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A new bus service is up and running for Maidstone Hospital staff and users for a trial period to help ease capacity at the hospital.
The H1, run by Arriva, will link the hospital, in Hermitage Lane, with the London Road Park and Ride car park, in Beaver Road, Maidstone.
NHS staff will be able to travel free upon production of their NHS ID and there will also be a return ticket available for hospital visitors and outpatients at £2 per person or £2.50 for a group of up to two adults and three children travelling together.
A spokesman for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said:
“We are pleased to be working in partnership with Arriva to trial a new bus service between the Park and Ride on London Road and Maidstone Hospital.
“The service is available free for NHS staff who work at Maidstone Hospital and as a paid-for service for patients and visitors. The trial service forms part of our sustainable travel plans to encourage people to use alternative methods of transport to and from the hospital, and to help reduce traffic on our site.
“We hope this new service will be of real benefit to people using our hospital. The trial service will be reviewed in three months.”
The trust is expected to lodge plans for 200 parking spaces at Maidstone Hospital this January. If approved it will bring the total number of spaces to 698. Plans are also expected this month for 150 extra parking spaces at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
Buses will run on Monday to Friday every thirty minutes at peak times and every twenty minutes for the main part of the day. This service is expected to run for around three months.
