London cycling scheme opens for business

Barclays Cycle Hire - London’s newest public transport system has gone live.

The creation of an easy to use cycle hire system was a key pledge of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s manifesto.

Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week the scheme stretches from Notting Hill Gate to Wapping, and from Regents Park to Borough Market. Londoners using the scheme can take a cycle from one of 315 docking stations based every 300m or so throughout the centre of the Capital, with a total of 5000 bikes available.

Barclays Cycle Hire went live at 6am on 30 July and access is initially available to members, with casual users expected to be able to pick up bikes in around four weeks time. When complete the scheme will see 6,000 cycles and 400 docking points located across central London.

Londoners or visitors to the Capital who want to use central London’s brand new transport system during its first month of operation need to be members of the cycle hire scheme.

A membership key costs £3 with membership costs at £1 for a 24 hour membership, £5 for seven days and £45 for an annual membership. The first 30 minutes of any journey will be free.

To use the scheme, members will need to have received and activated their membership key, so people are urged to sign up for daily, weekly or annual memberships at www.tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire as soon as possible.