In A New Move That Should Be Labeled “You Couldn’t Make It Up”, TfL May Scrap Boris Bikes To Save £20m A Year.

    

‘Boris bikes’ could be scrapped as part of cuts made by Transport for London. 

TfL are considering getting rid of their cycle hire scheme as part of a proposed cut put forward by an independent review. If the cycle hire scheme is stopped the iconic red bikes could be scrapped to help TfL find £500 million. 

 Currently you can hire a Santander sponsored bike for £2. This allows you to make an unlimited number of journeys of up to 30 minutes within a 24-hour period. But the bikes, nicknamed ‘Boris Bikes’ after they were introduced by the Prime Minister when he was Mayor of London in 2010, could now be scrapped. 

 The bikes were brought in after Mr Johnson’s predecessor Ken Livingstone set up a feasibility study into a London cycle hire scheme after being inspired by one in Paris, France. An independent review set up by current Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and TfL has suggested the transport body could save £63m by removing cycle hire and river services. 

 The cuts would be part of a larger part of changes which could also see the Night Tube scrappedand a £3.50 Greater London boundary charge for vehicles. For more news and features about London directly to your inbox sign up to our newsletter here. 

 Despite reducing its deficit from £1.5bn to £127 million earlier this year, the transport body has been hit hard by the pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic stopped people travelling in London, and so cost TfL millions in lost fares - and the Government has twice had to bail it out, at a cost of £3.4 billion. 

Mr Khan said the Government had failed to “play fair” in funding TfL after it lost its £700m a year annual subsidy, forcing it to rely on fares for three-quarters of its income. 

This week TfL confirmed it had no cash to continue major projects such as Crossrail 2, the Bakerloo line extension and the DLR extension to Thamesmead, and that the rebuilding of South Kensington Tube and the Sutton tram extension were also halted. Has bike hire been popular during the pandemic? 

The latest data published by TfL shows the number of bike hires dropped to 553,341 during the height of the pandemic in March but the summer months all saw more than one million people hiring bikes in London. Over 10 million people have used the bikes each year since 2016, five times as many as when the bikes were introduced in 2010. The bikes have also been proven as an alternative form of travel during the pandemic. 

May saw the busiest week in the scheme's history, with 363,000 hires made between the 25th and 31st. Andy Byford, London's Transport Commissioner, said: “Before the coronavirus pandemic, TfL was on the path to achieving a level of financial sustainability almost unheard of among transport authorities around the world. 

 "But the pandemic has revealed that TfL’s funding model, in which we have been forced to rely disproportionately heavily on fare revenue, simply doesn't work when faced with such a devastating financial shock." Other changes which may be introduced include closing 10 tube stations at weekends and removing the 150 least popular bus routes. 

 TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : 

Back in 2018, an FOI revealed that the government funded scheme had never made a profit and in fact each bike was costing the tax payer £1,700 each, per year. Not much has changed since then and in fact, it’s probably got worse as different electric bike hire schemes have hit the street. 

 How did TfL, put together such a massive loss making scheme? 

But not only that, let in run for over 10 years???? 

 It’s scandalous how little regard TfL and the Mayor have for other people’s money, when it comes to these vanity projects. 

The projected cost to London 

Cycleway Network: total cost around £4bn. Superhighways: £10-£12m/mile Quietways: £1-£2m/mile Mini-Hollands (like Waltham Forest, using traffic calming, filtered permeability and cycle lanes): £30-£60m/borough