Travelling to our sites

Thank you for taking the time to read this information about travelling to Sheffield Children’s sites.

To support our new Sustainable Travel Plan (STP) for 2022-2025, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact from travel and making it easier for everyone to access our sites across Sheffield for years to come.

There are lots of different ways to travel to our sites, including public transport, cycling and walking. It might be possible for you to attend your appointment virtually and prevent having to travel at all, just ask the person booking your appointment for more details.

We provide clinics and services on several sites so check your appointment letter for the address of the site you need to visit. View full address details for all sites.

This guide covers:

• Video appointments
• Claiming travel expenses
• Public transport including bus and tram services
• Walking
• Cycling – including cycle parking on site
• BetterPoints Sheffield
• Park and ride
• Parking near our sites

Video appointments

There’s lots of information available on our website about video appointments, where you can have an appointment in the comfort of your own home.

Video calls are not the answer for every appointment, but it may be the right choice for your situation. Please remember that the patient must be present and available for the appointment!

Here’s four good reasons to choose a video appointment:

1. You’re socially distanced from others by not attending in person
2. It saves you time and money
3. It’s green friendly – you won’t be contributing to our carbon footprint
4. Calls are completely safe and secure

Claiming travel expenses

Did you know that you may be able to claim back travel expenses on journeys to and from the hospital when escorting your child?

Public transport

Public transport is the best way to travel to Sheffield Children’s Hospital on Western Bank. We are well served by a number of bus services and close to the tram route.

Bus service

• Use Travel South Yorkshire’s journey planner tool to plan your journey from anywhere in the UK to the Western Bank hospital site.

• Travel South Yorkshire have also published a free Sheffield Hospital Guide which lists bus routes serving all Sheffield hospitals.

• We provide clinics and services on several sites so check your appointment letter for the address of the site you need to visit. View full address details for all sites.

Tram service

• Yellow and blue route trams call at the University of Sheffield stop a short walk from the hospital site on Western Bank.

• The Infirmary Road stop is the closest to Centenary House on both the yellow and blue routes.

• The blue route service runs to Crystal Peaks close to the Becton Centre.

• A tram park and ride scheme also operates from Nunnery Square and Middlewood.

If you need to reach a site that isn’t covered on this page, take a look at our website for maps and locations.

Walking to our sites

If you live close enough, walking is a great way to get to appointments if this suits your situation and need – it can be as gentle or high powered as you like!

• If you live too far away to walk the whole route, there’s bus and tram stops in walking distance of the hospital (Weston Bank, Durham Road, Glossop Road, University), and the mainline Sheffield train station is within walking distance.

• To plan your walking route to the hospital from other locations including bus/tram stops and the train station, you can use Google maps which allows you to search for routes.

Here’s five reasons why you should start walking as much as possible –

1. Walking helps prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and depression
2. It also helps with your breathing and lung capacity if you have conditions such as asthma
3. It gives you some time and space to think and prepare for your appointment
4. It gets you in the right frame of mind for the appointment ahead and allows you to decompress afterwards
5. Walking can also lessen your genetic tendency toward obesity. Researchers from Harvard University presented a study in 2012 showing that it’s possible to cut the effects of a genetic predisposition to obesity in half if you walk at a brisk pace for an hour each day.

Find out more about the benefits of walking through the Walking for Health NHS website.

Cycling to our sites

Sheffield is well known as a green city for our parks and trees, but it would be great if we can become a green city for our travel too! Cycling is a fantastic way to quickly get around if you live too far away from our sites to walk.

Here’s some useful information on cycling:

• Travel South Yorkshire
• Sustrans
• Cycle UK

The Sheffield City Council website is a great resource for local route planning. There are also lots of well-established cycling groups across the county who will be able to offer advice on the best routes to take.

Cycle parking

Cycle parking is available at our sites for patients, families, carers and visitors to use, just make sure you bring along a suitable lock.

Cycle storage locations

• Western Bank hospital – underground visitors car park – we will be installing signage for this in the turning circle at the main entrance
• Centenary House – front of building
• Becton – to the right of reception

Did you know?

Sheffield City Council offer cycling stands, lockers and pumps across the city centre – take a look at their location map for details.

Cycle route planning

If you need some specific advice on route planning, here’s some useful websites and apps:

• Cycle Streets allows you to input your exact start and finish point, giving you options for quieter or quicker routes
• Open Cycle Network
• travel
• National Cycle Network is a series of traffic-free paths and quiet roads that connect to every major town and city, including in South Yorkshire. You can also purchase hard copies of regional route maps on the Sustrans website.
• Komoot is a popular mapping app for cycling, allowing you to plan routes. The app can help you find your perfect route and can be filtered by distance, difficulty and even proximity to public transport links.
• MapMyRide is another alternative to mapping your upcoming trip.
• Strava is very popular with cyclists. Strava heat maps take logged user trips to show the most popular cycling routes, which can be useful when planning your trip.

BetterPoints Sheffield

BetterPoints Sheffield lets you earn rewards and win prizes for walking, wheeling, cycling and using public transport. 

Download the free BetterPoints app and register with a Sheffield postcode or enter the code bpshefooa if you live outside the city. 
 
You can spend the points you earn on Sheffield City Centre Gift Cards, at The Wave Cafe, or donate them to The Children’s Hospital Charity.

Park and ride

Park and Ride gives you a safe, stress free and convenient way to travel in Sheffield. Here are just a few of the reasons to give Park and Ride a go:

• Safe and secure – with CCTV or friendly staff at most sites, you and your car are in safe hands
• Avoid traffic congestion – beat the queues during rush hour
• Save money – this is a cheaper option than comparable town centre parking (including Q Park opposite the Western Bank hospital site) and free at a number of sites, just pay for the cost of your travel
• Reliable journey times – high frequency services, modern vehicles and traffic priority measures means your journey is quick, easy and reliable
• Go green – burn less fuel and reduce your carbon emissions by choosing public transport for part of your journey
• Less stress – sit back and relax! Take the worry out of town centre driving, parking and congestion

Parking near our sites

If you need to drive to our sites, take a look at our parking page for further details.