Milton Keynes residents are set to benefit from more than 40,000* hours of free cycling to celebrate the relaunch of the town’s popular Santander Cycles MK scheme by leading bike share provider nextbike.
A fleet of 500 new bikes will be launched across Milton Keynes as part of a revamp of the scheme. Approximately 300 bikes will be available by the end of November, with the remaining 200 bikes expected to be in place by early next year. In addition, a further six new docking stations will be added to the 44 docking stations already in place across the town.
The new bikes are upgraded with advanced technology and enhanced features to improve the experience for users. These include: QR codes to make renting the Santander Cycles quick and easy; additional bike gears and; a new rear bike locking system.
To celebrate the relaunch and enable everyone to try out the new bikes, scheme operator nextbike is offering all registered users a 1.5 hour free ride voucher to use between now and December 31, 2019. Users just need to enter the voucher code when they log onto the app and they can ride straight away.
It’s hoped that the new Santander Cycles MK bikes will encourage more people to swap four wheels for two in a bid to reduce congestion and CO2 emissions. This is particularly important given that earlier this year Milton Keynes Council declared a climate emergency and has since been trying to reduce the town’s environmental impact.
The bikes will also be one of the cheapest ways to get around Milton Keynes, with the first 30 minutes free for monthly or annual subscribers, and just £1 for 30 minutes for pay as you go users.
Krysia Solheim, nextbike UK MD, said she was delighted to be bringing the new bikes to Milton Keynes.
“The Milton Keynes Santander Cycles scheme has clocked up almost 130,000 rides and an incredible 206,500 kilometres since it launched just over three years ago.
“We can’t wait to bring the scheme back up to full strength over the next few months. The benefits of cycling are huge, from helping to reduce congestion and CO2, to improving health and mobility. We hope customers will notice a huge difference when they start using the new bikes.”
Dan Sherwood, Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Santander UK, said: “As a major local employer, we were really proud to bring the first cycle hire scheme to Milton Keynes in 2016, and it’s been great to see Santander Cycles MK become part of the local community. Being able to continue that support with a brand new bike fleet and infrastructure is fantastic, especially as we have used a lot of what we have learnt in Milton Keynes to help design the new bikes. Milton Keynes is a great city for cycling and we want the cycle scheme to be used by as many people in the community as possible, so we’re delighted to relaunch the scheme.”
The Santander Cycles MK scheme, which is provided by operator nextbike, was launched in June 2016 and currently has close to 27,000 customers.
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Notes to Editors
*40,000 hours of free cycling calculated as below:
Existing customers (26,849) x 1.5hr voucher = 40,273.50 hrs of free cycling available
The existing Santander Cycles app has also been replaced by the nextbike app to make things more convenient. For example, users can now rent by simply scanning the bike code on your phone. Login details will stay the same, but users will need to download the nextbike app to continue using the scheme (iOS users click here; Android users click here).
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 30 June 2019, the bank had around 24,000 employees. It serves around 15 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking; and 62 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers’ eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful presence in 10 core markets in Europe and the Americas, and is the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization. At the end of June 2019, Banco Santander had EUR 1.03 trillion in customer funds (deposits and mutual funds), 142 million customers, 13,000 branches and 200,000 employees. Banco Santander made underlying profit of EUR 4,045 million in the first half of 2019, an increase of 2% in constant euros compared to the same period last year.
Media Contact Santander:
Leonora Burtenshaw E: leonora.burtenshaw@santander.co.uk T: 0207 756 4543
Media Contact nextbike:
Sarah Hughes, Nathan Rous PR, sarah@nathanrous.com T: 03300 552623 / 07483 160222