Edinburgh Leith

There are many options for travelling around Edinburgh by bus, rail and tram. There are multiple bus stops close to the hub on Duke Street and Academy Street and trams that serve Leith.

Waverley train station is a 21-minute bus ride from the pop-up hub. Use the Traveline Scotland journey planner to plan the most convenient route. There are different options for public transport fares, including:

• Travelling for free on buses in Scotland with a National Entitlement Card (e.g. under 22s or over 60s). A day ticket with Lothian Buses, who run most of the buses that stop near to the hub, is £6.00, and a single ticket is £2.40 (for latest fare and route information see the Lothian Buses website).
• ScotRail train tickets can be purchased at the station or on the ScotRail app. You may be able to buy a railcard or eligible for other discounted train tickets. Visit the ScotRail website for more information.

Most local journeys can be done by walking, cycling or public transport. But for occasional journeys that need to be done by car, why not consider renting one of the nearby car club vehicles from Enterprise Car Club? Car clubs offer the benefits of access to cars without the costs and hassle of owning one. Visit the Enterprise website to learn more.

You can walk or wheel to most places in and around Leith.

Leith offers fantastic walks. The top routes include the Water of Leith Walkway toward Dean Village, a scenic coastal stroll to Newhaven Harbour, and an open green space trail around Leith Links. The hub is a one-minute walk from Leith Links.

As part of the Leith Connections project you can walk, wheel and cycle from the foot of the walk to Dock Street. Find out more on the Leith Connections website.

There are groups offering health walks to help build your walking confidence and meet other people. Visit the Walking Scotland website to find a walk near you.

QuietRoutes are Edinburgh's walking and cycling routes - perfect for exploring the city. There is an interactive map to help plan your journeys.

For longer journeys you can plan your cycling route using the CycleStreets website or app.

The hub will act as a Voi bike hire station for the duration of the pop-up. Download the Voi app to hire bikes from the hub and from other hire stations across Edinburgh. You can learn more about the scheme on the Voi website.

There are a number of local groups that can help you cycle in Leith. Groups include:

• The Bike Station: a community-focused charity bike shop that refurbishes donated bicycles and sells them affordably to keep bikes in circulation and reduce waste. It also provides services like repairs, maintenance classes and skills training to support people of all ages to cycle and develop confidence. The revenue from these activities funds programmes aimed at building healthier, more connected and sustainable communities across Edinburgh and Scotland. Visit their website to read more about the work they do.
• Spokes: provides details of local bike rides and campaigns on their website.

The project aims to work out how more people in Scotland can be supported to walk, wheel and cycle for short local journeys. The hub therefore needs to be near where people live, work or visit, or a combination of these things.

The site on St Andrew Place was chosen after an assessment process and site visit that looked at things like:

• Existing sustainable transport options (e.g. bus, cycling, walking, car club)
• Proximity to amenities (e.g. shops, parks and schools)
• Potential for more people to take journeys by public transport or walking or cycling
• Site gradient, pavement height etc.

St Andrew Place scored highly in this assessment as it is a busy location and has potential for modal shift to more sustainable types of transport.

No, the council is not funding the pop-up mobility hubs project. The funding for the project comes from South East of Scotland Transport Partnership’s People & Place Programme, which is a grant fund of Transport Scotland. The aim of the funding is to make it easier for more people in Scotland to walk, wheel or cycle for short, local journeys. CoMoUK has partnered with the City of Edinburgh Council on the project as it aligns with their City Mobility Plan including their Leith Connections project. The council has given some staff time to support the project but has not provided any funding.

The hub will be in the area between Wednesday 26 August to Mid-October 2026. It will then be moved to another area in the South East of Scotland and the parking spaces will revert to their usual function.

We are testing the pop-up hub across the South East of Scotland to see what works well and what does not to help people to walk, wheel and cycle more. Keeping pop-ups between 6 to 8 weeks means that we can try different types of location and also gives more people the benefit of having the pop-up in their area.

We emailed stakeholders and delivered an information flyer to nearby households and businesses before the hub was installed and will be delivering information flyers during the pop-up. We have obtained the relevant permits from the council to occupy the space. We will be running a survey on the hub throughout the duration of the pop-up, which you can access at: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/edinburgh-leith/

The project aims to work out how more Scots can be supported to walk, wheel and cycle for short local journeys. The hub therefore needs to be near where people live, work or visit. We have acquired the permit required to occupy the parking bays and they will revert to public parking bays after the pop-up ends.

The hub features:

• Accessible seating to allow those with mobility needs (or anyone else) to rest while walking
• Bike repair stand and pump
• Voi bike hire
• Bike docking station
• Colourful planting and greenery
• Free walking and cycling events for the community while the hub is in the area

This is our 25th pop-up across Scotland, and none so far have resulted in any major issues relating to antisocial behaviour or littering for residents. However, we will respond to any issues raised (see below for how to contact us) and our Edinburgh-based team will check on the hub regularly.

Any events held at the hub will be during the daytime and very occasional. Longer events will be held at a nearby venue. See the events section of the pop-up web page to view more details about where events are being held.

If you have an urgent concern to report about the hub, you can email scotland@como.org.uk or call 07553 355519 between Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm. If you would like to share your opinion on the hub, positive, negative or neutral, you can fill in our survey, which can be accessed on SmartSurvey. By filling in the survey, you can also be entered into a prize draw to win a £25 online shopping voucher.