Transport for London has unveiled plans for a major upgrade of the “Boris bike” scheme as its 2,000th e-bike hits the streets.
TfL has faced increased competition from dockless privately-funded operators such as Lime and Forest in the battle for riders.
First launched in July 2010 by then mayor Boris Johnson, TfL’s scheme – now sponsored by Santander – attracts about 25,000 hires a day.
This is down on peak levels seen during the pandemic, when many Londoners preferred to cycle than take the Tube or bus.
Lime does not publish comparable ridership figures but it is thought to have about 20,000 e-bikes in London, giving it a visible market dominance. Forest has about 10,000 e-bikes.
TfL’s scheme has 12,000 bikes – 10,000 conventional pedal-powered “push bikes” and 2,000 newer e-bikes, which are more expensive to hire but are proving twice as popular as the older “classic” Boris bike.
Now The Standard can reveal TfL’s determination to fight back against its “start up” rivals.
It aims to double its fleet of e-bikes, first introduced in 2022, to 4,000, and become the first operator in London to introduce in-dock charging, which believes can be a “game changer” in ensuring the long-term viability - and popularity - of the scheme.
This will dramatically cut the cost of manually replacing bike batteries that have run out of charge, and will also highlight the TfL scheme’s “good neighbour” credentials at a time of ongoing concern about dockless bikes being abandoned on pavements and causing a hazard to pedestrians.
The Standard was invited to see behind the scenes at TfL’s bike hire depot in Penton Street, Islington, which is run by scheme contractor Serco.
David Eddington, TfL’s head of Cycle Hire, said: “I’m quite clear the Santander scheme is here to stay in its present form.
“We can’t deny that the numbers have dropped. I would be taken for a fool if I said dockless bikes had not had an impact. They have eaten into our market. But it makes us more competitive.”
He added: “What we offer is a safe, well-managed, considerate scheme – a docked scheme. People know where they have to go to get a bike, and where they have to be left.
“We provide an alternative to the more selfish customer who wants to leave their [dockless] bike anywhere and make it somebody else’s problem.”
TfL is in the process of retendering its bike hire contract. The new contract would start next year and run for five years, with the possibility of a five-year extension.
Key to the new tender is TfL’s desire to introduce “in-dock charging” – recharging e-bike batteries via the metal “triangle” that secures each bike in its docking point.
Providing recharging facilities at 40 per cent of docking stations should be sufficient – with the help of e-bikes being circulated by riders – to keep 80 per cent of the battery-powered fleet charged, thus reducing the need for manual battery replacement.
TfL also wants the next contractor to upgrade all its on-street docking stations, in particular the touch screens that are used to pay for a release code. “They’re showing their age,” Mr Eddington said of the payment “towers” that are located beside each docking station.
TfL’s Santander bike hire app will also be upgraded, ideally with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and QR quick-release codes. The app would be able to send riders alerts about frequently used stations or account updates.
“We want to make it easier for people to hire a bike,” Mr Eddington said.
To encourage use of the TfL-subsidised scheme, discounts of 25 per cent off the cost of an annual £120 membership are available to students, graduates and NHS workers.
People on low incomes can secure a £20 monthly membership for £5 via a QR code provided through food banks.
There are no plans at present to expand the scheme beyond its current footprint in central and inner London, which stretches from the Olympic park to Hammersmith and Wandsworth.
But Mr Eddington said, with an eye on boroughs currently unhappy with the dockless operators: “I think having in-dock charging opens up that possibility for expansion, if City Hall is in favour.
“This is a way of introducing more people to cycling. Everybody smiles when they get on an e-bike for the first time.”
Santander’s sponsorship ends next year but TfL will look to sign a new deal, either with Santander or another firm wanting to brand all 12,000 bikes and the associated street infrastructure.
With e-bikes bringing in more income per ride than pedal-powered bikes, the aim is for the scheme to make an operating surplus.
TfL is working with the 33 London boroughs to establish a capital-wide set of rules for dockless bikes – and e-scooters. This could require bikes to be parked in designated bays.
But there are concerns that not enough bays – either physical or virtual – will be provided, making it harder for Lime or Forest riders to find a bike nearby, or an acceptable location where then can end their journey.
But a day pass costs £3 for an unlimited number of 30-minute rides on a conventional bike. Alternatively e-bike hires using the day pass cost £1 per ride extra.
For example, four e-bike rides of under 30 minutes each, using the day pass, would cost a total of £7 (£3 plus £1 x4), which TfL believes is better value than Lime.
Other world cities have boosted their e-bike fleets. Madrid’s 6,000 hire bikes are all battery-assisted, as are all the hire bikes in central Barcelona. New York’s scheme attracts more than 100,000 rides a day.
In London, there are now 815 docking stations providing a total of 21,000 docking points.
TfL is aware that a fall in the use of the bikes can make it difficult to find a docking point in busy locations. It says the answer is for councils to approve bigger docking stations.But there are no plans to make the TfL scheme all-electric - even though a record number of 5,500 e-bike rides in a day was recorded last week.
“I think there is still a market for both pedal and e-bike,” Mr Eddington said. “London is reasonably flat. I don’t think there is as much demand to go completely e-bike. There is a price band for both.”
In London, argument has raged online about which mayor deserves credit for originating the scheme. It was launched two years into Mr Johnson’s first term.
Mr Eddington said his predecessor Ken Livingstone, who once posed on a Royal Mail delivery bike that he saw as a potential prototype, “claimed the idea”, even if he was unable to implement it before he was ousted in the 2008 mayoral election.
“The idea hadn’t really progressed that much, then Boris took it forward,” Mr Eddington, who has worked for TfL since before the scheme was launched, said.
