Simulations of classical pattern-forming reaction–diffusion systems indicate that they often operate in the strongly nonlinear regime, with the final steady state consisting of a spatially repeating pattern of localized spikes. In activator–inhibitor systems such as the two-component Gierer–Meinhardt (GM) model, one can consider the singular limit
D
a
≪
D
h
, where
D
a
and
D
h
are the diffusivities of the activator and inhibitor, respectively. Asymptotic analysis can then be used to analyse the existence and linear stability of multi-spike solutions. In this paper, we analyse multi-spike solutions in a hybrid reaction–transport model, consisting of a slowly diffusing activator and an actively transported inhibitor that switches at a rate
α
between right-moving and left-moving velocity states. Such a model was recently introduced to account for the formation and homeostatic regulation of synaptic puncta during larval development in
Caenorhabditis elegans
. We exploit the fact that the hybrid model can be mapped onto the classical GM model in the fast switching limit
α
→ ∞, which establishes the existence of multi-spike solutions. Linearization about the multi-spike solution yields a non-local eigenvalue problem that is used to investigate stability of the multi-spike solution by combining analytical results for
α
→ ∞ with a graphical construction for finite
α
.
Non-orthogonally transitive
G
2
spike solution
