It must be less easy to tell now: here, and at Bristol Temple Meads, in the past, would a bike locked and on the station platform pretty well guarantee a 1:1 correlation with a rail passenger?

Anecdotally, locking the bike at the station and on to a train was very much a thing for me until the cycle storage was moved from the platforms, the perceived (and actual) security of the replacement cycle parking around Bath Spa has put an end to that (and along with it some of the rail travel).

In London, and centuries back, cycling to the station as part of the daily commute was very much a thing for one of the household, but only a single instance of a security issue with that - they arrived back at the station one evening to find a set of bikes had been secured together with a cable - presumably a would be thief had the intention of returning later and stealing the whole lot. The episode resulted in a phone call to summon the appropriate resources to deal with the cable and all was well once again.

Bikes on trains, very much enabled with the more widespread availability of things that fold, though I'm suspecting that the IETs are a challenge even for those, thanks very much, Department for, er, Transport.

Mark

 
Or maybe recent publicity raising questions about BTP attitude to cycle theft at stations.

 
From Birmingham Live


Would that be because fewer people are cycling to the station, or because more are now taking their cycles with them on the train?