ayrshire travel hub

If you use assistive technology and require details of Health Walk providers in an accessible format please email [email protected] .

The Trinity Active Travel Hub

Project contact, when & where.

Please see the individual walks below for times and locations

Please email [email protected] for more information.

The Trinity is an active travel hub. We aim to encourage and support people to make the change to travel short journeys on foot or by bicycle. 'Stroll with It' is a programme of short walks from 1-4 miles long. The walks take place on Wednesdays starting at 11.00. most walks start at the Trinity, Irvine but occasionally they start from other points. A programme is provided giving all details.

Health Walks within this project

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• Sep 9, 2017

Bikes for hire arrive at Ayr's Active Travel Hub

Councillors and partners gathered at the Active Travel Hub at Ayr Rail Station to mark the launch of ScotRail's latest Bike&Go cycle hire scheme. 

The new bike rental facility means that when the hub is open, locals and visitors will be able to hire a bike from as little as £3.80 for 24 hours, encouraging even more people to get fit and stay active. Membership of Bike&Go also means access to 11 other bike hire sites in Scotland including Glasgow and Kilmarnock and over 70 sites in the rest of the UK. The Hub which was opened by South Ayrshire Council earlier this year is the ideal location for bike hire as not only is it right outside the station, but the Hub is already supporting and promoting the benefits of active and sustainable travel. Hiring a bike at the Hub is a simple process and begins with registering on-line with the Bike&Go scheme which costs £10 a year. The membership card can then be scanned at the Hub to get access to a bike for up to 72 hours per booking. The scheme allows a member to hire two bikes at once, so you can even go cycling with a friend. At present the bikes can only be hired during the Hub opening hours however the bikes can be returned at any point during the 72 hour period as keys can be placed in a secure dropbox if the hub is closed. There are also facilities nearby where other bikes can be secured and Active Travel Hub staff are available to offer free advice on anything from local routes and transport options through to tips on places to visit. This will be the first Bike&Go scheme in Scotland to be managed by an Active Travel Hub, as all the rest are managed by ScotRail. David Lister, the ScotRail Alliance's safety and sustainability assurance director, said: "We're committed to making sustainable integrated travel options as easy as possible. Bike&Go is just one of the ways we are doing this – it's a fantastic way for customers to complete their onward journey by bicycle. The easy-to-use bikes are ideal for business travellers and day-trippers alike. "Ayr Active Travel Hub is a fantastic resource for the whole community, and I am delighted that we are able to launch Bike&GO here." Councillor Ian Cochrane, Sustainability and Environment Portfolio Holder for South Ayrshire Council said: "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. "Ayrshire has an extensive network of paths and I hope visitors use the bikes to take in some of our breath-taking scenery. The bikes are also a great way for locals to get back into cycling without forking out for a new bike straight away. The health and environmental advantages of cycling are clear, so I hope people use the bikes as another way to get active and stay active" Sustrans Scotland Smarter Choices Coordinator, Communities, Megan Somerville, said: "We are really pleased to help in the delivery of the Bike&Go scheme at the Hub. "Having Bike&Go will help to 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 – a key aim of the Ayr Active Travel Hub." For more details on the Bike & Go scheme, visit www.bikeandgo.co.uk or contact the Hub [email protected] The Active Travel Hub at Ayr Rail Station is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10:00am – 1:00pm and from 1:00pm – 4:00pm on a Tuesday and Thursday.  

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Active Travel Strategy

Case studies > active travel strategy.

Category: Strategy Client: South Ayrshire Council

In 2018, we were engaged by the South Ayrshire Council to develop a business strategy for the Active Travel Hub, Ayr.

Ayr’s Active Travel Hub project was established in 2015/16, using Smarter Choices, Smarter Places funding. The Hub is managed by Ayrshire Roads Alliance, on behalf of South Ayrshire Council. The Hub’s primary purpose is to deliver modal shift and particularly, to encourage more car drivers (and especially those driving alone) to walk and cycle.

The business strategy developed by Ansons sets out a broad strategic direction for the Hub, stretching over a three-year period. The development of this business strategy was guided by a wide body of evidence, our consulting experience and expertise, as well as good practice. The key objectives of the strategy included collaboration with partners to develop Active Travel Hub services, the delivery of effective services to places where people work, live and visit, and the provision of dedicated services enabling active travel. The strategy incorporated an action plan, which provided detailed guidance on what measures should be implemented and when they should be implemented.

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Kilmarnock and Ayr Active Travel hubs' future is under threat

Cuts to Sustrans, the national active travel body, have called the future of the hubs into question.

• 12:33, 12 JUN 2023

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Active Travel hubs in Ayr and Kilmarnock are under threat of ‘enforced termination’ after the Scottish Government cut funding used to employ hub staff.

Kevin Braidwood, head of Ayrshire Roads Alliance, relayed his concerns to councillors at the Ayrshire Shared Services Committee on Friday.

In his report, he stated: “Ayrshire Roads Alliance issued a briefing to all Elected Members in both East and South Ayrshire detailing our concerns and ability to continue to operate the Active Travel Hubs in Ayr and Kilmarnock.

“This follows a cut in Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) funding received by Sustrans with officers placed on redundancy notice.

“Ayrshire Roads Alliance continues to explore all available options to prevent the enforced termination of our Active Travel Hub projects.”

The Active Travel Hubs in Kilmarnock and Ayr are central to the Active Travel work being carried out in each authority.

In a bid to improve health and wellbeing and reduce their carbon footprint, both authorities are looking at developing infrastructure, such as the Infinity Loop in Kilmarnock, while actively encouraging residents to change their travel habits.

The plans focus on safety, leisure and tourism, connectivity, workplaces and schools and cover the next decade.

South Ayrshire Councillor Bob Pollock said: “I would like to pick up on the point about the loss of staff from Active Travel.

“I have certainly got real concerns about that.

“We have got an active travel forum in process of being developed in South Ayrshire and probably half of the discussion of last meeting was about influencing changes in behaviour to make the Active Travel strategy effective.

“It is great having infrastructure, but we have to convince, particularly young people, to start using it and address the concerns of the ‘Nimbys’ who say ‘we don’t want active travel’."

He said that there had been some success stories, particularly with work in schools, and encouraged efforts to find funding from the Scottish Government or other agencies.

Mr Braidwood said: “There is a meeting with Sustrans next week. We are looking at how we can do this.

“Do we absorb a couple of the staff into Ayrshire Roads Alliance? Do we use other funding options that we have got available to us?

“We are actively looking at that and hope we can come up with some kind of solution.”

The Ayrshire Active Travel Hub website states: “Active Travel Hubs provide community groups and local business with support and information to help make our communities healthier by changing travel habits and encouraging people to become more active.

“These events include family fun days, family-led walk and rides, bike maintenance sessions and women-only rides.”

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Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2024: Global Trends

This report analyses the economic impact and recovery of the Travel & Tourism sector globally and regionally in 2023 and provides projections for 2024 and beyond. It also contains discussions of some emerging themes in the sector. Lastly, the report provides league tables that rank economies based on various Travel & Tourism indicators.

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The report highlights the Travel & Tourism sector’s recovery in 2023 at the global level and how it varied across each region and economy. It also provides a forecast for the sector in 2024 and the decade ahead, and lists some opportunities and challenges. Travel & Tourism is constantly undergoing changes, and the report focuses on the following emerging themes:

• Business travel’s comeback
• Outbound travel: emerging source markets
• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)
• Artificial intelligence
• Sustainable travel

Lastly, the report contains league tables that rank the top 20 economies globally based on the following Travel & Tourism indicators:

• Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to GDP (2023, 2024, and 2034)
• Travel & Tourism’s total contribution to employment (2023, 2024, and 2034)
• Domestic visitor spending (2023 and 2024)
• International visitor spending (2023 and 2024)
• Travel & Tourism capital investment (2023 and 2024)

For further explanation of the methodology and sources behind this Economic Impact Research, please refer to these two supporting papers: ' Methodology ' and ' Data Sources and Estimation Techniques '.

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Transportation | DIA braces for 100 million travelers a year…

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Transportation | DIA braces for 100 million travelers a year after record-high holiday travel

Airport officials say more new international flights are in store but that projects must be completed for handling a projected 100 million passengers a year.

DIA managers saw the Labor Day surge as a test run for a fast-approaching future bringing 100 million travelers a year, anticipated as early as 2027, five years sooner than previously projected. That would double the capacity DIA was built for when it opened in 1995 with 33 miles of runways and taxiways on 53 square miles northeast of Denver. They’re focused on a race to clear major hurdles for handling that many people pressing to get to where they want to go.

Two days before the surge, the airport’s internal rail system broke down, shooting white sparks as electric currents arced, forcing emergency track repairs and messing up weekend plans for travelers who had to book and re-book flights missed while stuck in terminal crowds. However, the trains ran on their regular 2-minute intervals over the next six days, ferrying 955,000 passengers mostly without problems, though a software glitch on Aug. 30 caused a six-minute shutdown.

Waiting Here are the average and maximum wait times travelers at DIA faced in 2024 (Feb. 6 through Sept. 10), according to data provided to the Denver Post.

– A-Bridge: average 6.93 minutes, maximum 16.32 minutes – West checkpoint: average 4 minutes, maximum 28.66 minutes – South checkpoint: average 11.47 minutes, maximum 26.40 minutes

Beyond train woes (a new train car is scheduled to begin service this month), Transportation Security Administration wait lines loom as an intensifying challenge. DIA officials claimed an average wait time between 7 and 11 minutes around Labor Day with a maximum wait of 39 minutes.

Airport chief executive Phil Washington called DIA’s performance over Labor Day “a good test for the 100 million” but added he’s far from comfortable.

“The crowds are getting to be more and more, increasing out here. I’m never really satisfied with how we are processing people through,” Washington said.

“People are prioritizing travel all over the world and we are one of ‘those’ airports,” he said. “We could have improved on the Labor Day period. But we did get folks through with that average wait time between 7 and 11 minutes.” Moving people quickly through the airport, he said, is the current top priority.

The record number of passengers cleared for flights around Labor Day reflects a steady post-pandemic increase that puts DIA on track to reach 82 million passengers by the end of 2024, up from 69 million in 2019.

The 428,182 passengers around Labor Day exceeded the record set in 2023 of 422,992 by 1.2% and the previous 2019 record of 408,424 by almost 5%, according to TSA passenger-screening data. Those numbers don’t include travelers connecting from one flight to another in DIA and those arriving to stay in Colorado.

Hurdles for handling 100 million

The increasing travel through DIA is driving a race to complete large-scale construction projects launched five years ago to expand the airport’s operational capacity.

DIA’s Great Hall under the signature tent-topped roof, conceived in the early 1990s as a place for people to be together as travelers arrive and depart, will be devoted to the nation’s post-9/11 terrorism security priority.  DIA officials say the overhaul will be done in 2027 after a restructuring and budget increase from $770 million to $2.1 billion.

A key hurdle will be ensuring the best possible customer service amid construction disruptions, Washington said, referring to the internal trains, baggage-moving systems, and communications to reach drivers approaching on Pena Boulevard.

DIA workers face another major challenge in maintaining existing escalators, elevators, and moving sidewalks – ensuring “a state of good repair” to handle 100 million people, Washington said. More than 300 conveyors move people in DIA.

A third main hurdle requires “maintaining our pace” on other construction projects, including the addition of 11 aircraft gates on the C Concourse and the implementation of faster security screening systems, he said. An east security checkpoint, bringing 17 new passenger screening lanes, is scheduled to open by August 2025.

DIA’s federally run security systems have been able to process 150 travelers an hour per lane. The latest 17-lane west checkpoint, and the new east checkpoint, are designed to screen 240 travelers an hour per lane. DIA officials before Labor Day expanded access to an online reservation system that lets travelers at the west checkpoint “skip the line” by making appointments for their screening. They’re mulling whether to use a reservation system at both checkpoints in the future.

Overall, “it is like remodeling your house while you still live in it,” Washington said. “We cannot close this place down.”

Rising demand for DIA

Denver airport’s busiest days

The heaviest travel is concentrated during summer months, according to the latest single-day numbers provided by DIA. The busiest days for passenger screenings to fly so far in 2024 are as follows:

– July 7: 93,591 (a DIA record) – July 21: 89,421 – June 30: 86,941 – Sept. 2: 86,726 – August 11: 86,519 – July 28: 86,242 – July 14: 86,125 – July 22: 85,580 – Aug. 4: 85,485 – June 23: 85,304

Airlines’ commercial decision-making is driving the expansion. DIA officials this year announced a 13-hour nonstop route to Istanbul , the longest flight from DIA, opening access to Asia and Africa. They’re adding other expanded international flights this winter, including 14% more nonstop flights to Europe.  Denver officials also are exploring more nonstop flights to Tokyo and a new direct route to Africa with a refueling stop between DIA and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In addition, DIA negotiators have identified “the three largest underserved international markets” in Rome, Italy; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Amsterdam, Netherlands, airport spokesman Michael Konopasek said. “Due to the large demand, these are all targets for new service. We continue conversations with airline partners for new and expanded service.”

“Our facilities have to be not just average. They have to be exceptional. That goes to our through-put of passengers. That goes to safety. That goes to our partnerships with airlines, who see us as a major hub,” Washington said. “We want to be the greenest, most efficient, and easiest to navigate airport in the world.”

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Where Kamala Harris Stands on the Issues: Abortion, Immigration and More

She wants to protect the right to abortion nationally. Here’s what else to know about her positions.

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By Maggie Astor

• Published July 21, 2024 Updated Sept. 13, 2024

Follow along with live updates on the Trump and Harris campaigns .

With Vice President Kamala Harris having replaced President Biden on the Democratic ticket, her stances on key issues will be scrutinized by both parties and the nation’s voters.

She has a long record in politics: as district attorney of San Francisco, as attorney general of California, as a senator, as a presidential candidate and as vice president.

Here is an overview of where she stands.

Ms. Harris supports legislation that would protect the right to abortion nationally, as Roe v. Wade did before it was overturned in 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

After the Dobbs ruling, she became central to the Biden campaign’s efforts to keep the spotlight on abortion, given that Mr. Biden — with his personal discomfort with abortion and his support for restrictions earlier in his career — was a flawed messenger. In March, she made what was believed to be the first official visit to an abortion clinic by a president or vice president.

She consistently supported abortion rights during her time in the Senate, including cosponsoring legislation that would have banned common state-level restrictions, like requiring doctors to perform specific tests or have hospital admitting privileges in order to provide abortions.

As a presidential candidate in 2019, she argued that states with a history of restricting abortion rights in violation of Roe should be subject to what is known as pre-clearance for new abortion laws — those laws would have to be federally approved before they could take effect. That proposal is not viable now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe.

Climate change

Ms. Harris has supported the Biden administration’s climate efforts , including legislation that provided hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits and rebates for renewable energy and electric vehicles.

“It is clear the clock is not just ticking, it is banging,” she said in a speech last year , referring to increasingly severe and frequent disasters spurred by climate change. “And that is why, one year ago, President Biden and I made the largest climate investment in America’s history.”

During her 2020 presidential campaign, she emphasized the need for environmental justice , a framework that calls for policies to address the adverse effects that climate change has on poor communities and people of color. She has emphasized that as vice president as well.

In 2019, Ms. Harris, then a senator, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, introduced legislation that would have evaluated environmental rules and laws by how they affected low-income communities. It would have also established an independent Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability and created a “senior adviser on climate justice” within several federal agencies. In 2020, Ms. Harris introduced a more sweeping version of the bill. None of the legislation was passed.

Ms. Harris was tasked with leading the Biden administration’s efforts to secure voting rights legislation, a job she asked for . The legislation — which went through several iterations but was ultimately blocked in the Senate — would have countered voting restrictions in Republican-led states, limited gerrymandering and regulated campaign finance more strictly.

This year, she met with voting rights advocates and described a strategy that included creating a task force on threats to election workers and challenging state voting restrictions in court.

She has condemned former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. In a speech in 2022 marking the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, she said that day had showed “what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful.” She added, “What was at stake then, and now, is the right to have our future decided the way the Constitution prescribes it: by we the people, all the people.”

Economic policy

In campaign events this year, Ms. Harris has promoted the Biden administration’s economic policies, including the infrastructure bill that Mr. Biden signed, funding for small businesses, a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that capped the cost of insulin for people on Medicare and student debt forgiveness.

She indicated at an event in May that the administration’s policies to combat climate change would also bring economic benefits by creating jobs in the renewable energy industry. At another event , she promoted more than $100 million in Energy Department grants for auto parts manufacturers to pivot to electric vehicles, which she said would “help to keep our auto supply chains here in America.”

As a senator, she introduced legislation that would have provided a tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle- and low-income families, a proposal she emphasized during her presidential campaign as a way to address income inequality.

Immigration

One of Ms. Harris’s mandates as vice president has been to address the root causes of migration from Latin America, like poverty and violence in migrants’ home countries. Last year, she announced $950 million in pledges from private companies to support Central American communities. Similar commitments made previously totaled about $3 billion.

In 2021, she visited the U.S.-Mexico border and said : “This issue cannot be reduced to a political issue. We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we are talking about suffering.”

More recently, she backed a bipartisan border security deal that Mr. Biden endorsed but Mr. Trump, by urging Republican lawmakers to kill it , effectively torpedoed. The legislation would have closed the border if crossings reached a set threshold, and it would have funded thousands of new border security agents and asylum officers. “We are very clear, and I think most Americans are clear, that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it,” Ms. Harris said in March .

Israel and Gaza

Ms. Harris called in March for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza and described the situation there as a “humanitarian catastrophe.” She said that “the threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated” but also that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

In an interview later that month , she emphasized her opposition to an Israeli invasion of Rafah, the city in southern Gaza to which more than a million people had fled. “I have studied the maps,” she said. “There’s nowhere for those folks to go, and we’re looking at about 1.5 million people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there, most of them.”

She has said on multiple occasions that she supports a two-state solution.

Racial justice

Racial justice was a theme of Ms. Harris’s presidential campaign. In a memorable debate exchange in 2019 , she denounced Mr. Biden’s past work with segregationist senators and opposition to school busing mandates.

She has called for ending mandatory minimum sentences, cash bail and the death penalty, which disproportionately affect people of color.

Amid the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, she was one of the senators who introduced the Justice in Policing Act, which would have made it easier to prosecute police officers, created a national registry of police misconduct and required officers to complete training on racial profiling. It was not passed.

Her record as a prosecutor also came into play during her presidential campaign. Critics noted that as attorney general of California, she had generally avoided stepping in to investigate police killings.

Maggie Astor covers politics for The New York Times, focusing on breaking news, policies, campaigns and how underrepresented or marginalized groups are affected by political systems. More about Maggie Astor

Osaka gears up for the 2025 World Expo with memories of hosting a half-century ago

O SAKA, Japan (AP) — Visitors to Tokyo and Kyoto might not realize it, but Osaka — one of Japan’s biggest and oldest cities, known more as a business hub than a tourist destination -- is gearing up to host next year’s World Exposition.

The city has been plastered with the Expo’s red-and-blue “Myaku-Myaku” mascot for months and is abuzz with preparations. For many here, the excitement is mixed with nostalgia for the last World Expo hosted by Japan, back in 1970.

There are doubters, especially outside Osaka. Construction costs are turning out to be exponentially higher than expected. Preparations have been marred by political and business infighting. And many Japanese, jaded after Tokyo’s difficult experience hosting the Olympics during the COVID pandemic, question whether the idea of a World Expo is still relevant.

But in Osaka, many older residents say such events are more necessary than ever.

Many retain vivid memories of the 1970 Expo. They remember schoolchildren attending multiple times, particularly those from the Osaka area. There were long lines to see the moon rocks on view at the U.S. pavilion; prototypes of electric cars; displays featuring the first ethernet cables (LAN); and the introduction of Western foods like yogurt and baguettes.

It was a time when traveling abroad was still a dream for most, and Expo ’70 was a rare chance for ordinary Japanese to hear live performances by bands from around the world, and visit a huge array of pavilions representing various nations and interests.

Mostly, though, the enduring impact was the chance for personal interactions with international pavilions and visitors.

“My experience as an interpreter at World Expo ’70 was transformative,” says Takahiro Shinyo, who went on to join the Japanese foreign service, serve as a Japanese ambassador to Germany, and is now a visiting professor at Kwansei Gakuin University, just outside Osaka.

“It opened my eyes to the power of international cooperation and the potential of human ingenuity,” he says.

And while a lot has changed since 1970, he says World Expos remain just as relevant today.

“The value of direct interpersonal contact that World Expos facilitate cannot be replicated online,” he says. “The face-to-face interactions, the exchange of ideas, and the shared experiences that take place at these events contribute to a deeper understanding and appreciation of our global community.”

As in 1970, this World Expo is being staged in Osaka just a few years after the Olympics were held in Tokyo. But while the 1964 Olympics were an enormously successful and popular event at the time, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, held during the pandemic, were considered a disappointment to many Japanese.

World Expos happen every five years, and last up to six months. The most recent, in 2020, was in Dubai.

The upcoming Expo in Osaka is scheduled for April 13-Oct. 13, 2025, with the theme “Designing the Future of Our Lives.” Organizers anticipate 28.2 million visitors, over 3 million of them from other countries. Nearly 5 million tickets have already been sold.

The Expo will be held on an island built off the coast of western Osaka using the same technology as at nearby Kansai International Airport, which floats in Osaka Bay. The fair promises multiple prototypes of flying cars, and spokeswoman Sachiko Yoshimura said organizers hope visitors could even take a flying car from the airport to the Expo.

That said, organizers say their emphasis is not on cutting-edge technology as much as international cooperation.

“This Expo is not just a showcase of industry. It’s about having all the nations come together and unite as one,” said Yoshimura, in a glassed-in office near the top of a skyscraper overlooking the site of the upcoming event.

Although the grounds of World Expo 2025 have begun to open up for limited tours of the construction site, the general public can get a sense of the impact of a World Exposition in Osaka by visiting ExpoCity, the site of the 1970 World Expo. It features an immersive Expo ’70 Pavilion, including the still-intact Steel Pavilion, and galleries of Expo '70 memorabilia like uniforms worn by World Expo “hostesses.”

Visitors to ExpoCity can climb inside the nearby “Taiyo no To” (Tower of the Sun) sculpture, a symbol of Expo '70 and designed by Japanese artist Taro Okamoto. There is also a playground, a lake with paddle boats and, nearby, “Expo Restaurant,” which sells what are billed as the same style meals served at that fair.

Getting there: ExpoCity is a short monorail ride from Itami Airport, in Osaka. Tickets to the 2025 World Exposition range in price from 4,000 yen (about $25) to 6700 yen (about $42), depending on entry days, and can be purchased online at expo2025.or.jp .