A brand-new bus route which provides a direct weekday link for patients to Harrogate District Hospital has launched into service.
Routes 4 and 5 will take passengers from Harrogate Bus Station every hour and drop them at Lancaster Park Road via Mowbray Square Medical Centre.
They are the brainchild of Transdev and Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust who have spent several months planning and implementing the new services.
Keith Roebuck, Business Director at Transdev said: Customers have regularly enquired about a direct bus to and from the hospital.
We’re really pleased to be providing more and better options for all those needing to get to the District Hospital.
Our buses on route 1 between Harrogate and Knaresborough continue to offer the most frequent transport option – running past the hospital on Knaresborough Road every seven minutes.
However, we now have new routes 4 and 5 that will stop within a short walking distance of the hospital’s main reception on Lancaster Park Road.
Several morning journeys will also extend to and from Pannal Ash creating further new transport links and every journey serves the Mowbray Health Centre during opening hours.
Transdev’s 1, 1a, 1b and 1c from Harrogate to Knaresborough will continue as the company’s most frequent service in the area.
The 4 and 5 will compliment the 1 with buses leaving the bus station hourly from 9.50am until 8pm.
Evening journeys will provide access for those using the hospital facilities out of hours. The service will be even quicker from 6pm running straight from the bus station to the hospital in eight minutes.
Route 5 will also serve Oatlands, Green Lane and Pannal Ash, providing new links between Pannal Ash, Marks & Spencer at Oatlands Corner and the health facilities too.
A stop will be conveniently located a short walking distance from the main hospital reception.
Mr Roebuck added: Here is a bus tailored to visitor needs, stopping as near as possible to the main hospital reception, ”
We hope that people will also be encouraged to use the bus rather than travel by car as this will help reduce the number of vehicles at the hospital during their busy peak times.
Transdev are also improving its Route 6 to every 30 minutes between Pannal Ash, Cold Bath Road and the town centre, giving you a more convenient service and an easier-to-remember timetable.
There are no changes to peak-time Route X6 to and from Beckwith Knowle.
Full details of services 4, 5 and 6 can be found at www.harrogatebus.co.uk
