Dutch railway company NS is working on plans to develop free, guarded bike parks at main railway stations, the Telegraaf reports on Friday.

The paper, which bases its claims on confidential NS documents, says the railway company hopes the move will reduce the bike chaos around stations.

A place in the supervised bike park would be free for periods of less than 24 hours. ‘Bikes are too often dumped and then abandoned in station bike racks. They become an eyesore,’ the state-owned company said.

The NS calculates that some 30,000 places for bikes are unused every day in manned bike parks. The company is also considering taking over the bike parks from the private companies which currently operate them.