Hospital to introduce free park and ride facility

A FREE park and ride service is set to be introduced at the University Hospital Llandough (UHL) from today.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board says it has been launched following the “incredibly popular” service at the University Hospital of Wales which has been running since 2017.

The route will run between UHL and the old Toys R Us car park near the International Sports Village off Olympian Drive, Cardiff.

Buses will come every 20 minutes to take people on the 10-minute journey from the car park to the hospital.

The service, which will only run on weekdays, will start at 6.30am and finish at 7.07pm.

The return service leaves UHL starting at 6.40am and finishing at 7.15pm.

Funding for this service was provided by Cardiff & Vale Health Charity which promotes health and wellbeing in line with the Welsh Government initiative, A Healthier Wales.

Director of capital, estates and facilities, Geoff Walsh, said: “The park and ride service will make it easier for our patients, staff and visitors to get to the hospital, for work, appointments and to visit their loved ones.

In addition, Cardiff & Vale Health Charity will soon be funding a shuttle bus that will travel between the UHW and UHL sites.

Monday, July 22 will also see the start of essential remedial repairs to the multi-storey car park at UHL which is expected to take five weeks.

The health board says the work has been scheduled to coincide with the launch of the new park and ride service, as well as the school summer holidays, to minimise disruption as much as possible.

During the first four weeks of the works, Level 6 (patient and visitor) and Level 5 (staff ) of the car park will be unavailable, while the levels below this remain in use.

However, all levels of the car park will be unavailable during the final week of the works, commencing Monday, August 19, before the car park reopens on Monday, August 26.