An Arriva Shires & Essex bus advertising Plusbus
An Uno bus advertising Plusbus

Plusbus is an add-on ticket, which can be purchased with National Rail train tickets in the United Kingdom. It allows unlimited travel on participating bus and tram operators' services in the whole urban area of rail-served towns and cities.


History

The Plusbus scheme was launched in October 2002 across an initial 35 railway stations.[1] The scheme is administered by Journey Solutions, a not for profit partnership of bus operators Arriva, FirstGroup, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach, the Confederation of Passenger Transport and the Rail Delivery Group.[2][3]

Plusbus won the International Road Transport Union Eurochallenge Award in 2007 for its model of private partnership providing outstanding social and customer value.[4]

Rail and bus ticketing

Plusbus is available in 290 towns and cities, London is a notable exception.[5] It gives the rail traveller unlimited local bus travel around the whole urban area of the origin and/or destination town(s) of their rail journey. It is not valid with train journeys made within the same city or town. Prices start from £2.50 for a day's travel, in addition to the rail fare. Season tickets are available for most destinations. Railcard holders get one-third off Plusbus day ticket prices. Children (aged under 16 years old) get 50% off Plusbus day ticket prices.[6]

Plusbus tickets can be purchased with train tickets from all National Rail station ticket offices, by phone, through National Rail travel agents and selected self-service ticket machines. Over 200 bus and tram operators participate in Plusbus schemes across Britain. Tickets are also sold by all train operating companies online and most third-party online rail ticket retailers.[2]

Originally issued in traditional paper format, some operators have facilitated its inclusion on their smart card platforms.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ What is Plusbus? Plusbus
  2. 1 2 Home Plusbus
  3. ↑ PlusBus management Journey Solutions
  4. ↑ IRU Eurochallenge Award 2007 - Press Release - UK's Plusbus wins IRU Eurochallenge Award. Archived 18 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine IRU. 18 October 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  5. ↑ Travelcards give unlimited travel on trains, trams and buses in the London fare zones, which can be integrated onto National Rail return tickets as outboundary travelcards.
  6. ↑ PlusBus National Rail
  7. ↑ Industry First: Plusbus is the key for Southern's new smartcard Go-Ahead Group 11 December 2012
  8. ↑ Integrated Smart Travel Introduced Through Plus Bus Scheme Stagecoach 27 July 2018
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