HSE staff shuttle bus carries 850 per week

A free shuttle bus service for HSE staff travelling between University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park is carrying around 850 passengers per week.

And the service has now increased frequency following the closure of a staff carpark at UHG for construction work – forcing up to 90 more workers to avail of the free ‘Park & Ride’ from Merlin Park instead.

The construction work is part of an overall schedule of works that includes a new Radiation Oncology Unit, a new Acute Adult Mental Health Services Unit and a two storey carpark.

The shuttle service travels between the two hospitals from Monday to Friday and has been in operation for around 10 years.

A HSE spokesperson told the Sentinel: “It intended to transport staff who work on both sites along with samples for the labs, files and so on. The shuttle is also used by staff based in UHG who travel from the east or north of the county and who park in Merlin Park and travel by bus to and from UHG.

“This is part of the traffic management plan for the UHG campus which seeks to reduce the number of cars travelling to the UHG campus every day.

“On July 16, a staff car park with 90 spaces was closed as part of the construction works at UHG. In order to lessen the impact of the closure of this car park a number of measures were put in place including enhancing the existing shuttle bus service between UHG and Merlin Park.

“The shuttle bus now runs from 7am to 9pm with a frequency of every 20 minutes at the start and end of shifts and at 30 minute intervals at non-peak times. Additional car parking spaces were created in Merlin Park for staff based in UHG who now travel by shuttle bus.”

For more on this story, see this week’s Connacht Sentinel