Evening Standard/London

In the first major extension south of the Thames, the Mayor’s scheme will gain 150 new docking stations and 2,000 bikes. The boost makes it one of the largest schemes of its kind in the world, extending its reach by 50% to 100 sqkm.

Residents of Wandsworth, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth and Kensington & Chelsea will benefit with all facilities completed by next spring.

In addition, there will be 1,000 extra docking points at high-demand areas across the capital, such as mainline railway stations.

But the expansion comes amid falling popularity of the scheme, which receives a £9.5mn annual subsidy. Critics say the novelty has worn off, reliability has been poor and the decline has been worsened by a doubling of the annual charge last year to £70. User numbers have fallen by 30% this year to 200,000 for November.

Largely as a result of the expansion, the cost of the Boris bikes over the next decade will almost double to £144mn, a significant chunk of the Mayor’s £913mn cycle fund.

Johnson has also had to start the search for a sponsor after Barclays unexpectedly pulled out this week.

Garrett Emmerson, Transport for London’s chief operating officer for streets and traffic, said: “There are a number of factors involved in the decline this year, which comes on the back of an exceptional year last year for the Olympics.

“The reduction in the numbers is in casual hires and actually member hires are still developing strongly and we are seeing 1,000 new members a month join. Londoners are making the most use of the scheme because they are using it more regularly.”

The Mayor’s cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan forecast a new lease of life for Boris bikes. He told the London Assembly this week: “The changes we are doing to the cycling programme generally — the new segregated tracks and the quietway routes in central London — should have a big impact on the use of the scheme as it’s going to be much easier to use. We are going to increase the size of the popular docking stations to improve availability and we are going to expand to private premises.”

He said that in the “medium term” there would also be integration with contactless payments, the successor to Oyster. Boris bikes were intended to be compatible with Oyster but the plan failed to materialise.

Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Lib-Dems on the Assembly, said: “The bike hire scheme needs to be made far more attractive to people who just occasionally want to hire a bike, but don’t want to commit to taking out membership.

“Transport for London needs to learn from its initial mistake of dropping plans to include Oyster as a form of payment. Making it easier for people to use the scheme by allowing contactless payment would make a big difference.”