STC
Student Travel Club
Welcome to the First Essex Student Travel Club (STC)
The Student Travel Club offers discounted bus travel to Essex Schools & Colleges in partnership with First Essex.
If your school has joined the scheme you can sign-up and purchase unlimited bus travel in your chosen zone. Being part of the Student Travel Club means you can use the bus for school or leisure, and pay less in comparison to purchasing tickets from our generic commercial ticket range or on-bus.
The following schools are currently signed up to the STC 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
What is Web2Mobile?
All STC tickets are only available to purchase on the website and issued to customers, via the First Bus App, as an mTicket (there is not a paper ticket alternative available).
Tickets:
We offer a selection of ticket options to choose from which are calculated in-line with the school calendar year (and school opening and closure times):
Annual:
Valid 1st September 2023 to 31st August 2024; providing unlimited travel in your chosen travel zone.
Term:
Autumn Term: valid 1st September 2023 to 31st December 2023; providing unlimited travel in your chosen travel zone.
Spring Term: valid 1st January 2024 to 6th April 2024; providing unlimited travel in your chosen travel zone.
Summer Term: valid 7th April 2024 to 31st July 2024; providing unlimited travel in your chosen travel zone.
Student Unlimited
Signing up to Student Unlimited (Direct Debit) gives you unlimited travel on First Bus services across your chosen travel area. You will receive your Student Unlimited ticket, via the First Bus App, every month. Your initial payment will be taken as a Debit/Credit card payment. Subsequent payments are taken by Direct Debit and each month your ticket renewal will automatically activate on your chosen renewal date. More information on this ticket can be found on in the FAQs section below.
For full terms and conditions please visit Subscription tickets terms and conditions.
If your School/College is part of the STC scheme; please follow the below instructions to join the Student Travel Club and purchase your ticket:
- Visit the webpage: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/essex/ctc
- Please create a First Bus website account by selecting Register (this will be visible at the bottom of that web page)
- Select your School/College from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page (this will be visible as Step 2 of 3: Please select your employer). The School/College will be listed alphabetically and read as STC School/College.
- You will be prompted to verify your account. To do this please enter either your school/college email address or unique passcode (obtained from your school/college)
- Download the First Bus App to your smart phone and set up a mTicket account on the app (select Profile at the bottom right of the app's home screen and you will prompted to create an account). PLEASE NOTE: the First Bus website and mTickets First Bus app are separate - do not use the same log-in details for both.
- Purchase your discounted Student Travel Club ticket on the website, you will be prompted to enter the Passenger Details (Forename, Surname and email address (It is important that you enter the email address registered with the student's mTicket account). Once you have completed the Passenger Details section click verify - a tick should appear. This means that the mTicket account is active and this is where your mTicket will be sent.
- Once you have completed the purchase successfully you will see an order number. Go to the mTicket app, on the student's smart phone, and select mTickets - the purchased mTicket will no appear in the wallet. PLEASE NOTE: if you need to activate the ticket prior to travel you will need access to WI-FI/mobile data. Once the ticket is activated you do not need access to the internet.
For further guidance on how to join the Student Travel Club and purchase your ticket please click here for our guide.
All STC tickets are only available to purchase on the website and issued to customers, via the First Bus App, as an mTicket (there is not a paper ticket alternative available).
Student Travel Club FAQs
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 Commuter 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.
If your School/College is part of the STC scheme; please follow the below instructions to join the Student Travel Club and purchase your ticket:
1. Visit the website: https://www.firstbus.co.uk/essex/ctc
2. Please create a First Bus website account by selecting Register (this will be visible at the bottom of that web page)
3. Select your School/College from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page (this will be visible as Step 2 of 3: Please select your employer). The School/College will be listed alphabetically and read as STC School/College.
4. You will be prompted to verify your account. To do this please enter either your school/college email address or unique passcode (obtained from your school/college)
5. Download the First Bus App to your smart phone and set up a mTicket account on the app (select Profile at the bottom right of the app's home screen and you will prompted to create an account). PLEASE NOTE: the First Bus website and mTickets First Bus app are separate - do not use the same log-in details for both.
6. Purchase your discounted Student Travel Club ticket on the website, you will be prompted to enter the Passenger Details (Forename, Surname and email address (It is important that you enter the email address registered with the student's mTicket account). Once you have completed the Passenger Details section click verify - a tick should appear. This means that the mTicket account is active and this is where your mTicket will be sent.
7. Once you have completed the purchase successfully you will see an order number. Go to the mTicket app, on the student's smart phone, and select mTickets - the purchased mTicket will no appear in the wallet. PLEASE NOTE: if you need to activate the ticket prior to travel you will need access to WI-FI/mobile data. Once the ticket is activated you do not need access to the internet.
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
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.
Student Unlimited Subscription Ticket FAQs
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, customer reference number, phone number and email address.
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 month’s ticket.
Please note: we can only provide refunds for un-activated tickets; any activated tickets are non-refundable. However, refund requests for annual and long-term student tickets may be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by a member of the Subscription Ticket Support Team.