Morning:
19°c
The Mayor has delayed expansion of his bike hire scheme until a host of teething troubles have been solved.
Transport for London was due to decide later this month whether to spend £81 million on the second tranche of “Boris bikes”. But Mr Johnson says he was now planning to wait at least “a solid month”, if not longer, to allow time for an analysis of the first phase.
TfL and contractor Serco have struggled to cope with demand, with more than 70,000 subscribers and up to 20,000 trips a day. Only about 5,000 of 6,000 bikes have been put on the streets because of a lack of docking stations — there are now 337 of the promised 400. There have been software glitches, and problems maintaining an even spread of bikes across Zone 1.
The second phase would have seen the scheme extended east, and bike docks installed at mainline train stations. A roll-out to unregistered users and tourists has already been delayed until the end of the year.
Mr Johnson, speaking at yesterday's Sky Ride cycling festival, said he had been “overwhelmed” by take-up of the scheme, adding: “We are going to be reviewing it... but we need another solid month to let it bed down.”
Two Boris bikes were stolen from Waterloo when contractors left them unguarded. It means five bikes, each worth about £350, have been taken
in the first month. Only one has been recovered.
Reader views (3)
As a daily user I have suffered from one of the following every single day - empty docking stations or stations that won't release when I try to pick up a bike, and full docking stations when I try to drop off a bike.
10 out of 10 for the idea. 2 out of 10 for the implementation.
Who had the idea? It emerged under Ken's regime.
Who did the implementation? Enough said.
Compare and contrast with the introduction of the congestion charge.
- diego forlan's left foot, London, 07/09/2010 18:49
Report abuse
The cycle hire scheme is a good idea in theory but its delivery has been utterly incompetent. No limit was placed on the number of people allowed to sign up for the scheme (just so Boris could trumpet how fabulously successful it by quoting the figures), the feasibility study recommended that the scheme should not cater for after-rail commuters initially as it wouldn't be able to cope - guess who the heaviest users are? As for Serco suddenly discovering that they have problems with accepting credit cards at the hire stations, four months after the scheme was meant to go live, this whole system(from the bikes to the docks to the software) was purchased wholesale from BIXI in Montreal. Well done for wasting £140m, Boris.
- Helen, West London, 07/09/2010 11:12
Report abuse
A great scheme, blighted by Serco. I was one of the many wrongly charged £100 for a phantom journey. Despite acknowledgement of their error and statements to the press saying everyone had been refunded, I am still waiting for a refund 4 weeks later. Repeated calls to the call centre assure me it's in the queue, but I'm beginning to doubt they even have the capability to make refunds.
There's no way this system can be rolled out to a wider public yet.
- Rich, London, 06/09/2010 15:28
Report abuse
