TfL and Santander celebrate ten years of cycle hire scheme

TfL and Santander will this year celebrate the tenth anniversary of cycle hire in the capital, with a series of events, competitions and offers throughout 2020.

London’s flagship cycle hire scheme launched on 30th July 2010 across eight London boroughs with 315 docking stations. Now there are more than 12,000 bikes available from 781 docking stations.

In the past decade, users have made more than 87 million hires, with over ten million hires in 2019 for the fourth year in a row and 34,500 hires on Christmas Day. New docking stations around parks and extra capacity at busy rail stations has helped ensure another strong year of hires.

This spring, five new docking stations will open along Cycleway 4 in Southwark and there are plans to expand docking stations along Cycleways going forward. New docking stations are already in place at Blackfriars, Victoria, Queensway and Paddington railway stations and extra capacity has been added recently around London Bridge station.

Celebrations to mark ten years of cycle hire in London will begin with a search to find the scheme’s most dedicated users and, to say thank you, TfL and Santander want to reward users with unique prizes that “money can’t buy”. TfL and Santander are searching for people who hired the cycles within the first year of the scheme, people who have completed the most journeys or people who have a unique story to share about the cycles.

Each month a winner will be selected, and these 12 winners will be rewarded with a Santander Cycles named after them, free annual membership and other prizes. People can share their experiences of the cycle hire scheme by emailing cyclehire10@tfl.gov.uk for a chance to win.

Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, said: “The London cycle hire scheme has gone from strength to strength over the past decade, and like many, I now couldn’t imagine our city without it.

“I’m delighted that the scheme is set to expand even further in 2020 to enable more Londoners to take to two wheels – helping improve our health and tackle congestion and air pollution at the same time.”

Helen Sharp, head of business development for Cycle Hire at TfL, said: “Over the last ten years our cycle hire scheme has become part of the fabric of London life.

“The cycles have helped millions of people discover the joy of cycling and we want to thank everyone who has shared this incredible journey with us through a series of events, competitions and offers this year. We hope these celebrations will help inspire even more people to take to two wheels.”