Press Releases

• First Bus is offering free travel for all veterans and UK Armed Forces personnel travelling to Remembrance Day activities on 11th & 12th November
• Veterans and military personnel will get a free return journey by wearing their military uniform or showing the driver their Service ID card
• First Bus has a strong affiliation with the Armed Forces, with many veterans working for the business
• Royal British Legion with its representatives and military personnel were present for a photo call to start their 2023 poppy appeal 

• Dedicated Park n Ride service every 15 minutes from White Rose Way
• Dedicated Park n Ride service every 20 minutes from Frenchgate Interchange
• Adult return fare £3 and £2 for children. Concessionary travel passes will not be accepted on this service. 

• Leicester to Birmingham Airport with a pick up at Fosse Park
• 16 seats available to book per journey
• Prices from £9 for a single journey online at Aircoach UK | Aircoach UK 
• every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 
• 15kg luggage allowance + a small bag to take onboard 

• Two buses donated by First Bus to carry medical aid to Ukraine.
• Wellglade Group donates supplies, parts, and fuel.

• Free travel with First Bus to Doncaster Pride on Saturday 12th August
• Bus services 55, 57, 58 and 73 run from Doncaster Interchange to the event

• From 30th July, TravelMaster 7-day tickets will not be available for purchase through the contactless function on board a bus. 
• Cash purchases remain valid to purchase a 7-day TravelMaster ticket.
• The change is being made to counter fraudulent activity related to the purchase of this ticket using the contactless       payment function. 

• First Bus Great Expedition challenge across the UK
• Local team at First Bus in Doncaster took on the challenge and walked 10 miles, equalling 270,000 steps  

• The Government funded £2 Flat fare remains in place until October.
• Popular 3 in 7, 5 in 7 and 10 journey tickets offer total flexibility for travel.
• New Tap on Tap off ticketing technology big switch on in the summer will simplify payments and can help speed up boarding times, journeys, and reliability, and is flexible and accessible for anyone with a physical digital bank or credit card.
• £300k investment by First South Yorkshire in Tap-on Tap-Off technology to take another important step to pave the way for an all-operator integrated system in the future.

The official public launch of the initiative was held on Thursday 21^st April – Leicester city centre with deputy mayor Adam Clarke, council officers, bus operators and representatives from Little pay and Ticketer and the public  

• First multi-operator contactless capping scheme to launch in the UK with over 99% of passenger journeys   covered by the scheme
• 183,000 passenger journeys in a year
• Combined passenger savings of £131,000 over the past year
• Winner of Transport Ticketing Global Award for Best Smart Ticketing Programme 2023 (<200k daily journeys)

• First Bus’ Leicester depot will join York and Norwich to become one of the UK’s first three fully electrified bus depots outside of London 
• The ‘bus depot of the future’ sets a precedent for UK-wide road transport decarbonisation  
• First Bus Leicester will have 86 new electric buses expected on public roads by March 2024 
• This brings the total investment across all ZEBRA projects that First Bus is delivering to £92m, alongside ZEBRA funding of £66m.  

• First Leicester are providing 300 Christmas meals to ‘Help the Homeless Leicester’ this Christmas.
• Santa and his elf’s will be giving out Christmas cards with thank you messages on board their buses and some will have shopping vouchers and free bus travel codes enclosed on the lead up to Christmas.