London's railway stations are to get new bicycle shelters, to get commuters out of their cars and on their bikes.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis warned the city's existing cycle parking facilities were "very limited, unsupervised, badly signed and difficult to access".

The capital will receive a share of £5 million, to help mainline stations create new storage points where commuters can leave their bikes in safety.

Lord Adonis said he had toured London's stations - by bicycle - over the weekend, and saw for himself how poor the facilities were.

In Holland, one station alone had supervised parking for 4,500 bikes; by contrast all of London's rail terminals put together only have storage facilities for 1,200 bikes, he said.

He added: "Only at London Bridge, thanks to a new initiative by the Mayor, is there proper supervised storage - but that, again, is badly signed, not open in the late evenings and the cycle store is a five minute walk from the station."

In a key-note speech to a London conference, he said: "To help tackle this problem I am announcing plans to radically improve station cycle storage.

" I will make available £5 million over two years for transformation projects to improve cycling storage facilities at up to ten major railway stations nationwide, including in London.

"This will be on top of existing improvement plans - for example our new south-central franchise, which is providing 1,500 extra cycle parking spaces - as well as 1,000 extra car parking spaces - at stations across south London, Sussex and Surrey.

"I see this as a model for future rail franchises nationwide."

Lord Adonis confirmed that the Government remained committed in principle to building a third runway at Heathrow, but insisted the expansion would only go ahead if damage to the environment was limited.

He said: "On 15 January we also set a strategic framework for the future of Heathrow, recognising that extra airport capacity is crucial to Britain's prosperity and economic competitiveness over the next 20 years.

"But also that expansion can only happen in the context of guaranteed limits on its local environmental impact, taking effective action to tackle the climate change impacts of aviation and encouraging better public transport access."

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