The first Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations have now been installed in Hammersmith & Fulham as the launch of the south west extension draws closer.

Around 14 docking stations are now in place but are not yet ready to use. Most of the new docks will 'go live' in December when local people will be able to start using the popular blue bikes across the borough. It is expected that all docking stations will be up and running by spring next year (2014).

There will be around 70 stations across the borough, in the town centres of Fulham, Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush and also across to West Kensington and Olympia. The furthest west docking station will be in Ravenscourt Road in Hammersmith.

Over 200 people contacted Hammersmith & Fulham Council in 2011 as part of its ‘Get H&F Moving’ transport campaign to offer their views on where the docking stations could be put. Additional suggestions came from council officers and Transport for London, which owns the scheme. Each of the places has had to be reviewed against a set of strict criteria to see if the site is suitable.

The council contributed £2m toward the scheme, using ‘Section 106’ funding from developers – money that developers pay to the council to reduce October 25, 2013nts, as part of their planning permission.

Phase 3 of the scheme sees the hire bike scheme expand westwards to parts of H&F, Wandsworth, Lambeth and Kensington & Chelsea bringing more than 2,000 new bicycles and around 5,000 additional docking points to these boroughs.

Leader of H&F Council Cllr Nicholas Botterill, and cabinet member for transport and technical services Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, have visited some of the sites, including the one in Fulham Road in Parsons Green, for a sneak peek at the stations. 

Cllr Botterill said: "Seeing the docking stations finally in place is great, especially as we’ve been so looking forward to them arriving for the past years. We are proud that we have worked hard to make this happen for our residents, in conjunction with the Mayor of London and Transport for London. This is an excellent scheme that will encourage more people to get on their bikes and hopefully help cut congestion on our roads, which has been central to our Get H&F Moving campaign.”

Cllr Brocklebank-Fowler said: “H&F is already well-connected through its fantastic transport links, but this is another feather in the borough’s cap – especially as it is not costing our residents a penny, as our contribution has been paid through money from developers’ that is set aside for community improvements.”

“We’re looking forward to the seeing the first wave of people using these cycles, travelling through the borough – whether that’s for leisure, tourism, work, or residents just popping to the local shops.”

Each station has a touch screen terminal where you can enter your card details, before getting a ‘release code’ to type into the bike stand and release the bike. When the bike is returned, it just has to be pushed firmly into an empty docking point and it automatically recognises the bike, via its code, and locks it back in. There is also an option to become a registered member and get a cycle hire key, which allows you to access the bikes all year for £90 – that is 25p per day.

The Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has around 160,000 registered users - 3,900 of whom are H&F residents - with more than 8,000 bicycles at around 570 docking stations across London. There is already one at Olympia train station, on the Kensington and Chelsea side of the border, and in spring last year four stations were installed at Westfield shopping mall in Shepherds Bush as part of Phase 2 of the scheme.

For more information on cycling in H&F and to see a list of docking station sites that have been approved visit www.lbhf.gov.uk/cycling, and for more information on the council's transport campaign, Get H&F Moving, visitwww.lbhf.gov.uk/getmoving.

October 25, 2013