Great Western Coffee Shop

Electric bike hire comes to these stations
   NEW CO BIKES STATION ALERT

https://www.co-bikes.co.uk/

Following up on this story:

https://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/traffic/ebikes-cranbrook-honiton-how-to-use-them-8714912


https://visionforsidmouth.org/e-bikes-coming-to-cranbrook-and-honiton-stations/

Sounds a good idea and attractive to leisure travelers.

Not certain about the merits for commuters though. If a commuter uses an ebike from station to home, then what ? are they allowed to keep it overnight for use the next morning. That sounds expensive in that the costly ebike is only used twice in a day. But if the Customer is NOT allowed to keep it overnight then not very useful.

The ebike could of course be returned to a docking station near the commuters home, but that will need an awful lot of docking stations and still suffers from the limitation of only two trips a day, and adds the risk that the commuter could be stranded if no spare machine was at the docking place the next morning.

Wouldn’t the commuters be more likely to use it from station to their workplace rather than station to home?

I've looked at a number of cycle hire places over they year and mulled their use.  Places like Brockenhurst, Yatton and Dawlish Warren where you're looking very much at the tourist / day out market. But I don't think they need to be the obvious places with good marketing and interesting places to cycle - we had them at Melksham last summer and autumn, though I note they've gone away for the winter.    Honiton or Cranbrook to cycle to the seaside at Seaton, Sidmouth or Budleigh Salterton would make sense if there are good quiet cycle routes.

Agree on cycling home and keeping them overnight - same efficiency of use problem you have with sleeper trains!

Perhaps regular commuters should be allowed to keep the ebike overnight, but only for say 100 or 150 nights in total, per year. Any customer approaching this  limit, could then be offered the opportunity to purchase their own ebike at a discounted price. The 100 or 150 night limit could be extended a bit on showing proof of purchase , but whilst awaiting delivery.

The ebikes thus sold should be of the same design as the hired ones in the interests of familiarity, but in a distinctly different livery.

It would in my view be reasonable to subsidise the sale of the ebikes since so doing would reduce car use and pollution. Parking and charging of ebikes at the station should be free, the costs are moderate and a reasonable use of public money to encourage greenness.