End of the road for Just Eat Cycles

An announcement from Just Eat Cycles:

It is with great sadness that we announce today that Edinburgh Cycle Hire will close on 17 September 2021. We know how disappointing this announcement is for our many regular users.

Unfortunately, the contract to provide a cycle hire service to the City has come to an end, so we are unable to continue. The scheme will continue to operate until midnight on 17 September 2021, at which point the service will stop.

All annual and extended period passes which have been purchased and have a remainder of time left on them will be refunded automatically with any balance after 17 September 2021.

Over the coming days we will share more information about the closure, including when certain stations will close.

The scheme has run under a three-year agreement between Serco and Transport for Edinburgh, and in that time has made a great impact on Edinburgh’s sustainable transport network, with hundreds of thousands of trips made on our bikes since 2018.

Since then 70,000 unique users have cycled over 450,000 trips, replacing millions of miles of combustion engine transport with a green travel alternative.

Council Leaders have expressed disappointment at the end of the contract between Transport for Edinburgh and Serco to run the city’s cycle hire scheme.

The Council is investigating alternative options to replace the popular scheme.

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “We are very disappointed that Serco have opted to walk away from the popular shared bike hire scheme in Edinburgh. When the bike hire scheme was first introduced the commitment was to operate it with no public funding and it is highly regrettable that Serco will not continue the scheme on that basis. 

“We recognise that the bike hire scheme has helped more people get access to bikes, enjoying the benefits of fast, reliable, healthier journeys around town. The withdrawal of Serco will come as a frustrating shock to many regular users of the bike hire scheme.

“It sends absolutely the wrong message at a time when so many of us are deeply concerned about the climate emergency and what we can each do to combat the effects of human activity. Choosing to travel by bike is one of the easiest changes many of us can make.

“We’re now working on a replacement bike hire scheme for the Capital. We are actively pursuing options to ensure that a replacement scheme is in place as quickly as possible.”

Depute Council Leader Cammy Day said: “Over the past few years it’s been a welcome sight to see residents, students and visitors making journeys from A to B across Edinburgh by hire bike and they’ve become a key part of our sustainable transport infrastructure in the city. It’s a huge disappointment the scheme’s coming to an end.

“The city will share our huge disappointment that the scheme is  coming to an end and that Serco have walked away form a key part of the city’s active travel plans. We will now engage with the cycling community to look at alternative innovative scheme to get people back on the bikes.”

‘Walked away’? Not at all, say Serco. The Serco absolutely refute the council leaders’ claims, and maintain it is the COUNCIL ITSELF that is to blame for the ditching of the scheme.

Serco’s micromobility director Sam Jones, said: “We’re disappointed that we have been unable to find a way to continue the Edinburgh bike scheme.

“We have explored every route possible to find extension options beyond our original three-year contract which expires on 17 September 2021. Those efforts continued through to last week when the council advised us that they were not able to extend the current contract.

“Serco has been running the scheme since September 2018 under a three-year concession. Despite the scheme making a loss over that time we have not walked away and we have stood by our commitments and continued to make a success of the scheme for the city’s people and visitors.

“As was reported in May 2021, funding options were being explored which would have enabled the scheme to carry on – however we were informed two weeks ago that City of Edinburgh Council has been unable to confirm those plans.”

More than half a million journeys were made by over 70,000 users during the life of the bike hire project. During 2020, when the Edinburgh Cycle Hire Scheme was the fastest growing scheme in Britain, there were with 234,500 trips made. 

In 2020 the scheme also won the award for Cycling, Walking and Public Realm at the Scottish Transport Awards.