Boris Johnson's bike hire scheme gets a £25m bonus from Barclays

Brand Boris: Mr Johnson and Barclays retail chief Deanna Oppenheimer

12 April 2012

Boris Johnson today announced he had sold the naming rights to his new London cycle hire scheme for £25 million.

Barclays Bank, which already sponsors the football Premier League, has agreed to pay the sum in a five-year deal that will see its branding used on the Mayor's 12 "cycle super highways" being created across the capital.

The bike scheme, which will be known as Barclays Cycle Hire, will launch on July 30 in central London. All 6,000 bikes will carry the Barclays logo.

Mr Johnson said the scheme would use the "Rolls-Royce of bicycles" but warned Londoners to expect teething problems. "I'm so thrilled to be announcing that Barclays Bank, after years of taking extortionate charges from me, is doing an amazing and wonderful thing," he said. "I think there could not be a better sign of Barclays' commitment to this city, to the environment and to a wonderful means of transport."

The deal recoups part of Transport for London's £140 million outlay on the scheme, which will use bikes and docking stations built in Canada and is based on "Bixi", Montreal's bike rental system. Barclays wants the scheme widened from central London's Zone One to Canary Wharf, location of its world HQ, and the Olympic Park in Stratford.

Mr Johnson has worked on the deal for months. City Hall is delighted at the investment, believed to be its biggest sponsorship deal. One source said it amounted to "payback" for the Mayor's support of financial institutions in the credit crunch. He argued against the previous government's tax on bankers' bonuses, and has spoken against plans to split up banks. Barclays, which had no bail-out during the global banking crisis, has also endorsed Mr Johnson's "London wage" for low-paid workers and its president, Bob Diamond, is a trustee of the Mayor's charitable fund.

Each bike features six Barclays logos. Deanna Oppenheimer, chief executive of Barclays retail operations in the UK, said: "We are sure these schemes will become as iconic as the Tube or London buses."

Today also marked the launch of a road show explaining the scheme to Londoners. A £1 daily access fee is payable by credit card, using machines at 400 docking stations, and then charges rise if people cycle for more than 30 minutes at a time. Alternatively, users can sign up to an annual charge, at 13p a day. Not all 6,000 bikes are expected to be available for the launch date due to delays in installing the docking stations. TfL hopes to generate an extra 40,000 trips a day in central London.

The first two cycle super highways, on main radial routes from the suburbs to central London, launch on July 19. Part of the road surface will be painted blue in an attempt to share space between cyclists and drivers.