, I'm afraid that achieving this is no more than a pipe-dream while not even the roads are being gritted. Yours, Sarah Hinton Travel for Work Co-ordinator Sagentia Ltd
Mark Webb’s piece in February Newsletter I'm feeling pretty proud of myself! One day this week I overcame the lure of the leather seated guided bus that is currently serving my village onto the bike for the first time in 2010 - and it snowed on me! And I am pleased to say I loved it! Right clothing, right lights and it is still possible to cycle in the winter. Do you have any intrepid cyclists who have cycled this winter? |
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