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Newry city residents who need to attend Craigavon Hospital and who don't have their own transport, face up to a 5 hr 13 min round trip by bus! Of course if you are away in Kilkeel or Crossmaglen that makes matters even more complicated.
The challenges of travelling to Craigavon Hospital has been brought very much to the fore in recent days wiith some Hospital services such as acute stroke not currently available at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry while other service provisions are also under pressure.
According to the Translink route planner there is no direct way to Craigavon Hospital from Newry. All bus routes take in a cocktail of other stops including Belfast, Armagh, Banbridge, Richhill and Sprucefield. For anyone dealing with any kind of illness it would be extremely difficult to cope with.
Portadown residents are in the lucky position that they have 60 bus trips a day from the centre of town to Craigavon Hospital so It is feasible that you could use the Newry to Portadown train service and walk to Market Street in the town and get the local hospital bus route from there and do the same in reverse on your way back, but this option isn't mentioned on the Translink site. Regardless that journey could place even more strain on the traveller with the link bus from Newry station stopping early in the evening.
The difficulty is not just for those who are ill, or those who have a hospital appointment at Craigavon. Visits to see a relative or friend are also ridiculously difficult for those without their own transport. Craigavon Hospital visiting times are between 2pm and 4pm and 6.30pm and 8.30pm. If you work 9-5 it is impossible to visit. Yes you have 5 minutes to make the 17:05 bus to get to the hospital for 18:17, in time for visiting but unfortunately once you get there you won't have time to visit them as the last bus is 18.19 Monday to Friday. You'd have a bit more luck on a Saturday with maybe 20 minutes to see your sick relative leaving for Newry at 18:51 but that involves an incredible 'adventure' of a bus to Portadown Train Station, train to Belfast and bus from Belfast to Newry. Mind you it is better than Sundays when the last bus home is 17:31 so no chance at all of an evening visit.
Via Belfast
Newry residents who want to visit a patient between 2pm and 4pm during the day or have an appointment around that time are faced with at least one change on each journey and the total travelling time of 5hrs 13 mins, with travelling back to Newry via Belfast the only option. And that option is at 17:18, a wait of nearly an hour and a half before there is a bus.
The journey by car to Craigavon Hospital takes around 40-45 minutes from Newry and historically this was regarded as the only way to travel there, but if services continue to be redirected away from Daisy Hill to Craigavon, the provision of a fast and regular public transport service to the hospital will need to be addressed.
