The Oxford Bus Company pilot scheme offers Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust employees discounted bus travel – a step closer to a greener future, prioritising staff travel.

The pilot will see an adult one-day cityzone ticket, which offers one day of unlimited travel within the cityzone area, discounted by over 50% – costing £2.00.

The Oxford Bus Company app, where the ticket will be accessed, has great features including live bus tracking and departure information, detailed journey planning and stop-by-stop timetables for all services.

The trial comes as Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust develops its green travel plan, launching at the end of 2024.

The Trust operates mental health hospitals and community hospitals across Oxfordshire plus community services including mental health services, minor injury units, the out of hours GP service, district nursing, health visiting and school nursing.

The Oxford Bus Company operates services across Oxfordshire and beyond, with a number of these offering high frequency connections within Oxford, serving both Park&Ride locations, Oxford Health sites and many more locations such as Kidlington and Abingdon. This partnership will offer a simple attractive ticket discount proposal to staff, with the hope to promote the use of public transport and reduce emissions.

Chief Finance Officer Heather Smith, who leads on the Greener NHS campaign at Oxford Health, said: “The Trust is delighted to launch this pilot scheme – it is a great opportunity to expand our options of sustainable travel to staff, whilst providing convenience and discounted ticket prices. Following our annual Trust travel survey in 2023, it was clear these were two points staff valued when deciding how they would travel to work.

“We would like to thank Oxford Bus Company, we look forward to working in collaboration with them and hope this pilot will be a success.”

Data, Fares & Ticketing Manager at Oxford Bus Company Chris Reeves added: “We’re delighted to be working with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust on offering discounted bus travel for their colleagues. Our services offer frequent, low cost journey options for both colleagues travelling within the city and those choosing to use one of the dedicated Park&Ride sites if coming from further afield. With more and more of our brand new electric buses starting to hit the streets too, there’s never been a better time for colleagues to give the bus a try!”

Oxford Health’s travel plan for staff forms part of the Trust’s wider green plan as part of the NHS national ambition to be the world’s first net zero health service – hoping for the NHS Carbon Footprint (for the emissions directly controlled by the NHS) to be net zero by 2040.