Both Transport for London and Nexus have recently confirmed that privately owned e-scooters (and e-unicycles) are to be banned from services under their jurisdiction due to safety concerns caused by recent fires on TfL premises. The ban will come into effect from Monday 13th December and affects anyone travelling on the Docklands Light Railway, London Tramlink and Tyne and Wear Metro (of systems we feature on this website – all TfL services have the ban in place as does the Shields Ferry).
There have been incidents of privately owned e-scooters and e-unicycles catching fire whilst on TfL services and a review undertaken found that the fires were caused by defective lithium-ion batteries which ruptured with no warning. It was considered that if this was to happen again it could cause significant harm to passengers and staff which led to TfL introducing a ban first quickly followed by Nexus.
Huw Lewis, Nexus Customer Services Director, said: “We are banning the use of e-scooters on Metro and the Shields Ferry as a safety precaution, following a similar ban introduced by transport for London. Not many people take e-scooters on public transport at the moment, but it is important we are clear about this restriction for the safety of everyone. Our customer service teams and ferry crew will advise customers of the ban and refuse travel where they need to.”
This ban only affects e-scooters and e-unicycles. Nexus will continue to allow manual scooters as per their conditions of travel. Folding manual scooters can be carried at all times on the Tyne and Wear Metro with non-folding manual scooters able to be carried between 1030 and 1500 and after 1900 on weekdays and all day at weekends except in the central section of Newcastle and Gateshead where they are fully banned.