9,000 sign up for London Cycle Hire

Transport for London is urging Barclays Cycle Hire members to activate their keys before the scheme goes live tomorrow.

Over 9,000 people have signed up since applications opened on Friday July 23rd and have had their membership keys sent to them. 2,000 keys have been activated so far.

Keys not yet activated will fail to work in the hire docking stations.

"The excitement and enthusiasm for my flagship Barclays Cycle Hire scheme is proving infectious and already almost 9,000 pioneers have caught the bug," said Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

"I don’t want those who have led the charge for London’s newest public transport system to be unable to get on to these two wheel icons – so I urge people to activate their keys before the scheme opens for business on 30 July.”

David Brown, MD Surface Transport for TfL, added: "Barclays Cycle Hire will revolutionise how we get around central London. Building on the experience of other cities who have launched similar schemes, we and Serco will use the first month of operation to learn more about how Londoners engage with the scheme, including patterns of use, how we can best support customers and to enable the scheme to bed down.

"We’re delighted that so many people have already signed up for membership and we are now urging them to activate their keys before Friday.”