Serco Secures Two-Year Contract Extension To Run London’s Iconic Cycle Hire Scheme

Serco Secures Two-Year Contract Extension To Run London’s Iconic Cycle Hire Scheme

Serco, one of the leading transport operators in the UK has secured a two-year extension to its contract to manage and operate the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme. The contract extension is valued at £38m and will see Serco continue to run the service until July 2017.

As part of the contract and together with TfL, Serco has successfully implemented two expansions of the scheme.  The first was into east London in April 2012 and the second more recent expansion into west London which includes the installation of over 150 new docking stations and the addition of over 2,000 new bikes, together with 1,179 new docking points added to existing stations to serve the increased demand for the scheme.  The scheme now covers 100km² with a total of 11,000 bikes and 756 docking stations.

In conjunction with TfL Serco continues to deliver further improvements to the redistribution of bikes around London. A newly opened depot in south London allows quicker redistribution and maintenance of bikes and, a new redistribution system which uses previous usage patterns to improve the movement of bikes around the scheme is currently being trialled.

David Stretch, Managing Director, Transport said: “This contract extension demonstrates the trust and confidence Transport for London has in Serco’s ability to support the future of the iconic Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme.  We are committed to providing the best service to users and continually improving overall performance.  Serco has a huge amount of experience delivering high quality transport services across the world which we draw upon to ensure our customers get the best possible service.”

TfL’s Managing Director of Surface Transport, Leon Daniels, added: “TfL continues to work with Serco to deliver improvements to the redistribution of bikes around London.  A number of improvements made last year to the operation of Barclays Cycle Hire mean the scheme is now even easier to use, and recent survey results show that overall satisfaction of members has reached the highest score since launch.  There have been a total of over 26 million hires since the scheme began in July 2010.”