HEMS Placement Travel Guide
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Now more than ever, travel to and from your placement can be difficult. With multiple factors to consider such as distance, ticket prices, fuel costs and frequency of public transport, the last thing you want is for these to become a barrier to attendance.
In light of the Cost-of-Living crisis impacting students, Sharmeen Jawad, Vice President Healthcare Practice, has compiled this travel information, discount and funding guide for students travelling to and from placement.
If you have your travel costs reimbursed (this is not applicable to all courses or years of study, and varies from course to course and year of study, you will have been notified if you are eligible for this), this discount guide is separate to reimbursement in that it provides ways to save money, which, if implemented, means you will spend less on travel so you will be reimbursed for a lower amount.
Please note, some discounts will have additional eligibility criteria, so make sure you do your full research for all discounts mentioned throughout.
The aim of this guide is to support you and is by no means exhaustive, these may be other discounts available that are not covered here, so please continue to do your own research and have a look around.
A lot of providers listed will have Apps to make it easier for you to access transport information. Placement areas include Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Essex and for some courses, London.
All information is correct and up to date at the time of writing.
Driving
Some National Health Service (NHS) trusts, hospitals, private, and community organisations offer free or reduced-fee/staff-rate parking to students on placement. Contact your placement directly to see if they offer such discounts.
Blue badge holders are entitled to free parking in certain areas of Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, and London. Keep a look out for signs and factor this in when planning your journey.
Off-street parking may be available at some locations but bear in mind that these spaces may be limited, and availability may vary. In some cases they may be far from the trust you are travelling to as well.
Carpooling is also a great idea: it saves on fuel and potential parking costs while allowing you to socialise! Why not reach out to your peers attending the same placement as you and travel together.
Park-and-Ride
With park-and-ride schemes, you drive to a park-and-ride that is near to your destination, you drive to a park-and-ride that is near to your desination, you then leave your car and get on a bus that will take you the rest of the way to where you are going. With some park-and-ride schemes, the bus travel is even discounted (some destinations such as hospitals/trusts etc offer this for free) and can be used for the whole day to get around the city!
Essex Highways offer park-and-ride schemes in Chelmsford and Colchester.
Find out more here.
Cambridgeshire offers a variety of park-and-ride schemes to help you travel around Cambridge.
Find out more here.
Buses
Cambridgeshire offer some free bus passes based on eligibility criteria.
Find out more here.
Cambridgeshire also offer subsidised bus passes, such as the Ely Zipper Young Person's pass, which is a regular daytime service to Ely. If you are under 21 years old, you may apply for a pass entitling you to unlimited travel on the bus.
Find out more here.
Tiger Bus Passes give under-25s in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough bus fares for £1!
Find out more here.
StageCoach run major city bus operations in London and Cambridge, offering student tickets for bus travel, as well as Flexi tickets, concessionary tickets, and reduced fees for jobseek's allowance.
Find out more here.
Trains
In London, the
18+ Student Oyster Photocard gives you discounted travel on travel cards and bus and tram pass season tickets.
Find out more here.
Santander's 1|2|3 Student Current account currently offer a free 16-25-year-old railcard!
Find out more here.
Taxi
Taxis are one of the pricier options, but certain apps such as FreeNow, Uber, Kapten and Bolt offer introductory discounts when you travel with them, or if you get the apps.
Other
A free-to-use sustainable journey planner, the TravelEssex app helps people in Essex to plan their journeys and travel by foot, bike, bus, and train anywhere in the county. Just search TravelEssex in the App Store!
Community transport local organisations in Essex and Thurrock offer a wide range of transport services, such as social car, dial a ride, group travel and more. They often run as charities and are usually operated by people working together to solver their own transport needs, mostly relying on volunteers to help.
Find out more here.
ARU Resources
ARU and other organisations also provide financial support which may help with your travel costs! Please see the links below:
General information:
ARU Funding:
Other Discounts
Do you know of any other discounts that sutdents may benefit from? If you do, let me know and I will add them into this guide!