The e-bike turf war deep under the Thames

Dear Londoners — we bring your subterranean cycling drama today. The Greenwich foot tunnel was built in 1902, to ferry dock workers from south to east London, without having to rely on boat crossings that could be disrupted by unpredictable weather. Nowadays, it’s still used by commuters; they’re just off to their desks in shiny City of London skyscrapers rather than to put in a shift by the water. Despite a technical ban on cycling in the tunnel, many of the 4,000 people making this daily journey choose to bring bikes down with them. But with the boom of for-hire e-bikes, a regularly broken lift and some ‘no-go’ zones a problem has emerged: scores of Limes, Vois and that other brand that hasn’t cut through as well, are choking up the narrow passage of the tunnel.

Who’s to blame? How to solve the issue? And why, oh why, can’t that lift be fixed for good? That’s in today’s newsletter. But first, your London in Brief.

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On an impromptu walk around the city last year, I descended the spiral steps of the Greenwich foot tunnel to a curious sight. Two streams of ambling tourists were flowing around a lone Lime bike, left for dead 50m beneath the Thames. It was easy enough to swerve around, and I soon forgot about it. Turns out this bike was a portent, the tip of an iceberg. 

On Tuesday, a frustrated Reddit user posted a video of the tunnel, showing dozens and dozens of hire bikes stacked inside the passage towards the north, Tower Hamlets end, blocking the narrow walkway. Nearly 500 people piled in on the issue and what struck me most was how wincingly familiar everyone was with the problem. It transpires that bikes have been building up in the tunnel on frequent occasions since 2022. Since then, Lime has supposedly installed a geo-fenced ‘no-go’ zone around the tunnel, to prevent people cycling through. And yet in the video, their green and white branding is prominent among the e-bike brands littering the tunnel. 

On Reddit, most of the blame for this problem wasn’t directed at private companies responsible for the e-bikes, like Lime, Voi and Forest, but Greenwich council. Yet, when I message the council, they spikily bat the matter back to the e-bike firms. “This is a recurring issue with e-bike operators,” Councillor Calum O’Byrne informs me, adding that it must be addressed “urgently”. If e-bike companies fail to take action, he continues, “questions will be asked about their suitability to operate in our borough”. 

So who’s responsible for the Greenwich foot tunnel pile up? To answer that question, I had to go back underground.

To the depths

Sam* is just the person to speak to: it’s a little after 9am and he’s just flown past me on a Lime bike, heading for the tunnel’s north exit. I catch up with him as he’s waiting for the lift. A bald man around his early 40s, he sports the smart-casual London professional uniform of khaki trousers and a small hoop earring. Sam cheerfully confirms what I’ve just seen patent evidence of: that Lime’s ‘no-go’ zone might appear red and foreboding on the map, but down in the gloom of the tunnel, it’s meaningless.