York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (From York Press)

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

10:49am Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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OF ALL the employers in York, few have had to manage travel to work by staff with more care than the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Scarcity of land for the expansion of York Hospital means that intensive use has to be made of every square metre.

That is why the Trust has had a travel plan since January 2002 and its ongoing success makes it a powerful contender for the Best Sustainable Travel Initiative title in The Press Business Awards 2010.

Its first five-year plan sought and achieved reduction in single occupancy car use to 53 per cent. The new plan aims to slash that to 44 per cent.

It is a tough ask, given that many of the 4,000 Trust staff are female and working unsociable hours because of shift patterns. Many commute from outlying areas around York where public transport is often limited.

But the strategy, defined by Mike Silk, a chartered civil engineer specialising in transport planning who is employed as the Trust’s travel co-ordinator, is to make environmentally-friendly methods of travel as attractive as possible.

The difficulty and expense of finding car parking is perhaps one reason why many staff are literally voting with their feet. Periodic travel surveys have detected a significant shift in the number walking to work – up from 7.7 per cent in 2000 to 14.3 per cent last year.

That and cycling are promoted as being beneficial to health. The proportion of those cycling to work rose from 13.8 per cent in 2000 to 21.3 per cent in 2009, and they have been encouraged by the provision of secure, covered and lit cycle parking with CCTV coverage.

The central cycle park has a capacity of 154 covered spaces and 20 open spaces in a secure staff-only card-accessed courtyard contributing to cycle parking made available across the hospital site for 600 bikes.

Special mileage rates for cyclists during working hours of up to 20p per mile have been introduced.

The Government’s Cycle To Work tax concession arrangement has enabled 500 staff to acquire new bikes tax free since it was introduced three years ago. Changing and showering facilities have been enhanced and pool bikes are available for local work-related trips.

Bus travel – used by about six per cent of staff – has been encouraged by a £2 per week subsidy from the Trust towards weekly and monthly travel cards on First buses, with a similar arrangement for Reliance buses from Easingwold.

A founder member of the City of York Council car sharing site, carshareyork.com, the Trust now has more than 160 staff interested in car sharing with nearly 30 sharing teams involving 60 staff daily. Free parking for car share vehicles is a big incentive.