It’s Bike & no- Go at railway station
Centre is shut over mystery electrical issue
A so- called bike ‘ hub’ has been locked up for MONTHS due to an electrical fault.
And the Active Travel Hub at Ayr Railway Station has been branded a “white elephant on wheels.”
When it opened in March last year the cycling charity Sustrans hoped the ‘ Bike & Go’ scheme would “encourage local residents, employees, students and visitors to the area to travel by foot or by bike for more of the journeys they make every day.”
Shutters remain down on the 40- foot office, formerly a shipping container, with no explanation for would- be cyclists.
Nowhere on the Hub’s Facebook page does it say the centre has been shut up.
People are left with a mobile number which often goes onto answer machine.
In reality staff are working from an anonymous office within the doomed Burns House council block nearby.
A spokesman for South Ayrshire Council admitted: “Electrical work has been undertaken at the Active Travel Hub and the service has been operating out of the nearby Burns House. Normal service will be resumed at the hub very shortly.”
It can cost under £ 4 a day to hire the sturdy machines, complete with luggage carriers and run- flat tyres.
A publicly unknown amount of cash - certainly tens of thousands of pounds - has been put into the scheme through Sustrans, the Ayrshire Roads Alliance and South Ayrshire Council.
Often the bike rack is filled with the entire complement of ten bikes.
When it launched 14 months ago two staff were based at the hub office and they were also to provide pointers and other route and tourist information.
But a town centre source said: “This has become a joke, the shutters are constantly down and there is not even a note saying why or that you can still hire a bike.
“There are ten red bikes chained up on the stands - and I can tell you it seems there are always ten red bikes chained up.
“I think I once saw a young lady on one. I know some are certainly being hired, but who has actually seen any of them being pedalled through the boulevards of Ayr?
“This is a white elephant on wheels.”
At the time of the launch councillor Ian Cochrane claimed: “Our main objective is to promote sustainable forms of travel such as cycling and walking across South Ayrshire and the Bike& Go scheme will help us achieve this ambition.”
This has become a joke, the shutters are constantly down