Transport for London (TfL) has introduced that each one non-folding e-bikes might be banned from nearly all of London’s public transport community. The ban has been pushed by the hearth threat from common bikes converted into e-bikes using DIY kits, however extends to purpose-built e-bikes too within the title of simpler enforcement.
The brand new ban comes into impact on March thirty first, and applies to the London Underground, Overground, Elizabeth Line, and DLR. The one e-bikes that might be permitted on these companies are folding e-bikes, which TfL says are much less prone to have been transformed into e-bikes utilizing mod kits. That exemption might be a boon for Brompton and Gocycle, two London-based firms that target foldable fashions.
TfL says that “cycles which were tailored utilizing digital conversion kits pose a higher hearth threat than purpose-built e-bikes,” however that “it may be arduous to distinguish” modified bikes from different fashions. The group provides that the ban is important “till improved product security measures are in place” for conversion kits, batteries, and chargers.
The ban follows a number of fires on public transport linked to e-bikes, together with one which burst into flames on the platform at west London’s Rayners Lane station. Following that incident, the prepare drivers’ union ASLEF threatened a strike if security measures weren’t carried out, which was backed by the separate RMT and TSSA transport unions. E-scooters have been banned across the network since 2021.
“Whereas we recognise the sustainable advantages e-bikes, and micromobility usually, carry to our metropolis, the fact is that throughout London we have been seeing an e-bike or e-scooter hearth each different day, on common, and we’ve got explicit concern in regards to the threat posed by conversion kits or modified e-bikes,” London Fireplace Brigade deputy commissioner Charlie Pugsley says. “When these fires happen, they are often sudden, extremely ferocious and produce smoke that’s extraordinarily poisonous.”
Full-size bikes — digital or in any other case — are already not permitted on London’s bus and tram companies, and are solely allowed on certain parts of the Underground network at certain times, with a blanket ban throughout rush hour. As soon as the electrical bike ban comes into impact, non-folding e-bikes will solely be permitted on the Woolwich Ferry, sure river and coach companies, and the devoted Silvertown Tunnel Cycle Shuttle, which opens on April seventh.