Beryl are a company that provide local transport by means of bike or scooter. Stations that Beryl provide exist around a town or city in which a passenger could begin their journey at by unlocking a bike or scooter and ending at another station elsewhere (or indeed the same station); stations often house bikes, e-bikes and scooters, but this depends on where other people have left them - one station could have nothing at all. In order to unlock one of their bikes or scooters, you must have their mobile app, which you can also use to check locations of stations in the area and which vehicles they have.
The service is useful to those who would want to commute without having to worry about locking up their bike, or for those that don’t have access to a bike and would like a quicker way to get around a local area without having to walk. Wymondham has a few such stations now, such as on Market Street, outside Morrison’s (Postmill Close) and Kett’s Park. This could speed up journeys between them that would otherwise be by foot, particularly if there is no bus route close by! It is also possible to unlock a bike in Wymondham, and cycle it anywhere into Norwich. This could be useful, for example, for anyone who works in Norwich and wants to cycle in without having to worry about their bike being stolen, then having the choice of cycling back or taking the bus.
Beryl’s service could be more useful if it had more stations around Wymondham. For example, there is no Beryl station at Wymondham Train Station, which is a missed opportunity for a quick and easy journey replacement from the town centre to the station, or at NR’s Health and Fitness Gym down London Road which is out of zone (meaning if you leave a bike in this area, you could be charged £10 for locking the bike up there and £80 for a collection fee!). This means there are a few blackspots where Beryl doesn’t reach yet. It could also improve by adding Beryl stations to surrounding villages, meaning people living in a village could cycle into town and vice versa, leading to less reliance on their cars and a means of transport for those that cannot drive.
On their app, Beryl offer a feature to request a bay. It is quite a simple process to follow and could be used to show demand for more bays around Wymondham. I successfully tried requesting a bay in a village, which was easy to do, but no new bays have appeared just yet. However, with ever increasing ridership and people adapting to their system, we could see more bays appear in and around Wymondham in the future.
