Coca Cola Zero Bikes Cork - A Chance for Expansion at last?

Looks like bikes are becoming a regular topic on this blog. Following the whole Twitter debacle, which was thankfully resolved quickly and fully, I’m back with another post on that topic. This time, it’s about an old favourite of mine: Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork. I’ve written a lot about it, sang its praises when it came online, and did not hold back about its shortcomings and the issues the system is facing, which are legion. One topic I only barely mentioned was the possibility of an extension of the system. It seemed too unlikely, not least because the body behind the system, the National Transport Authority (NTA), stonewalled any suggestions for extension ever since they were first brought up back in 2015. However, things appear to be starting to move. Before I go into detail on that, I’ll just spend the next three paragraphs outlining the state of the system at the moment.

Coca Cola Zero Bikes began trial operations in Cork in December of 2014, before officially opening in early 2015. It is the largest of the three regional bike sharing systems operated under the Coca Cola Zero Bikes brand, with smaller systems operating in Limerick and Galway. The system currently sports 33 stations, of which 31 are operational, following the opening of the newest stations at the south entrance to Cork Kent railway station in the summer of 2018. A total of 320-330 bikes are available at these stations. The station network covers pretty much the entire city centre area, however it leaves out large parts of the western city, and barely extends north or south of the River Lee. 

While initially starting as a bit of a curiosity, the system has rapidly been accepted by the people of Cork and is pretty well utilised. In 2017, Coke Zero Bikes in Cork was used for 281,266 journeys. While this may be a drop from the 2016 figure of 290,590, it is still almost an order of magnitude ahead of the second most utilised system in Galway, which only saw 32,481 journeys. In fact, just this summer, Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork became the first regional bike sharing system to see one million journeys. Membership figures are equally impressive. The Cork system has a total of 11,459 annual subscribers, including yours truly, while Galway and Limerick each have around 3000 subscribers. So, calling the Cork system a roaring success is definitely a fair point.

However, all is not well along the Lee. Despite the system outperforming its counterparts in Limerick and Galway by almost an order of magnitude, the NTA has balked at investing anything into the Cork system up until now, with the exception of the new stations on the South Entrance of Kent Station I mentioned earlier. It has instead concentrated on getting the systems in Limerick and Galway up to speed, despite some vociferous and entrenched opposition from local politicians, business owners, and car addicts. While this is somewhat understandable, it has left the Cork system to wither on the vine. All Coke Zero Bikes Stations have at least one of their bike stands out of actions, while at a few stations, this figure is up to 50%. The station at Brian Ború Bridge has been out of business continuously since 2017, and the station at South Gate Bridge appears to have joined it in recent weeks. The situation with bikes is similar, although it appears to have gotten a little better since I first wrote about the situation in 2017. Then, there’s Telfourth Ltd., trading under the name of An Rothar Nua, the actual operating company, who appear to be woefully under-resourced to operate the system, as the maintenance measures above demonstrate. This is not the fault of the repair crews who are out every single day keeping the system operational, but clearly indicates a resource issue. Oh, and to add to that, the company actually managed to get themselves embroiled in a legal dispute with Tracetel, the manufacturer of the docking stations, about unauthorised use of their locking systems in a recent expansion of the station network in Galway.

Bent saddles,...

...unserviceable bike stands,...

... or kicked in or bent lights are an everyday occurrence unfortunately.

However, a potential solution has just come up. You see, back in 2018, the Cork Cycling Campaign, a pro-cycling advocacy group, had written a letter to the National Transport Authority to enquire about possibilities for the expansion of Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork. Just before Christmas, the NTA responded, and while the response isn’t universally good news, it does indeed open up the possibility of an expansion. In its response, the NTA states that they are able to obtain the necessary capital for the acquisition and installation of new stations and bikes for an expansion. However, they are unable to provide an ongoing cashflow to cover the operational costs for an expanded system in Cork. Currently, the operational expenditure of all three systems comes in at around €1.1 million, according to the letter from the NTA. Half of this is covered by the current Coca Cola sponsorship deal and annual membership fees, while the other half is drawn from the NTA from various sources. Cork Cycling Campaign broke down the numbers for the Cork system on their Twitter account, and calculated that the OpEx share of the NTA for the Cork system comes in at around 220,300€ p.a. Coca Cola covers roughly 100,800€ p.a., while membership fees account for roughly 120,000€. The National Transport Authority writes that they can’t specify the exact amount an expansion would cost until they know the actual size and shape of the expansion, but they expect additional operating costs in the six digit range, which sounds reasonable.

So, where can this money come from? Well, one source is the annual subscription fee. At the moment, Coca Cola Zero Bikes is an absolute steal, with an annual subscription costing just 10€. For comparison, an annual subscription for VRN Nextbike, the system I used to use in Germany while my parents were still alive, comes in at 48€, while Santander Cycles in London comes in at a whopping £90 per year. Given these figures, even a doubling of the current subscription costs to 20€ would still be very reasonable. While at the same time bringing in another 120,000€ right off the bat. I’d even recommend going to 25€ in one fell swoop, with all the conditions, we’d still be looking at excellent value for money.

Then, there’s one potential funding source the Cork Cycling Campaign overlooked. According to press articles from the time of the launch, Coca Cola has entered a five year sponsorship agreement with Telfourth/An Rothar Nua. Depending on when the contract was signed and came into effect, this sponsorship deal should be up for renegotiation in either 2019 or 2020. In my eyes, this is an ideal opportunity to either extract more money from Coca Cola or go hunting for a new sponsor. Given the generally positive brand recognition that the system has here in Cork, it could be an ideal opportunity to get local companies to give something back to their city. While I doubt that Apple will get involved, given the seemingly impenetrable fortress they’ve built up in Hollyhill, VoxPro Bikes has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

And then, there’s the city council. Everyone’s favourite dead horse to beat. I’m not a huge fan of all the anti-council rhetoric thrown around on social media, like with the whole parking for city councillors business. However, one fact remains. They are currently not involved in the financing of Coca Cola Zero Bikes, according to the NTA, something that should change in my eyes. I appreciate that council budgets are under a lot of pressure, all the more so in Cork city with the upcoming expansion of the council borders. However, a low six figure sum per year should still be possible, possibly a little more, and it would certainly chime with the new branding that the city is trying to develop for itself.

That being said, a funding increase might also be necessary just to address the maintenance issues I mentioned further up. Operational standards for Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork are sub-par, there’s really no other way of putting it, and it is my firm belief that the system is being held back by being bundled up with the Galway and Limerick systems. Cork faces completely different challenges, namely being unable to keep up with its own success. As such, splitting the Cork operation from the other two systems, while not necessarily a silver bullet, is definitely something that should be considered. Regardless of such a split, any expansion must, in my eyes, be accompanied by a massive improvement in operational standards. Apart from better maintenance for the existing and any new stations, this must include a vastly improved communication strategy. At the moment, communication is all but non-existent. At the time of writing, the last message in the “Service Updates” section of bikeshare.ie dates back to April 17th, 2018, while the situation in the “News” section isn’t even remotely funny anymore. There, the last update is from September 21st, 2016. There is no presence at all on social media, a huge no-go even back in 2015, when the system started, and finding a contact phone number is akin to winning the lottery. Should Telfourth turn out to be incapable of addressing these issues, a change in operator should be seriously considered.

Migrating the existing system over to a new provider should be on the table if Telfourth/An Rothar Nua are unable to address the ongoing operational issues with Coca Cola Zero Bikes in Cork.

Whatever solution is chosen, the paradigm shift in urban transport is gaining more and more momentum, despite some people still not realising it. The importance of both public transport and cycling will grow exponentially over the next couple of years, and the city will need to adapt. There is significant support for an expansion of Coca Cola Zero Bikes here in Cork, if recent articles are anything to go by, and a well developed cycling infrastructure, in combination with an expansive  bike sharing system, will in the long run be a better ambassador, a better incentive for cycling than any initiative by central government.

Just, please, Please, PLEASE don't use a stationless bike sharing system as a stopgap!!!!