E-scooter hire in Leeds: Beryl’s prices, hours, zone and the rules for students
You can hire an e-scooter in Leeds from Beryl, the only operator, in a government trial that opened on 19 March 2026; the national trials are due to run until May 2028. It costs £1 to unlock and 22p a minute, so 15 minutes cost £4.30, and there is no night stop: Beryl’s page on hire hours lists restrictions only in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and in Brighton. You must be 18 or over with a driving licence, ride only where bikes may go, and end every ride in a Beryl bay.
Leeds e-scooter hire: Beryl, since March 2026
One company, Beryl, rents e-scooters in Leeds, alongside its e-bikes, in a scheme run with Leeds City Council and branded LNER Beryl: the train company sponsors it through to 2027, the council says. The e-scooters joined on 19 March 2026 as part of the Department for Transport’s trial, 100 at first, using the bays the e-bike scheme already had. Like the other UK trials, it is due to run until May 2028. Beryl’s e-bikes cost £1 to unlock and 17p a minute, from age 16.
At 9.18am on 23 October 2026 the map of Leeds showed about 310 Beryl e-scooters: a snapshot, not the fleet size. The map shows e-scooters only, not Beryl’s e-bikes.
When do the scooters stop? They don’t: Leeds has no night stop. Beryl’s page on hire hours (July 2026) lists restrictions only in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (10pm to 5am) and in Brighton (midnight to 5am), and Leeds scooters were still on our map at 2.23am on 17 October 2026.
How much does a Beryl e-scooter cost in Leeds?
Beryl charges £1 to unlock and 22p a minute for its e-scooters in Leeds: its Leeds page, its pricing guide (July 2026) and its data on 23 October 2026 agree. Bundles and passes work on e-bikes and e-scooters alike, and Beryl’s Leeds page lists no unlock fee with them, though one example in its pricing guide still adds the £1: the app shows what you pay.
| Option | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Pay as you ride | £1 unlock + 22p a minute | 10 minutes £3.20, 15 minutes £4.30, 30 minutes £7.60 |
| Day Pass | £8 | 100 minutes within 24 hours, no limit per ride: 8p a minute |
| Flexi Pass | £30 | 300 minutes over 30 days: 10p a minute; past 30 minutes a ride, 22p a minute |
| 50-minute bundle | £8 | Valid 1 month: 16p a minute |
| 100-minute bundle | £14 | Valid 1 month: 14p a minute |
| 200-minute bundle | £24 | Valid 3 months: 12p a minute |
The Day Pass costs the same as the 50-minute bundle and gives twice the minutes, so buy it when you’ll ride that day. Pausing a ride keeps the scooter for up to 30 minutes, but the minutes still count. New to hire scooters? See how to rent an e-scooter.
Students get 25% off bundles and passes, but not pay-as-you-ride, with the code STUDENT26 until 31 July 2027, if their Beryl account uses a university or college email: the Day Pass then costs £6.
Are e-scooters legal in Leeds? Age, licence and fines
Hire scooters are legal because Leeds is one of England’s trial areas. Beryl rents them only to riders 18 or over with a full or provisional driving licence (category Q, included in every UK car, moped and motorcycle licence). It checks the front and back of your photocard and a selfie, and it doesn’t accept paper licences.
Visiting? Beryl’s Leeds launch announcement (March 2026) says riders must “hold a valid full, provisional or supported international driving licence”, but the council’s page asks for “a valid UK driving licence or provisional licence”, and so does Beryl’s general help page. The law accepts a full EU or EEA licence, or another country’s full licence within 12 months of entering the UK (never a foreign provisional one), so check yours in the app before you travel.
| Rule | What it means | Set by | If you break it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pavements | Never: ride on roads and in cycle lanes where bikes are allowed | The law | £50 fixed penalty |
| Phone | Not in your hand while riding | The law | £200 and 6 points |
| Drink and drugs | Drink-drive law applies: 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood | The law | Court, a driving ban, possibly prison |
| Speed | 15.5 mph at most; Leeds scooters went up from 12.5 mph in July 2026 | The law sets the cap; Beryl adopted it in Leeds with the Department for Transport’s approval | The motor stops helping above it |
| Passengers | One rider only | The law and Beryl | Against the trial rules |
| Headphones | No headphones or earbuds | Beryl | Against Beryl’s rules |
| Helmet | Recommended, not compulsory | The law; Beryl strongly encourages one | – |
The national rules are in our guide to e-scooter law in the UK.
A private e-scooter is illegal on the roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in the parks of Leeds. Riding one means a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points for having no insurance, and the police can seize it; since 29 June 2026 they can seize a vehicle ridden anti-socially without a warning first.
Where can you ride? The Beryl zone, Briggate and the parks
Beryl’s zone is “set in partnership with local councils”, its help pages say, and the app shows the boundary, with the area outside it in red. Reading Beryl’s zone data on 23 October 2026, it covers the city centre and Leeds Dock, Holbeck, Hunslet, Beeston and Elland Road; Woodhouse, Hyde Park and Headingley, including Headingley Stadium and Headingley and Burley Park stations; Kirkstall Road to Kirkstall Leisure Centre; and Chapel Allerton, Roundhay Park and Oakwood.
Kirkstall Abbey, Kirkstall Forge, Armley, Harehills, St James’s Hospital, Horsforth, White Rose and Leeds Bradford Airport are outside. You can ride across the edge, but locking outside costs £25 each time, plus £80 if the scooter is still out after 24 hours.
Beryl’s launch announcement promised “slow-go and no-ride zones in busy or shared spaces”. Its open data names 14 smaller zones but gives no rule for any of them, so follow the app in these places:
| Where | Name in Beryl’s data | Bays inside |
|---|---|---|
| Briggate, Commercial Street, Albion Street, Bond Street, Lands Lane and the arcades | “Pedestrian Core” | None |
| Woodhouse Moor, including Cinder Moor | Three go-slow zones | None |
| Roundhay Park | “Roundhay Park” | None |
| Wellington Place | “Wellington Place” | None |
| University of Leeds campus | “University of Leeds” | One, at Roger Stevens |
| Leeds Beckett, Headingley campus | “Leeds Beckett University - Headingley Campus” | Two (see the university’s rule below) |
| Six skateparks, among them Hyde Park and Beckett Park | One zone each | None |
City Square and the station are outside the Pedestrian Core. The map shows where scooters are parked now.
Beryl Leeds parking: end every ride in a bay
Leeds is a fully docked scheme, the council says: you end each ride in an LNER Beryl bay, shared with the e-bikes. Beryl’s open data listed 117 bays on 23 October 2026, though its Leeds page gives 79; the app shows the nearest. Park inside a bay before you end the ride.
Beryl adds these fees to the ride (Leeds page, October 2026):
- Outside a bay: £10.
- Outside the zone: £25 each time you lock there, plus £80 if the scooter is still outside after 24 hours.
- Left unlocked: £10.
University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett students
University of Leeds: Beryl has bays at the Parkinson Building, with room for 18, Roger Stevens, Central Village, The Edge, the Gryphon Sports Centre and Hyde Terrace, and the university’s travel page points students to Beryl’s e-scooters and their student discounts. In university residences you can’t keep an e-scooter or e-bike indoors: the terms for 2026/27 allow them only in the outdoor bike shelters.
Leeds Beckett: its cycling page, updated on 13 October 2026, says: “As e-scooters cannot be ridden legally on the public highway in Leeds, we cannot allow them on campus or allow them to be stored in our cycle cages.” It makes no exception for hire scooters, though its link goes to the government’s guidance on private ones, and Beryl has two bays on the Headingley campus, at the Carnegie Building and the Students’ Union, with e-scooters in them on 23 October 2026. The rule is the university’s, so ask its transport team (transport@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) before you ride or park a Beryl scooter on campus.
Leeds station, trains and buses
Leeds station has two bays in City Square, in front of it: City Sq/Leeds Stn, with room for 12, and City Sq/Park Row, for 14. A third, on Neville Street, south of the station, takes 12.
- LNER: no e-scooters on board, and any left at its stations, cycle racks included, are removed.
- First West Yorkshire buses: its conditions of travel (March 2026) say electric scooters “are not permitted to be brought on board”. We couldn’t check the rules of Northern’s trains or Arriva’s buses, so ask before you board.
Heading elsewhere? See e-scooter hire in the UK for the other trial areas.
Did you know?
- Beryl is named after Leeds cyclist Beryl Burton, who won 96 national championships and seven world titles, the BBC reports.
- A trial that waited six years. Leeds applied in 2020 but withdrew over the work of re-designating cycle tracks, the council told the BBC; Beryl calls the 2026 trial the first approved in the UK since 2020.
- Over 28,000 e-scooter journeys were made by early July 2026, about 8% of all the scheme’s journeys, Beryl said. The average Leeds trip was 2.35 km and took about 15 minutes.
Questions
- How much is a Beryl e-scooter per minute in Leeds?
- 22p a minute, plus £1 to unlock, so 15 minutes cost £4.30. The £8 Day Pass gives 100 minutes in 24 hours, 8p a minute, and the minute bundles start at £8 for 50 minutes; Beryl’s Leeds page lists no unlock fee with either.
- What time do Beryl e-scooters stop in Leeds?
- They don’t stop at night. Beryl’s page on hire hours lists restrictions only in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and in Brighton, and Leeds scooters were still on our map at 2.23am on 17 October 2026. Its phone support runs from 7am to 9pm.
- Can I use a foreign driving licence on a Beryl e-scooter in Leeds?
- Possibly. Beryl’s Leeds launch announcement says it accepts “supported international” licences, but the council’s page asks for a UK licence. The law allows a full EU or EEA licence, or another full licence within 12 months of arriving, never a foreign provisional one. Check in the app before you travel.
- Can I ride a Beryl e-scooter on Briggate?
- Briggate, Commercial Street and the shopping streets around them are in Beryl’s “Pedestrian Core” zone. Beryl doesn’t publish the zone’s rule and there is no bay inside it, so you can’t end a ride there. Follow the app, walk the scooter if it says so, and never ride on the pavement.
- Is there a Beryl student discount in Leeds?
- Yes. The code STUDENT26 gives 25% off minute bundles and passes until 31 July 2027, with a university or college email on your Beryl account. It doesn’t cover pay-as-you-ride trips.
- Can I ride my own e-scooter in Leeds?
- No. As everywhere in the UK, a private e-scooter is illegal on roads, pavements and cycle lanes and in parks. Riding one means a £300 fine and 6 points, and the police can seize it.