The future of e-scooter hire in Melbourne has been thrown into doubt after two major operators announced plans to withdraw from an inner-city council. Last week the City of Yarra voted in favour of a major fee hike to be levied on e-scooter companies. Under the change operators, Lime and Neuron, would be forced to pay an extra 400 per cent in fees to council — an increase to $5 per e-scooter per day, up from $1. The increase was council's solution to a $570,000 shortfall it claimed the trial would cause. According to a council report, the cost of the e-scooter trial was estimated to be $750,000 this financial year, but the current fees charged to operators only generated about $180,000 in revenue. In response to the fee hike, both Lime and Neuron said they would not be renewing their contracts at this stage, leaving yet another area without the option of hire e-scooters. 'No longer feasible', says operator Neuron made the decision to end its contract early, claiming the fee increase made the program financially unviable. "It’s making it the highest fee in the world ... the numbers just don't stack up," general manager Jayden Bryant said. He said each e-scooter in Yarra generated around $9.50 per day. With council's new fee of $5, he said the remainder was not enough to cover costs which included staff wages, warehousing, recharging, maintenance, insurance, safety initiatives, rider education and ongoing technology upgrades. "The other option was obviously to pass the fee onto the riders but that's not really going to work," Mr Bryant said. "The whole point of an e-scooter program is to have sustainable and affordable transport for people. "Once it starts getting into the costs of catching a taxi, it's no longer feasible for the community." Lime said it would also not be renewing its contract in April following the council's decision. "Given the proposed changes to the shared e-scooter trial contract, Lime has decided to hold off on this extension, and will wait for the formal RFP process to commence," regional director William Peters said. In a statement the City of Yarra said it was disappointed by both operators decision to pull their e-scooters from the area. "Council has gone above and beyond to try and make the scheme work and understands many in the community will be disappointed at this decision," a spokesperson said. "The Council is clear that it will not continue to subsidise these services from ratepayers' money." It said it would proceed with a procurement process for a new e-scooter contract. Debate, safety concern over e-scooters The Victorian government first announced the e-scooter trial back in 2021. The City of Melbourne, City of Yarra, City of Port Philip and City of Ballarat, in regional Victoria, were announced as participants of the program. The then-Yarra mayor, Gabrielle de Vietri, said she was excited to see how e-scooters would support connectivity to exiting transport systems. "It will help improve the livability of our streets for everyone," she previously said. The trial had come under scrutiny, with medical professionals calling for greater safety regulations following an increase of serious e-scooter injuries. In August last year the City of Melbourne voted to ban share hire e-scooters in the CBD in response to safety concerns. It came after the Allan government declared e-scooters would be here to stay, permanently legalising them across the state following a two-year trial. In the wake of Melbourne City Council's decision to scrap its e-scooter trial, Darebin, Moonee Valley and Merri-bek councils proposed an inner-north mobility zone for share e-scooters and e-bikes. Darebin council is set to introduce a rental e-scooter and e-bike trial in June this year, with a staged rollout to begin in the local government area's southern suburbs, while Merri-bek council will begin community consultation in late April. Moonee Valley council said it was monitoring shared e-scooter trials in other local government areas, and noted it was aware of concerns from some of its local residents. Expert still optimistic about future of affordable transport University of Sydney Professor in Transport Management Stephen Greaves said the withdrawal of Lime and Neuron was not good news for tourism, students, and for commuters who use them to connect to public transport. But he said he believed sustainable and affordable transport could still be achieved in Melbourne. "I don't jump on the bandwagon that's looking at what's happening and saying 'oh this is the death of e-scootering'. I don't think that's going to happen," Professor Greaves said. "I think it will just take different forms." Professor Greaves said councils should look to international examples like Paris, where hired bicycles have flourished after shared e-scooters were banned in 2023. "They've obviously pumped loads of money into the shared bikes," he said. "This started with the Olympics but they've really sustained it and they've made a conscious effort to make Paris a bikeable city." Professor Greaves said another option to ensure the future of e-scooters in Melbourne would be to introduce a type of insurance like Compulsory Third Party (CTP). "We need to treat them more like a vehicle in a sense that people need to have some insurance" he said. "That could be a small cost on the same model of a CPT that we currently pay. That seems quite reasonable so that if you do get into an accident and someone gets hurt they're covered, just like they are if they get hit by a car."