London Evening Standard
London
The mayor yesterday unveiled a £51mn sponsorship deal with Santander for the Boris bike scheme - with “cash back” for cyclists.
City Hall said it was the most lucrative public sector sponsorship in the world. It will mean more cycles and docking stations and discounts for the bank’s customers.
A smartphone app will make it easier to find a bike and pay the £2-a-day or £90-a-year hire charge.
The seven-year deal, which saw Santander outbid Coca-Cola to replace Barclays, will see the scheme renamed Santander Cycles and the 11,500 bikes and 748 docking stations carrying the bank’s red logo from April.
Santander will extend its “cash back” credit card, which refunds 3% of the cost of train and Tube travel, to include annual fees and hire charges for using the bikes.
Johnson said: “In Santander Cycles, we have a new red icon symbolising the capital to Londoners and the world. Santander’s marketing expertise will help us take the cycle hire scheme to a new level.” The deal consists of a £6.25mn annual fee and a £1mn a year “activation fund” to attract more members and encourage greater use of the bikes, particularly among families.
The deal is a 25% real-terms increase on the £25mn Barclays deal that began in 2010, and fulfils Transport for London’s wish to secure a minimum of £5.5mn a year. However, the scheme — the second biggest in the world, with 163,205 members and more than 10mn journeys a year — is still some way short of fulfilling the mayor’s original pledge of it being able to operate without public subsidy.
According to the most recent figures, it cost TfL (Transport for London) a net £10.8mn to operate in 2013-14, when hire fees of £8.8mn and sponsorship and other income of £4.7mn failed to cover the total operating cost of £24.3mn.
London mayor Boris Johnson poses with a bicycle after announcing Santander as the new sponsor for the London Cycle Hire in London yesterday.
