NHS, school and nursery staff in Oxford can now get £1 bus singles to work and 16 hours' free park and ride parking a day. Who qualifies and how to apply.

Anyone who works at an NHS site, a school or a nursery in Oxford can now apply for £1 single bus fares to and from work, and free parking at the city’s five park and ride sites. Oxfordshire County Council launched the scheme on Tuesday.

It is paid for out of the income from Oxford’s temporary congestion charge, which ran from 29 October 2025 to 27 September 2026. The council announced the package on 20 October. It is expected to run for about eight months and will be reviewed in that time.

What staff get

  • Free parking for up to 16 hours a day at Oxford Parkway, Pear Tree, Redbridge, Seacourt and Thornhill park and ride, through a council account on RingGo.
  • £1 single bus tickets to and from your workplace in Oxford, by showing a scheme travel card to the driver.

The council’s scheme page says the £1 fare works on eligible services run by Oxford Bus Company, Thames Travel, Stagecoach, Pulham’s and Red Rose and Redline. It does not apply to the airline coaches or the Oxford Tube. The same page says the benefits are expected to last until May 2027.

Who can apply

The offer is open to all staff at NHS sites, schools, nurseries and early years settings inside the Oxford city boundary. The council says that includes teaching, clinical, administration, catering and facilities staff.

The scheme’s terms and conditions add two details worth knowing:

  • Contractors count. You qualify whether you are employed directly or by a contractor or subcontractor working at the site.
  • Universities do not. Places whose main purpose is higher education are excluded, so university staff are not covered. Colleges and early years settings are.

The scheme page has a map to check whether your workplace is inside the boundary. The John Radcliffe, the Churchill and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre are all Oxford sites.

How to apply

Your employer should send you an invitation link. You can also apply online using your work email address. You will need:

  • a recent passport-style photo, if you want the bus travel card
  • your vehicle registration, if you want the free parking

The council says it will post the travel card within 10 working days. Parking access arrives as an email from RingGo once your application is approved. If you have no smartphone, the free parking can be used by calling 0203 046 0010.

What it means for you

The saving depends on how you get to work.

  • If you drive to a park and ride, a day’s parking normally costs £2.50 for up to 16 hours, or £45 for a 28-day permit, according to the county’s Thornhill page. Under the scheme it is free, and the bus in costs £1 each way.
  • If you take the bus from home, a single is £1 instead of up to the £3 fare cap. Over a return trip that is up to £4 a day.
  • The terms say a space is not guaranteed. The benefit covers the cost of parking, not a bay, and it is for travel to and from your workplace only.

Anyone not covered can still use the £3 combined park and ride ticket. It covers 16 hours’ parking and return bus travel for up to five people, and runs until 31 March 2027. Our parking in Oxford page has the full tariffs.

Where the money comes from

The council’s cabinet agreed a congestion charge investment plan on 19 May 2026. The charge was replaced by the traffic filter trial on 28 September. Councillor Gareth Epps, the county’s Cabinet Member for Transport, said the money was being used “to support them with the cost of travelling to work, while also encouraging more people to choose park and ride and bus travel.”

The release says hospital express buses from three park and ride sites are expected to start in early 2027. It does not yet say which three.

Sources