Boris Bikes have been around for a few years now, but only today do they now have an official App.

The App is Available on the App Store for free.

It shows you where the nearest docking station is along with availability, but also lets your hire out a bike and get an access code from the App – without needing to use the docking stations terminal screen.

It then lets you plan a journey and give you suggested routes which is a nice touch, as well as notifications about how much time you’ve been on a bike for.

The Mayor of London, Transport for London and Santander today announced a seven-year partnership to grow and develop London’s Cycle Hire scheme.

Named ‘Boris Bikes’ as the ‘Barclays Cycle Hire’ slogan never caught on.

The new name – Santander Cycles – and the new red-and-white livery (although the base dark blue colour seems to be staying) of the 11,500 bikes, 748 docking stations and 32 service vehicles will become familiar sights to Londoners from April onwards. Staff uniforms and membership keys will also be rebranded.

Rumour has it that Santander outbid Coca Cola for sponsorship of the scheme.

So with them now being ‘Santander Cycles’, that’s got to be abbreviated to ‘Santa Cycles’ right?

TfL have announced a price increase, starting January 2015, for the costs of hiring a Boris Bike.  The 24 hour access fee is staying the same (at £2) but then after the first free 30 minutes, every additional half an hour will cost you a flat fee of £2. We’ve done a comparison of how much it costs in the table below, compared to now – and also what it cost when first launched (when the access fee was half what it is now).

Note that this table is for people that hire a bike using the 24-access period only, you can still get a yearly membership access for £90 – although note the weekly access rate will be scrapped from 2015 onwards.

Cycle Hire cost comparison

The scheme was launched on the 30th July 2010, and the prices remained unchanged until 2013, when in January, the access fee doubled (so a free 30 minutes cost you £2 access instead of £1).

In January 2015, the prices go up again – with the access fee staying the same, but the price for longer than the first free 30 minutes becomes a set £2 for every half an hour.