Hundreds of bikes in West Midlands cycle-hire scheme went missing

Three hundred bikes from a cycle hire scheme have gone missing and another 280 need repairs, it has been revealed.

The West Midlands Cycle Hire project, operated for the region’s combined authority by contractor Serco, was launched in 2021.

The authority said that since April last year, the cost of vandalism and repairs was £316,000.

The sums were eight times in the three months until June 2023 compared to the same period a year earlier, a report said.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) document said around 780 bikes were available at the scheme in October last year, “well below the required targets” and this was a direct result of bikes being vandalised. and missing.

As of January 30, the figure had recovered to more than 1,000, and was expected to return to more than 1,100 by the end of March.

It will take about four months to complete the work to put the 281 bikes awaiting repair back into service, the authority said.

In a statement to the BBC, the authority’s Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) said a “comprehensive mitigation and recovery plan” was in place and had been “very successful” in recovering many of the bikes that they missed

TfWM added that it and Serco were also working closely with the police to tackle the issues, with the operator committing additional resources to help with recovery.

Such problems had been “a challenge for cycle rental schemes at national and international level”, he said.

A spokesman said: “Since the launch of the rental scheme in 2021, supported by government funding, the level of use in Birmingham and Coventry in particular has exceeded original expectations.”