Fewer journeys are being made on the city’s hire bikes since the fleet was electrified – and the price hiked.
Brighton and Hove City Council announced today that the new bike scheme, Beryl Bikes, has now passed the milestone of one million journeys, a shade under three years since it launched in 2023.
But the original non-electrified scheme took just two years and nine months to reach the same point in June 2020 – despite having fewer bikes.
Hourbike, which ran the first BTN Bikeshare scheme from September 2017, began with 450 bikes and had expanded to 570 by June 2020. When it launched, it charged 3p a minute or £72 a year.
The scheme ended early in 2022 because the communications technology it used depended on increasingly patchy 3G mobile coverage.
The contract was retendered in 2022 for between £13 and £14 million and awarded to Beryl Bikes. When they launched in March 2023, the charge to ride an electric bike was 15p a minute plus a £1 unlocked fee.
It initially launched with 75 e-bikes, but was set to increase this in phases to 468 e-bikes and 312 push bikes, a total of 780.
Today, it has a total of 750 bikes to hire from more than 100 hubs. Push bikes cost 14p per minute on weekdays and 18p per minute on weekends, and push bikes cost 6p per minute on weekdays and 8p on weekends, all with a £1 unlock fee.
When Beryl reached the million journey milestone, 129,000 people had cycled 2,800,000 km. When Hourbike reached the same point, 120,000 people had cycled 2 million miles – or 3,210,000 km.
This suggests more people are using the electric bikes, but less frequently and/or for shorter journeys.
Most Beryl Bikes are hired along the seafront, with the Palace Pier, Brighton Marina and Madeira Drive hubs the most popular.
Cabinet member for transport Trevor Muten said: “This is an amazing milestone for our Beryl Bikes.
“We’ve seen the popularity of the city’s bike hire scheme grow and grow since we introduced electric bikes three years ago and expanded the scheme across the city
“Beryl Bikes are a great way to travel all year round and have replaced thousands of journeys that would otherwise have been made by car.
“They’ve helped reduce congestion, improve air quality and we know cycling has huge mental and physical health benefits.
“I look forward to seeing millions more journeys across Brighton and Hove.”
Philip Ellis, CEO and co founder of Beryl said: “Hitting the one-millionth ride in Brighton and Hove is a clear indicator of the shifting tides in urban transport.
“This milestone proves that when you provide a reliable, green alternative to the car, people will embrace it wholeheartedly.
“We are incredibly proud to play a role in making Brighton & Hove a cleaner, more connected city, and we look forward to the next million.”
Bhcc, or rather the local taxpayer, subsidising the financially troubled Beryl Bikes.Just signed up for the scooters too! Meanwhile Muten commits to spending £2m on more unwanted cycle lanes
Presumably you’d also like all refuse collections to stop immediately too, since they make a massive loss for the council? Of course not, because some services enhance life in the city, even if they come at a cost.
Isn’t trying to reduce congestion and improve people’s health a good enough reason for a service like this? God knows we need something to encourage people out of their cars. Or must everything you don’t want be subject to a financial test you woukdn’t dream of applying to other council services that you choose to benefit from?
If you really wanted to reduce congestion, pollution, then scrapping Mutten and the bloated Brighton transport department, and reversing 98 % of the congestion creating decisions they, and their predecessors, have made.
“Beryl Bikes are a great way to travel all year round and have replaced thousands of journeys that would otherwise have been made by car.
I wonder which study he got that info from?
The article states, they are being used for short journey’s, pier, marina etc so more likely would’ve been walked or jumped on the bus than in a car
I use the bikes to go from Hanover to Saltdean regularly, which I would do by car usually. The only problem is it costs £15-20 depending on where it’s parked, if I have bought a time plan etc. The car would cost less than pound. The bikes are just not affordable for many people.
And then if you’re using it regularly, what’s preventing you from just getting your own bike? For me, it’s a lack of secure storage.
JW hates money lol
I live in a small terraced house and the local bike sheds are all full. I prefer to store a bike for my daughter.
That’s fair. I hear storage being a major barrier for a lot of people. Second to maybe living up some of those steep hills!
How much have BTN/Beryl bikes cost the city so far and how much have they lost? Almost every city which has brought public bicycle and scooter hire schemes in has suffered catasphropic financial loss. Beryl bikes are a luxury this city cannot afford over community centres for the disabled and libraries.
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/boris-bikes-cost-the-taxpayer-pound11m-a-year-to-keep-on-road-r566v9fw2pg
BHCC refused to release the profit and loss account figures for Beryl Bikes .
That says it all .
How can the Council refuse. Are they allow d to refuse? Shows they’ve got something to hide. How much was lost on the original bikes which were then just scrapped?
The headline says it all, and as predicted at it’s launch.
Fewer journeys are being made on the city’s hire bikes since the fleet was electrified – and the price hiked.
Trevor Muten is mis-quoted, what he actually said is, “We’ve seen the popularity of the city’s bike hire scheme dwindle since we introduced electric bikes three years ago and expanded the scheme across the city.”
“Beryl Bikes is a vanity project and that has never reached the peak and has reduced in use.
“Less use has increased congestion, made air quality worse and we know some cycling users have huge mental health problems”.
“This scheme proves that when you provide an expensive vanity project that the majority didn’t want people will not use it as predicted.
Muten, like many sitting Brighton councillors, comes from the school of disingenuous political spin. So much so that he actually believes his own dishonest rhetoric. I think your version is likely to be far nearer to being truthful than his ‘alternative facts’. It seems odd that socialists would be so keen to emulate Donald Trump.
Cardiff had to scrap its bike hire scheme owing to thefts and vandalism. However Cardiff is also not known for good weather.
Here in Brighton and Hove we had around three months of relentless bad weather over Christmas and beyond.
If they can’t make bike hire schemes financially work on the Continent, what chance do we have with unpredictable weather for large swathes of the year? I have also see a fair number of abandoned and broken Beryl bikes left around.
It’s cheaper to get a taxi than use a Beryl Bike. Maybe that’s why they aren’t more popular. And walking is still free!
Depends on the length of the journey I guess, but from where I live to the station a taxi is £7, and an e-bike takes 7 minutes, so £1.05.
The minutes bundle (currently £15 for 100 mins or half price if you use muscle power) avoids the unlock fee.
The slowdown in use from the previous scheme looks pretty marginal to me, and to hang a story on that is really very Daily Mail.
I guess many of the people complaining about the cost of the bikes would also be whingeing about taxpayer subsidy if they were cheaper.