Bixi has filed for bankruptcy (but Toronto’s bike stations should be fine)

After years of financial struggles, Bixi has finally gone and done it. The Montreal Gazette reports that the bike-share service’s parent company, the Montreal-based Public Bike System Company, has filed for bankruptcy. PBSC officials are laying the blame with the firm’s aggressive global expansion, which has seen Bixi-like systems installed in places as diverse as New York City and London.

The good news is that Toronto’s Bixi system will probably be fine. City hall saw this coming months in advance and laid the groundwork for a takeover. The plan is to transfer responsibility for Bixi Toronto to the Toronto Parking Authority and use money scrounged from the city’s street-furniture budget to keep the system going until a new private operator can be found. The fate of Montreal’s Bixi system is less certain. The city is reportedly in the midst of negotiating its own takeover deal.