PlusBus Tickets

[tram21]

Its 'fine' if they can't read them (obviously it would be better if they could), but for them to be rejected then for the driver to refuse to budget from the machine rejecting them isn't fine.

 

[sheff1]

The whole point I imagine of them being E-Tickets was this could combat this in a lot of the cases!
Sadly reality hasn’t resulted in this.

If all machines were programmed correctly to accept valid tickets then it would indeed solve the problem but, as ticket reading devices on the railway often reject valid rail tickets, not a surprise if devices on buses reject valid 'rail' tickets as well.

 

[GLC]

I had a PlusBus ticket for the Glasgow area on Friday, and it didn't go smoothly at any point.

Firstly tried it on a Stagecoach bus, which had no barcode scanner. Driver peered at it for a while but eventually let me on
Next was on a McGills bus (local company bus managed to buy out Arriva so a decent size), scanning the barcode produced an error. Again the driver studied the ticket for a long time, but eventually let me on.
Finally it was on a First bus, and again the barcode failed to scan. The driver let me on almost immediately though, I got the impression this was not the first time he's had a ticket fail to scan.

It would not have surprised me if either of the McGills of First drivers had refused entry to me based on the ticket, which was valid, based on the machine. Doesn't give me confidence to use it in other areas where I am more dependent on the bus

 

[Edvid]

Third time lucky!

Successfully scanned my Hitchin ePlusbus ticket on the Arriva Herts & Essex 100, just outside Butterfield (the zone extends from Hitchin down the A505 to just inside Luton). About time.

 

[dk1]

I always ask the guard to print my PlusBus on card rather than paper for this very reason. Either the bus driver hasn’t seen a toilet roll printed one before, or they ask me to scan the barcode that isn’t going to work

If they aren’t carrying the card printer, I usually buy it from the booking office instead.

 

[Willie Bee]

I had a PlusBus ticket for the Glasgow area on Friday, and it didn't go smoothly at any point.

Firstly tried it on a Stagecoach bus, which had no barcode scanner. Driver peered at it for a while but eventually let me on
Next was on a McGills bus (local company bus managed to buy out Arriva so a decent size), scanning the barcode produced an error. Again the driver studied the ticket for a long time, but eventually let me on.
Finally it was on a First bus, and again the barcode failed to scan. The driver let me on almost immediately though, I got the impression this was not the first time he's had a ticket fail to scan.

It would not have surprised me if either of the McGills of First drivers had refused entry to me based on the ticket, which was valid, based on the machine. Doesn't give me confidence to use it in other areas where I am more dependent on the bus

My wife and I were in Glasgow in June 2023 and had PlusBus tickets.

It was either 4 out of 4 or 5 out of 5 buses that the drivers initially said no, but eventually we were allowed on.

I added a comment on this forum somewhere at the time, as I thought maybe the PlusBus scheme was new, so the drivers were not aware of it, but it seems the scheme has been running for well over 20 years.

We like it in Edinburgh, as it covers the trams too

 

[dk1]

We like it in Edinburgh, as it covers the trams too

Yes I was impressed with that. Just can’t use it for the last couple of miles to the airport which is fine as I never fly into or out of Edinburgh but I would like to tick the track off at some point.

Nottingham, Sheffield and West Midlands also accept PusBus on their tram networks. The latter is fantastically good value considering the area you can use the PlusBus for less than a fiver a day.

 

[Willie Bee]

Yes I was impressed with that. Just can’t use it for the last couple of miles to the airport which is fine as I never fly into or out of Edinburgh but I would like to tick the track off at some point.

Nottingham, Sheffield and West Midlands also accept PusBus on their tram networks. The latter is fantastically good value considering the area you can use the PlusBus for less than a fiver a day.

My wife and I haven't visited Nottingham, or Sheffield yet, but will do eventually.

And don't forget, with railcards the PlusBus tickets are even better value .. £3.30 now in Edinburgh

 

[dk1]

My wife and I haven't visited Nottingham, or Sheffield yet, but will do eventually.

And don't forget, with railcards the PlusBus tickets are even better value .. £3.30 now in Edinburgh

Of course. I once got issued a PlusBus with a railcard discount. It was a Young Persons one and i was well into 40s. The guard had made the error and said ”see if they notice as I bet they don’t”. They were correct as bus drivers only look at the date and PlusBus on the ticket. I felt like a criminal all day though. My guilty face would give it away most of the time.

 

[Edvid]

The King's Lynn zone is a bit of a curiosity.

On yesterday's travels my eTicket scanned successfully on the routes of both local outfits (Lynx / Go To Town); it didn't on the Excel routes (First Eastern Counties) but was accepted with a quick confirmation I'd alight within the Lynns. To have a zone knowingly 'in-between' where Ticketered participants are concerned is unusual so I'm wondering if that's a conscious decision by First EC.

For some reason Go To Town's Ticketers also print tickets after PlusBus scans.

 

[Deerfold]

The plusbus website seems to have had a downgrade.

I'm sure you used to be able to click on the name of most operators to go to their website.

This doesn't seem to work any more.

 

[Fiyero]

I note my local town's plusbus page no longer lists BlueStar - who must run like 90% of the buses in the area but are still listed on PlusBus for other areas so not like they have withdrawn.
Any way to be sure?

 

[Vexed]

I note my local town's plusbus page no longer lists BlueStar - who must run like 90% of the buses in the area but are still listed on PlusBus for other areas so not like they have withdrawn.
Any way to be sure?

I see what you mean, that's a rather big omission! Contact Bluestar maybe? They're usually pretty good for bus operators at customer service.

 

[markymark2000]

The plusbus website seems to have had a downgrade.

I'm sure you used to be able to click on the name of most operators to go to their website.

This doesn't seem to work any more.

I'm hoping it's just a temporary downgrade to be better than the old really site, but pending vast improvements with the new site that Passenger are making.

 

[PeachLillabo]

I note my local town's plusbus page no longer lists BlueStar - who must run like 90% of the buses in the area but are still listed on PlusBus for other areas so not like they have withdrawn.
Any way to be sure?

Meanwhile my local towns pages list operators that have ceased trading years ago.

 

[kkong]

The PlusBus Day fare stated on the PlusBus website for my city has increased by approx. 8% since I last used it a few weeks ago.

However BRFares still reports the "previous" fare when searching using the fares from 08 Jun 2025.

Any ideas what is going on?

 

[stadler]

The King's Lynn zone is a bit of a curiosity.

On yesterday's travels my eTicket scanned successfully on the routes of both local outfits (Lynx / Go To Town); it didn't on the Excel routes (First Eastern Counties) but was accepted with a quick confirmation I'd alight within the Lynns. To have a zone knowingly 'in-between' where Ticketered participants are concerned is unusual so I'm wondering if that's a conscious decision by First EC.

For some reason Go To Town's Ticketers also print tickets after PlusBus scans.

What exactly is printed on the bus ticket? That is very odd to print tickets for plusbus scans and it seems like a waste of paper. I know some operators print tickets for ENCTS scans but even that is getting rare now. Do you have a photo of the bus ticket that printed when you scanned your plusbus?

 

[Edvid]

What exactly is printed on the bus ticket? That is very odd to print tickets for plusbus scans and it seems like a waste of paper. I know some operators print tickets for ENCTS scans but even that is getting rare now. Do you have a photo of the bus ticket that printed when you scanned your plusbus?

Yes, I still have the ticket.

It's labelled "PlusBus £0.00" and includes 9 partially obscured digits of the 11-digit "barcode" code ID, but other than that it displays the usual information.

 

[Adtrainsam]

Decided to give the PlusBus e-ticket a go in Chelmsford today on my commute. Both services were operated by First Essex and were thankfully accepted by the drivers. Following the trend from other reports, I was sceptical that First would have managed to update their Ticketers to accept the Aztec code. On both occasions, I decided against scanning and presented it as a flash pass. One driver accepted it straight away and the other gave me a quizzical look but after I said ‘It’s plusbus’, she gladly waved me on.

I’ll have to find some less busy services in the future to see if the machines have been updated to accept PlusBus and report back.

 

[Fiyero]

I note my local town's plusbus page no longer lists BlueStar - who must run like 90% of the buses in the area but are still listed on PlusBus for other areas so not like they have withdrawn.
Any way to be sure?

In case anyone was interested, I emailed and heard back:

Good afternoon [Fiyero],

Thanks so much for getting in touch — and for flagging this with us!

We’ve checked in with the local scheme coordinator, and they’ve confirmed that Bluestar is indeed still a participating operator in the Eastleigh PlusBus scheme. It looks like this was an error on our end, and we’ve now added Bluestar back onto the website.

Apologies for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused, and thank you again for bringing it to our attention — we really appreciate it!

Kind regards,

The PlusBus Team

 

[kkong]

PlusBus e-tickets are not being recognised as valid by the Ticketer machines on First Aberdeen buses.

Stagecoach buses in Aberdeen still don't have any scanners.

No issues travelling with either operator, with driver interactions ranging from "yes, that's great" to a short discussion.

 

[Edvid]

Over three months on, PlusBus eTicket availability for online/app bookings hasn't changed much either.

Raileasy-powered sites (including recent addition Realtime Tickets), Trip.com/Trainpal, LNER (Vix/SilverRail), GWR (Worldline?) and now Red Spotted Hanky (sticking with the old Worldline Mixing Deck) currently offer them.

I think TPE used to offer them when they had the same system as GWR, but they've recently switched to OnTrack Retail and no longer offer PlusBus at all.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Jul 2025 ==

Stagecoach buses in Aberdeen still don't have any scanners.

That goes for the majority of non-franchised Stagecoach operators, and will likely remain so for the remaining year (?) of their existing ETM contract with Vix.

 

[markymark2000]

Over three months on, PlusBus eTicket availability for online/app bookings hasn't changed much either.

TFW are apparently looking at it. Their email reply to me in May was

We appreciate and understand the convenience of e-ticket, and currently PlusBus is only available within the app if selecting ticket collection.
However, we are looking to introduce this option in the near future in line with our next major app update. We hope this will be within the next few months.
I apologise I don't have a specific timescale, but I can assure you this is something we are looking to introduce.

 

[Shrewbly]

Daughter reports that her PlusBus e-ticket wasn't read by the machine on a First Worcester bus today, but was accepted without quibble by the driver.

 

[Edvid]

Revisiting the topic of ITSO fulfilment - for bookings on the Southeastern website it appears that PlusBus day tickets can be loaded to their Key Smartcard.



As a combination of two niche pieces I suspect sales for the year are either zero or counted on one hand, never mind the unlikelihood of bus operators (Metrobus / Brighton & Hove aside) even adding rail Operator IDs to their systems in the first place...

 

[1D54]

Purchased my first ever PlusBus ticket yesterday to use in Wolverhampton on Saturday. It's a credit card style from a booking office and says only valid with a Senior Railcard (which i have) but i didn't realise that discounts were available on such a product.

 

[MrJeeves]

Revisiting the topic of ITSO fulfilment - for bookings on the Southeastern website it appears that PlusBus day tickets can be loaded to their Key Smartcard.

A great way to cause customer service complaints.

 

[Haywain]

didn't realise that discounts were available on such a product.

They have been since PlusBus was introduced.

 

[1D54]

They have been since PlusBus was introduced.

Is it the same reduction as the Senior Railcard? I keep records of savings made over the duration of the card so it would be nice to know the correct amount.

 

[Watershed]

Is it the same reduction as the Senior Railcard? I keep records of savings made over the duration of the card so it would be nice to know the correct amount.

Yes, 1/3 off.