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New fears about the cost of Boris Johnson's bike-hire plan emerged today after Paris was forced to bail out its scheme.
The French capital introduced Vélib in July 2007, which inspired London to attempt to copy the idea of making bikes easily available for short journeys around the city centre.
Now it has emerged that the Paris taxpayer is being forced to underwrite the cost of running the scheme after 8,000 of the sturdy, grey bicycles - each costing £550 - were stolen and 18,000 damaged beyond repair. Some stolen bikes have been spotted in eastern Europe, Africa and Australia.
Initially, Paris's Left-wing mayor Bertrand Delanoe believed he had struck the perfect deal by getting advertising firm JCDecaux to run it free of charge in return for extra advertising spaces across the city. But as costs soared, the city government agreed to pay a proportion of the cost of replacing damaged and stolen bikes - and allow JCDecaux to share in the scheme's profits.
Transport for London signed a £140million, six-year deal in August with Serco, the firm that runs the Docklands Light Railway, to introduce a London scheme from next May.
The TfL board will set the charges for hiring the bikes at a meeting next month, with these likely to follow the Paris system of being free or cheap for short journeys but prohibitively expensive for longer periods to keep the 6,000 bikes in circulation.
Cyclists will use a new smart-card - not their Oyster card - to unlock the bikes from 431 docking stations being installed across nine central London boroughs and the Royal Parks. At least 320 of these stations, which will hold 15 to 30 bikes, have planning permission.
TfL will keep any revenue but start-up costs for the scheme are understood to have increased from £52million to £71million. Cyclists will pay a weekly, monthly or annual subscription and use a credit card to place a deposit.
Mr Johnson hopes the scheme will generate about 40,000 extra bike journeys a day in London.
In Paris, where the scheme has grown to 21,500 bikes and 1,450 racks, Vélib has seen more than 61 million journeys. Ken Livingstone first thought of copying the idea for London. His plan was taken up by Mr Johnson last year.
Reader views (15)
The "Bicing" bike hire system in Barcelona is very popular, and successful financially I believe; perhaps London should mimic Barcelona and not Paris. It's no surprise that a system using bikes that cost £550 each is losing money.
- Shaun Blake, Barcelona, Spain, 25/11/2009 03:09
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"Boris was simply forced by TfL to continue it against his real wishes."
Boris is Chairman of TfL with his own picked man Daniel Moylan (who's nobody's fool, even if he has odd and silly ideas about road network design) as the enforcer. Are you seriously saying that a £50m+ project (which by TfL's rules means it has to have approval from the top) could somehow swan about unnoticed by the men at the top? If you have proof of this, produce it, as it is scandalous.
Alternatively pull of the blindfold and accept that this is a scheme from Boris's manifesto that London voted for, just as much as the bendy replacement idiocy or the new Routemaster vanity project, and leave it there. I do hope it works, but I'm having strong reservations about the cost and the fact that as set up currently it's going to reduce fare income on buses and tubes rather than getting people out of cars.
- Tom, London, UK, 24/11/2009 20:13
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@Anonymous
Try having a walk around Elephant and Castle, Walworth Road, North Lambeth, Old Kent Road, Wapping, Mile End, Kentish Town, Camden, Labroke Grove to name but a few. Not everyone living in Z1 and Z2 is on a high income, and properties are available in these areas that fall into the affordable bracket, which anyone on a modest salary could afford. You and you alone have made a decision that you would prefer to live in the suburbs (with the costs and benefits that this entails) versus living in Z1 / 2.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 24/11/2009 18:00
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Frank
I think you would save yourself trying to explain your blind prejudice by simply sending a regular comment saying, Boris Good, Ken Bad.
- James Hennessy, Manchester England, 24/11/2009 17:11
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The Cycle lobby will make them compulsory and ban walking.
- Dave B, Beckenham, 24/11/2009 17:04
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And expect the same to happen here. Riding around on one of these ripped-off free bikes will be seen as the epitome of cool in the capital's council estates.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 24/11/2009 15:33
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Cambridge tried to introduce a scheme a few years ago although there was no charge to use bikes. The object was to have points around the city where they could be picked up and left at another point close to your destination.
I think the scheme was abandoned within a fortnight and the white painted bikes were never seen again.
- George, Cambridge UK, 24/11/2009 14:53
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There are 32 Boroughs in London, so why only 9 Borough to get Cycle Hire?.
Clearly this is a case of those who are rich and can afford to live in Zone 1 or 2, to benefit from better transport whilst those in Outer London have to pay through the nose to get into Central London. Most people in Outer London would buy a travelcard to get into town, so why would those people pay extra to rent a bike?. This scheme will only help those that are better off who live in Zone 1-2.
In my view there is economic injustice and the London Underground zone map should be abolished. It is not fair that those on modest incomes should pay the most to get into town from outer London, whilst those who are well off and live in W1 post costs pay the least. Ironically, most of the train depots are located in outer london. Our transport costs is the highest in the world.
- Anonymous, London, 24/11/2009 14:35
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Frank, considering that Boris spent a good part of his first year cancelling or undoing Ken's work, I cannot see how he was forced to do this. In fact, seeing as it looks ill-thought through, and not joined up (why can't people use Oyster for bike hire), I think it has Boris's fingerprints all over it.
I guess though he could always hike up Tube and Bus fairs to pay for any revenue shortfall. Oh no, he has done that already to pay for scrapping the Western Congestion Charge zone, bendy buses and part of the Low Emission Zone.
- Darren, London, 24/11/2009 14:29
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Frank, London
"Nobody wants to be seen dead on one of those clunky bikes anyway."
Well if Frank says it then it must be true, lets scrap this scheme forthwith, Frank has spoken.
- Dc, London, 24/11/2009 14:22
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Perhaps the Parisien model is not the one to follow. The Velo'v scheme in Lyon is a fantastic success.
- Austen, London, 24/11/2009 13:58
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All bikes should be tapped with RFID Chips, then if stolen would have to be dismantled to remove ID Markers.
- Bill, Hay~Heath UK, 24/11/2009 12:26
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This cycle scheme was dreamt up by, surprise surprise, Mr Ken Livingstone. Boris was simply forced by TfL to continue it against his real wishes. If it is to become too expensive scrap it. Nobody wants to be seen dead on one of those clunky bikes anyway.
- Frank, London, 24/11/2009 12:03
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Why should public transport users pay higher fares to subsidize this scheme. It should be funded by the Mayoral precept until it proves itself!!!
Looks like another fine mess Boris is getting London into all in the name of vanity!!!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 24/11/2009 11:36
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Look, I know it's hard for people in Europe to appreciate, but most of Africa - which is only a short hop over some water - gets from A to B on foot. There's a big untapped market for cheap bicycles . . .
- Roz, France, 24/11/2009 11:02
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