Bike hire scheme at Scotland's train stations

Abellio, a Dutch company, was awarded the Scotrail franchise last year and they have promised major enhancements to rail services. One of the developments is a bicycle hire scheme, which has been introduced at Stirling station and Haymarket station in Edinburgh. 

It is called Bike and Go and the idea is to provide a convenient transport option for passengers to continue their journey once they arrive at the station. It works on the concept that when you arrive at a train station you still have some travelling to do in order to reach your final destination and a bicycle is an ideal means to do this. The theory is that train passengers will find it more convenient to use the hire bike to complete their journey than have to wait around for a bus or taxi or walk.

The scheme is based on a similar model in the Netherlands and I wonder how successful this will be in Scotland. I had a look at the Bike and Go website and there is a blog section with customers writing about their positive experiences with the bikes, but these are all from locations in England- Bike and Go is also available at over 50 stations in England.

The bikes are bright red and very distinctive, so you cannot miss them if you have been to Stirling or Haymarket stations recently. They have seven gears, luggage carriers and dynamo lights. The website features videos to help you to use the bike locks, adjust the saddle and check the lights.

Would I use the bikes? 
Due to the fact that I have my own bicycle it is doubtful. However, if I happened to be travelling to another city and did not want to take my own bike with me this could be appealing. For inexperienced cyclists a major drawback is that city cycling can be daunting. City traffic will always be a barrier to many people taking up cycling and until there is a huge improvement in cycle lanes I think a lot of people would be hesitant to use this scheme.

The success of the scheme in the Netherlands is likely due to the fact that cycling is such a huge part of the country’s culture and people think nothing of jumping on a bike to get around the city. If you have ever been to Amsterdam you will see people cycling in normal clothing, most not wearing helmets because there are excellent bicycle lanes and people feel safe. In this country city cycling is still regarded as risky and cycle specific clothing and helmets are seen as necessary, so we have a bit to go before cycling becomes normalised.

Another potential issue is that you cannot just turn up and use Bike & Go. You have to register and pay a £10 annual membership fee. You then rent one of the bikes for £3.80 for 24 hours. This means that it is only worthwhile if you think that you will become a regular user of the bikes, rather than a one-off user. If you regularly commute by train to Edinburgh or Stirling and your workplace is a 15 minute walk or bus ride away then using one of the rental bikes could be a viable and faster alternative. This does depend on how confident you are at cycling in traffic and if the route to your workplace has cycle lanes.

The scheme could also appeal to leisure users to use a bike to reach nearby tourist attractions, but the £10 annual fee might put off overseas visitors. I think a one-off hire fee with a credit card deposit could be more successful when encouraging leisure use of the bikes, particularly if the bikes could be located at stations where there are a lot of attractions that can be cycled to. Although Stirling and Edinburgh are good choices there is still the issue of cycling in city traffic, but Scotland has plenty of rural stations that are near tourist attractions and the roads are less busy. I previously recommended Drem station as an ideal location for a cycle hire scheme because of nearby attractions, like the National Museum of Flight, located a few miles away on quiet country roads. Therefore, if the scheme could be rolled out to more stations in rural areas it would be a great way to encourage people to enjoy cycling away from city traffic.

I do wonder if Bike and Go is going to be Abellio's solution to the shortage of bicycle spaces on trains- to encourage more people to hire bikes on arrival instead of taking their bike on the train. At the start of the franchise announcements were made about increased bicycle parking at stations and there was a news story about the new Border's Railway having space for only 2 bicycles. Abellio stated that in the Netherlands people keep a second bicycle at their destination station, so that they do not need to take their bicycle on the train. It remains to be seen if the Dutch model will be successful in Scotland.

In April it was announced that membership of Bike and Go in England had reached 1000, so it seems to be a popular scheme. I don’t know of anybody who has used the bikes in Scotland, so it would be interesting to hear from you if you have used it and what you think about it.