Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/12/03/boris_bike_fail/

Brave new Boris-bikers banjaxed by broken boxes

Casual users denied chance at icy skid suicide

By John Oates

Posted in Networks, 3rd December 2010 15:39 GMT

Admittedly it is -2 degrees with flurries of snow in London today so hiring a Boris Bike is probably the farthest thing from anyone's mind, but the launch of the hire bike scheme for non-registered users today has been hit by another Serco system failure.

Teething problems at launch delayed the opening of the system to all but pre-registered users. Today marked the first chance tourists and others could simply swipe a card at the docking station to get their hands on a bike.

Except, as noted by Londonist, the system is not actually working.

A spokeswoman for Transport for London told us:

Our operator Serco has informed us that, due to a system error this morning, some Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations are not releasing cycle hire bikes to auto renew members and casual user customers, however annual members and members with a valid access period have still been able to access bikes.

We would like to apologise to any customers that have experienced problems however the majority of casual users around London should still have been able to access the scheme today and we are pressing Serco engineers to resolve this as quickly as possible. They are on the streets now fixing affected stations.

Let's hope they get the systems fixed by the time London is released from the icy grip of killer-death snow and people might actually want to hire a bike. ®