London’s popular bike hire scheme, nicknamed Boris Bikes after the service was introduced by the mayor of London Boris Johnson, is due to expand further in the East of the city over the coming months.
Transport for London have confirmed that an extra 2,300 Barclays Bikes will be available for hire in the Tower Hamlets borough with an extra 2,700 docking stations also created. The new bikes which will be available to hire will all be upgraded cycles with new saddles and also bell designs.
As well as expanding the Barclays bike rental system in the east end, additional bikes will also be introduced in other parts of the city as well including White City in the west of London, also Camden Town, Hackney and Canary Wharf with 2,100 extra docking stations also created to facilitate the additional bikes that will be available for hire.
The Tower Hamlets councillor has welcomed the news of the bike rental expansion, revealing that there is a demand and appreciation of the scheme in his borough as almost 45,000 trips using the bike rental facility either started or ended in Tower Hamlets during the month of January.
The bike hire scheme was first introduced in the capital in 2009, with Barclays putting £50 million in to fund the service. Barclays has confirmed that they will continue to officially sponsor the bike rental scheme until 2018. It’s been suggested that there are plans afoot to further develop the bicycle hire services in other parts of the city, including the west and south west next year.
