FAQs
To help make travelling easier, you can plan your journey and buy tickets using our First Bus App »
If you haven’t got the latest version download it here:
You can plan your journey » easily on our web site; our Journey Planner helps you plan your journey door-to-door using First buses and a selection of other transport options, including any connecting services.
You can also find out when a bus is due at a stop by visiting our Next Bus page » and finding your bus stop easily on the map.
If the times are shown in minutes that’s live time so you know exactly when the bus will come. Otherwise it’s showing the timetable time – so you’ll know when the bus is due.
Whilst many larger towns will be serviced by a tourist information centre, many smaller villages and areas won't be. Please visit the relevant tourism body (listed below) for further information about your chosen destination.
Cornwall
Visit Cornwall
Visitor enquiries are now handled at visitorinfo@visitcornwall.com and on 01872 261735
For a full list of current visitor information centres in Cornwall please click here.
Dorset
For a full list of current visitor information centres in Dorset please click here.
Somerset
Visit Somerset
Exmoor National Park
For a full list of current visitor information centres in Somerset please click here.
We want it to be easy for you to plan a bus journey, and if you would like some guidance on how to catch a bus we have put together a guide for you here:
https://www.firstbus.co.uk/help-and-support/how-catch-bus
Within the guide we explain how to:
Children under 5 travel free with an accompanying adult.
Where child fares apply, they do so between 5 and 18 years inclusive.
Dogs are welcome on all our buses free of charge. We ask that you kindly refrain from allowing your dog onto the seats and keep them firmly footed on the floor.
Assistance Dogs
We want to make travelling easy for you, so we make sure that all recognised assistance animals travel for free on all First buses. These include: Guide dogs for the blind, including a guide dog in training with a registered puppy walker who has their ID card, Hearing dogs for deaf people.
Whilst we can accept fold-up bikes and beach bags, we regret that surfboards- and push bikes are not allowed on our buses.
One of the best ways to buy tickets is to use mTickets on the First Bus App, it’s quick, easy and cash free. Download the app and follow the instructions, it’s that simple.
We encourage customers to switch from cash to mobile payments, following our research which showed that boarding time and average journey times would improve if even just half of customers used mobile ticketing.
On-board: You can still buy tickets on the bus, and you can use contactless payments on our buses to make this easier.
No - the Ride Cornwall ticket is only valid in Cornwall on the below adventures;
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Land’s End Coaster
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Atlantic Coaster
The Ride Cornwall ticket gives travellers one days unlimited travel all day on all adventures in Cornwall on most buses after 9 am Mon- Fri or public holidays on trains and anytime weekends.
Yes - Valid ‘Cornwall by Kernow’ Cornwall 1/2/3/7 Monthly and Unlimited Passes are accepted on the below adventures;
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Land’s End Coaster
-
Atlantic Coaster
Valid ‘Buses of Somerset’ Somerset 1/2/3/7 Monthly and Unlimited Passes are accepted on the below adventure;
-
Exmoor Coaster
Yes - valid Truro College passes are accepted on the below adventures;
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Land’s End Coaster
-
Atlantic Coaster
Yes - the English National Concessionary Travelcards are accepted on the below adventures;
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Land’s End Coaster
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Atlantic Coaster
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Exmoor Coaster
Please note that these are subject to alteration as they are decided by the relevant local Councils.
There are a number of reasons why your card payment may have been declined:
- Some of the card/personal/authorisation details entered do not match the information held by your card issuer. Please make sure that the card-holder address and post code you entered exactly match card-holder address and post code registered with your card issuer. Do not add commas or other punctuation in the address.
- Your payment request may have been declined by your card issuer.
- If your bank thinks this purchase is unusual behaviour for your account they might block the transaction.
- If your bank account is not based in the UK: Some banks automatically put a stop to paying for things internationally.
- Your card may be or is due to expire and has been replaced by your card issuer.
- Your card may have recently been replaced by your card issuer but not yet activated.
- Your card may have been reported as lost or stolen and been cancelled by your card issuer.
- If you are sure your card details are correct please either contact your bank or try again later.
- Card payments can sometimes be declined because of an issue with your bank's systems; the fault could be with your card issuer.
If the problem persists you should contact your card issuer for further information.
On our website Next Bus section and our First Bus App, you can see how far away your bus is in real-time*. The Next Bus information will show you exactly how many minutes away your bus is too.
* Available on many of our routes.
In some areas the local council has installed displays at Bus stops, some will show scheduled timetable information and real time information.
We also provide service disruption updates via Twitter and on our Service Updates pages on the regional sections of this website (please use the drop down menu below to go to one of our regional sections) and on the First Bus App. So if you use X, follow your local X page to stay informed.
You can purchase tickets in advance via mTickets on the First Bus App and on this website, but at the present-time we do not provide the option to reserve a seat. We review demand regularly and our timetables take this into account. Where you are travelling to the airport with us, we recommend that you allow plenty of time for your journey.
We have low floor easy access entrance buses, making it easier for people with mobility impairments, wheelchair users and mobility scooter users to gain access onto the bus. For more information, visit our Bus Accessibility Page.
If you use a mobility scooter, we will need to approve your scooter (because mobility scooters vary in size) and be happy to issue you with a permit for travel before you will be allowed to bring it on board our buses, so please follow the approval steps provided on our Bus Accessibility Page
Our buses are suitable for bringing a buggy on board, but the areas suitable for buggies are shared with wheelchairs, so on occasion you may be asked to fold your buggy. Please check the buggies section on our bus accessibility page for more information.
If you require more assistance when using our buses, you may find our Extra Help to Travel Cards useful as they show the driver what extra help you may require - you can download your own copy to print.
You can download the Extra Help cards here >>
There are several different messages for you to select from, choose the one that best suits your particular needs and then cut out or fold the card so that the message you want is visible.
We have dedicated pages for our First Bus App so please click here » where you can read our App FAQs, instructions and contact details for our dedicated app support customer service team.
Alternatively, please see the Help Section for the First Bus App, where you can read instructions, FAQs and ways to obtain support if needed.
We have a dedicated page for mTickets so please click here » where you can read our mTickets FAQs, instructions and contact details for our dedicated app support customer service team.
How do I find out more about the First Bus App, or get help with the App?
Please see the Help Section for the First Bus App, where you can read instructions, FAQs and ways to obtain support if needed.
We encourage customers to switch from cash to mobile payments using mTickets on the First Bus App, as it makes boarding the bus quicker and easier. It’s perfect for buying your tickets in advance. Our research showed that boarding time and average journey times would improve if even just half of customers used mobile ticketing.
We accept contactless payments across all First bus operating companies. There's no need for cash, one tap of your contactless card, Apple Pay or Google Pay and you’re aboard and ready to go, no need to worry about having the right change.
You can make contactless payments for any ticket payment up to £45, using any contactless card displaying the Visa or Mastercard logo.
Problems with traffic or adverse weather conditions can lead to services being cancelled, meaning the next bus can be overcrowded. We monitor all of our services, and if we notice that one journey is often busy, we will try to provide extra buses.
If this is an ongoing problem then please do let us know by going to tellfirstbus.com » and give us feedback – it will only take 2 minutes.
How to claim lost property
We will do our best to make sure that you get your lost property back as quickly as possible.
Hundreds of items are left on our buses every week. Our drivers collect property left on our buses and take it back to the depot to be registered. Our depot teams will do their best to get every item registered on the system the next day, but it can take up to 2 working days for this to happen.
In most cases, we’ll keep any lost property for a month to give you time to claim it. We can’t do this though if the item is perishable (e.g. food) or if it’s a debit or credit card. For bank cards, In-line with guidance from the banks, to protect the owner from risk of fraud, we destroy cards securely when found, please contact your bank as soon as possible.
If you’ve left something on one of our buses, the best way to get it back is to complete the contact form at the bottom of this page and select "Lost Property" from the drop-down menu. Please give as much detail as you can about the bus trip and the item to help us track it down for you.
If we find a potential match on the system, we’ll email you to let you know where and when you can collect your item. This will usually be within 2 or 3 days depending on how quickly found items are registered on the system. If you want to check if your item has been found after a couple of days and you haven’t heard from us, then please contact our customer service team on the number listed in the contact us page below.
Submit a lost property report »
You’ll need to bring some photo ID with you when you collect your item.
Just to let you know, we may charge a small fee when you collect your item (up to £2 plus VAT) to help towards the cost of handling and storing lost property items from our buses.
If you find lost property on one of our buses:
Please hand anything accidentally left on a bus to your driver.
If you are looking for immediate information and can’t find what you need within these FAQs, then you can contact us directly and we’ll try to help.
You can call us on 0345 646 0707. Our lines are open from 9am to 5pm Mon-Fri. Our quieter times are usually between 11am and 3pm so you may prefer to call then as there will be less of a wait to speak to one of our Customer Support Agents.
If you prefer, you can fill out the contact form here instead. We will get back to you as soon as we can but please be aware that for lost property enquiries our response time is usually within 3 working days for all other enquiries this could take up to 14 days.
Please leave us a review on our social channels, Facebook, TripAdvisor or Google.
Thank you!
We know we don’t always manage to get it right for our customers and there are occasions when things go wrong and we disappoint you.
If you want to make a formal complaint and get a personal response, we aim to make that as easy as possible for you too. We’ll listen to you and do everything we can to put things right. Please call us on 0345 646 0707. Our lines are open from 9am to 5pm Mon-Fri. Our quieter times are usually between 11am and 3pm so you may prefer to call then as there will be less of a wait to speak to one of our Customer Support Agents who will be happy to listen to you.
We will always try to make sure that you only need to contact us once to resolve your issue but if we need to investigate, we will work hard to get a response to you within 7 days. If it’s a more complex investigation, this could take us up to 14 days. If we need to investigate, we will always give you a case reference number to quote if you contact us again so that the agent you speak to can quickly find the information they need to update you. You can feel confident that our agents will always be polite and do as much as they can to help you.
If you have experienced an incident with one of our buses, then please make a note of the bus number which is a 5 digit number and can be found on the front and back of our buses and near the driver inside the bus. This will help us to access any CCTV on the bus more quickly which may help with any investigation.
If you prefer, you can fill out the contact form here instead. We will get back to you as soon as we can but please be aware that it could take up to 14 days to look into your complaint and respond to you.
If you’re not happy with our response to your complaint, then our escalations team and our Customer Services Manager will take a look at your complaint and the response we’ve given you to make sure that we’ve done everything we can to resolve it. We always aim to resolve our customer complaints directly but if you’re not happy with our final response under the ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution under the Consumer Rights Act, you can contact Bus Users UK who will try to help you get a satisfactory outcome. Bus Users UK represents bus passengers. They aim to help communication between bus users and the people that provide your bus service. You can contact them by going to www.bususers.org. Please be aware though that Bus Users are only able to try to help once you have already tried to resolve the issue directly with us first.