Plan your journey, track your bus, and travel with confidence using the First Bus app. With real-time updates, mobile tickets, and personalised tools, getting around by bus has never been easier.
Bus travellers can buy, gift, and activate digital bus tickets, manage secure payments, and save favourite locations, stops, and services for quicker access. The app also supports account management, consent management, while providing access to help and support features.
Whether you’re commuting, exploring, or travelling occasionally, the app helps you stay in control from door to door.
Planning your journey
Find the best routes using locations, stops, or service numbers. View routes, timings, and stop information to plan trips that suit you.
Live Bus tracking
See your bus in real time on an interactive map and get more accurate arrival estimates. This feature helps reduce waiting uncertainty, improves journey planning, and enables users to make informed travel decisions by knowing exactly where their bus is at any moment.
Departure Board
Check upcoming services for either your stop or route, with clear timings and filtering (such as First Bus only) options. The time and dates can also be easily adjusted for future travel plans.
Favourites
Save your most-used stops, locations, and bus services for quick access every time you travel.
Buying
Buy, gift, and activate digital tickets directly in the app with a variety of filters. Secure payments and instant access mean no paper tickets needed. Tickets appear instantly ready to use in your account.
Gifting
Send tickets to friends or family quickly and easily. During the ticket buying flow, users can choose to gift a ticket instead of using it themselves, enter recipient details, and complete the purchase securely.
Activating Tickets
Activate your ticket in the First Bus app when you’re ready to travel. Once activated, it clearly shows its status and validity, making it quick and easy to present when boarding the bus.
Account and Payments
The First Bus app lets users securely manage their account and payment details in one place. Users can sign up, sign in, and reset their password if needed, as well as view and update their personal information and account settings. They can also choose to delete their account if required.
Within the app, users can manage saved payment cards, set a default payment method, and remove cards at any time. All payment information is handled securely, helping ensure a smooth, safe, and convenient ticket purchasing experience.
Preferences
Choose your region, set walking distance preferences, and manage consent and notifications.
Help and support
Access FAQs , contacts and support resources in our dedicated help centre.
Every bus has a transponder and the app has a real time transponder map showing the exact position of ever bus on your route. Little busses moving along on the map so cute. I got a 7 year old to show me how to use it. Actually she might not have been 7 cos she worked at the hospital. I digress. Once you know how to use it it’s BRILLIANT. But if you feel 92 and you haven’t got a 7 year old hospital worker to help you it’s a weee bit confusing. For instance why do you have to tap on directions to see the timetablely thing and when you want to toggle between the real time transponder map and the timetablely thing you can’t just go BACK you have to go BACK BACK. And why doesn’t the bus search for the real time transponder map know where I am. For example I live in the South West and when I type in 7 for the number 7 bus it suggests every number 7 in the known universe starting with the Outer Hebrides. Actually it might not be the Outer Hebrides, but it definitely wasn’t within 300 miles. Having said all this the real time transponder map is awesome you can see all the naughty busses bunching up in threes 30 minutes away. Sometimes when there are road works you can see them go off route. Little mind blown!!
First Bus First Class Drivers
SueKTorquay
Your cheerful, polite & extremely helpful drivers have literally given me my life back. I’m a 65 yr old lady who used to drive & was independent until 2017 when an accident left me with limited mobility. Since that time I have been dependent on a husband who hates shopping to take me, but the nearest supermarket was his limit & then with no time to browse. Then one day I decided to try getting on the bus that runs through the village to town using my powerchair, since that day I have not looked back & I now regularly get the bus to Truro which is some 20 miles away & I plan to travel to other towns in West Cornwall over the coming months. Your drivers are always beyond helpful assisting me to get on the bus using the ramp & this has given me my confidence back & in turn my independence, so a huge thank you to all the drivers who work in the Helston, Truro & Penzance area for your patience & help, I will always be indebted to you.
New Update NOT Good
GIMMIGUMI
Just before the new update released, I wasn’t able to track buses, I could only use tickets. Now that the update is out, I got to it promptly to see if it fixed the issue but it hasn’t. Before, I used to be able to press a bus number and it would show me where it is along the route. Now when I press the bus number, it does nothing. I can only see the route for the bus arriving to the stop first and not the bus I actually need to track. Please fix this ASAP!!When multiple buses are arriving to a stop at once because they are late, it’s important that I can see on the map exactly where my bus is to hail it down. More than once, a driver has gone past my stop if it couldn’t pull in and I’ve missed my bus.Not only this, but the new rewording of the tickets is confusing. The ‘inactive’ section makes it seem like my tickets aren’t valid and aren’t able to be activated / have already expired. The old format of purchased tickets and expired tickets was far more clear. I used a ticket this morning and it has not gone into my expired tickets and nor can I see my prior expired tickets since the update. It appears to still be in my inactive section, almost as if I never used it. What’s going on?
Really bad app, lots of improvements needed
LDaVinciBS4
This app is really bad. There is a planning section to identify which bus you need but this does not link with an option to buy a ticket for that journey. Instead, you need to head to the ticket section, select an area and guess which ticket is valid for that journey. I find this very confusing and have witnessed people being told they chose the wrong ticket. The tickets are terrible. They need to be activated and then used within 10 minutes of activation, why? There is no need for this. You should be able to buy a ticket and scan it without having to activate it. Buses are usually overcrowded due to delays and cancellations so it happens regularly that people activate their tickets when the bus arrives to the bus stop but then are denied boarding because the bus is full. Because of this, some people don’t activate their tickets until they are on the bus which causes more delays. Another rubbish feature of this app is that when you scan your ticket on the bus it does not reflect this on the app. The countdown for the 10 minutes to use the ticket continues and there is no acknowledgement that you have used that ticket or what bus you used it for. One final thought, why are there so many irrelevant reviews in here? The reviews are meant to be about the app, not about the service.
Discounts & Promo Codes
We've added support for promo codes at checkout, making it easier to redeem discounts and take advantage of special promotions.
Performance Enhancements
A range of performance improvements have been introduced to ensure the app runs more efficiently and responds more quickly.
Bug and Stability Fixes
Several issues that previously caused bugs or unexpected crashes have been resolved, resulting in a more stable and consistent experience.
Version 7.1.0
The developer, FirstGroup Plc, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
Location
Identifiers
Usage Data
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
Purchases
Location
Contact Info
User Content
Search History
Identifiers
Usage Data
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Location
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
