Barclays Cycle Hire - Outrageous Price Increase

Here is the text of an email I have received and my response......... Dear Mr Wood, Over 17 million journeys have been made using Barclays Cycle Hire since it was launched in July 2010. To make improvements to the future operation of the scheme, the access fees for Barclays Cycle Hire will increase from Wednesday 2 January 2013: 24 hour access will increase from £1 to £2 Weekly access will increase from £5 to £10 Annual membership will increase from £45 to £90 After hiring a bike, the first thirty minutes of use will still be free. All other usage charges and additional charges including late return, non return and bicycle damage will not change. If you have auto‑renew set up on your account, the new access fee will automatically be charged after 1 January 2013. Remember, if you have multiple keys on your account the same access fee will be charged for each key. To find out more about the changes and how they might affect you, please visit tfl.gov.uk/cyclehire ----------------------------------------------- Dear Mr Aldworth,   Thank you for your email. I consider your price increases absolutely incredible. A 100% increase in fees in these difficult financial times when the Mayor of London is supposed to be promoting cycling is a disgrace. You should should be ashamed of yourself   Yours sincerely

This post was edited by Titan yer Tummy at 12:45pm 30 Dec 2012.

Replies

We agree, the price increases are ludicrous when the Mayor says he's desperate to encourage people to choose bicycles over private cars or taxis.

It should be remembered that cycle journeys provide a net gain to the wealth of a city (mainly through health gains for the rider, but in other ways too), while car journeys create a net loss.

I've had the same content-free standardised reply from them to my complaint, and am trying to send a letter in the post now which I will also share with LCC.

They either have no idea what they're doing or are actively trying to kill the scheme unless they really believe that a 100% price hike will not have a negative effect on subscription numbers and users.

NB: In comparison, the Paris scheme, which has a much less prominent sponsor, can manage with a 30 EUR (ca. 25 GBP) annual subscription fee, which has not changed since it was launched in 2007!

 

 

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