Student Travel Club

Student travel in Essex

The Student Travel Club is a student benefits scheme, offering discounted bus travel to students of schools, colleges and universities who are First Bus travel partners in Essex.

If your institution has joined the scheme you can sign-up and get unlimited bus travel in your chosen zone. Being part of the Student Travel Club means you can use the bus out of term time, and pay less compared to the cheapest monthly ticket available*. It’s easy to sign up and payment is really convenient with a range of ticket options available, including subscription taken by Direct Debit.

Has your institution joined the scheme?

  • Anglo European School
  • ARU Writtle College
  • Beauchamps High School
  • Becket Keys Church of England School
  • Belfairs Academy
  • Brentwood School
  • Chelmer Valley High School
  • Chelmsford College
  • Colchester High School
  • Colchester Sixth Form College
  • Debden Park High School
  • Evolution Foundation College
  • Great Baddow High School
  • Manningtree High School
  • Moulsham High School
  • Ortu Sixth Form Centre - Stanford & Corringham
  • Philip Morant School and College
  • St Benedict's Catholic College
  • St Clere's School
  • St John Payne Catholic School
  • St Martin's School
  • The Appleton School
  • The Beaulieu Park School
  • The Billericay School
  • The Boswells School
  • The Bromfords School
  • The Colne Community School And College
  • The Deanes Academy
  • The FitzWimarc School
  • The James Hornsby School
  • The King John School
  • The Sandon School
  • The Stanway School
  • The Sweyne Park School
  • Thurstable School & Sixth Form College
  • William de Ferrers School
  • Woodlands School

If your institution is listed above, you can sign up to the Student Travel Club using the form at the bottom of this webpage.

If your institution is not listed, you can refer them to our institution info page where they can register their interest and one of our local team will be in contact to discuss further.

To join your institutions Student Travel Club and purchase your ticket:

  1. Please log in or register below.
  2. Select your school, college or university from the drop-down menu - this will be visible at the bottom of this page after you log in/register.
  3. You will be prompted to enter your student email address or a passcode (available from your school, college or university), so that we can validate that you attend your chosen institution.
  4. Download the First Bus App to your smart phone and set up an mTicket account.
  5. Purchase your discounted Student Travel Club ticket on the website and it will be sent direct to your phone.

If you require further help, you can contact us using our mTickets contact form »

Useful information:

Student Travel Club tickets offer a significant discount in comparison to purchasing tickets from our general commercial range. Tickets are valid for travel at the weekend and during school holidays at no additional charge.

Tickets are only valid when purchased via the Student Travel Club website and sent through to the First Bus App. You will need to set up a website account and mTickets account.

PLEASE NOTE: the First Bus website and mTickets First Bus app are separate - do not use the same log-in details for both.

The First Bus App can be downloaded to your phone from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Please see our mTickets FAQs to find out about the many benefits of using our mTickets app and see how it works.

Apple store travel app link Android store travel app link

1. Visit https://www.firstbus.co.uk/essex/student-travel-club then log in or register at the bottom of the page. 

2. Select your school, college or university from the drop-down menu - this will be visible at the bottom of this page after you log in/register.

3. You will be prompted to enter your student email address or a passcode (available from your school, college or university), so that we can validate that you attend your chosen institution.

4. Download the First Bus App to your smart phone and set up an mTicket account.

5. Purchase your discounted Student Travel Club ticket on the website and it will be sent direct to your phone.

Parents/Guardians should receive a letter or email, from the school/college, providing them with their unique code or sign-up details. If you have not received a code, then please contact your school to request these details.

Please check that you have selected the correct Student Travel Club and then re-enter your passcode all-in lower-case letters (making sure Caps Lock is switched off on your keyboard). If the error continues – please get in touch with the code provider to get the matter resolved.

Parents/guardians can apply to Essex County Council for subsidised travel to the nearest available school to their home address, if they live within the qualifying distance from that school. The full education transport policy sets out the criteria for a child to qualify for school transport.

Please visit for further information on how to apply.

Should you have any further queries please contact the Passenger Transport Team, at Essex County Council:

T: 03456 032 200

E: passenger.transport@essex.gov.uk

If a customer loses or damages their smart phone, they will be able to transfer their tickets over to a new device. For more information please refer to the mTickets FAQs.

It is the customers responsibility to ensure their phone has enough battery power to be able to show a valid mTicket to the driver and any inspector throughout your journey. If you cannot do this, you will need to buy a ticket from the driver using contactless or cash.

You can find more information about Student Unlimited subscriptions below:

Your first payment for your Student Unlimited subscription ticket is taken by Debit / Credit card so we can send you your ticket for the next day. This provides us enough time to process your application but does not guarantee acceptance to the Student Unlimited subscription scheme (should the set-up of your Direct Debit subsequently fail).

There is no minimum subscription period however, to end your subscription you will need to give us at least 10 working days’ notice before your ticket renewal date, to allow us to so stop your Direct Debit payments. If you do not provide us with enough notice, you may be charged for the issuing of the subsequent month’s ticket.

After the initial card payment, your monthly Direct Debit payment is taken two working days before your chosen monthly renewal date. Please consider weekends and bank holidays which are not counted as working days.

If you wish to cancel your Student Unlimited subscription agreement, please let us know by contacting our Subscription Ticket Support Team using our mTickets contact form »

Please provide your name, order ID and email address associated with your order. 

You must give us at least ten working days’ notice of your intention to cancel your subscription agreement or you may be charged for the issuing of the subsequent months ticket.

*Monthly price of Commuter Travel Club subscription is lower than the cost of comparable monthly ticket purchased outside the scheme. Excludes promotions and subsidised travel agreements.

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