School Services

Making school travel safe

We're making some changes from 8 March 2021 to assist with school travel as schools reopen 

With children returning to school we have taken additional measures to ensure that they can return safely via First Bus.

We have implemented a daily enhanced cleaning regime across our bus fleet with additional focus on all hand and grab rails.  More information can be found on our dedicated COVID web page, click here.

We are still operating our normal services with restricted seating capacity of 50%.  We have therefore added some additional buses to our busiest school routes and these services are designed exclusively for school use (route number starts with S).  On these dedicated services the 50% reduced capacity does not apply – wherever possible you should sit with your school ‘bubble’.

Please buy your ticket in advance via the First Bus app.  Parents can purchase the ticket and then send the ticket to their child’s phone using Ticket Gifting

Dedicated school bus services (route number starts with S)

• The 50% reduced capacity does not apply, the majority of seat are available
• Anyone aged over 11 should wear a face covering on a dedicated school bus service (unless your child is exempt)
• Reduced capacities don’t apply – but wherever possible please sit with your school ‘bubble’

Public bus services

• Reduced capacity with 50% of seats available
• It’s mandatory for anyone aged over 11 to wear a face covering on a public bus service in (unless your child is exempt)
• You should only sit with a member of your own household e.g. a brother or sister. Sorry, you’re not able to sit with your mates

A list of the exclusive school services are below. To plan your journey to school, you can use our journey planner or view our timetable here https://www.firstbus.co.uk/potteries/plan-journey/timetables/?source_id=3

You can see the times for these services in our timetables  – the services where this will apply are:

Stoke City Council are providing a number of contracted services to get students to/from school. These services are not operated by First, For further information on these services, please contact your school/college directly.

Closed door school buses – operating from 8 March 2021 subject to demand

These will be only available to students attending the relevant school who have purchased a SMART pass via their school. Parents/pupils should contact their school for further details.

These buses will be reintroduced from the above date, operating as they did prior to the Christmas break

All valid passes accepted on these buses, which are for students only.

Network maps

Potteries bus routes: Plan your journey more effectively and in advance

Route maps

Take a look at our route maps to see exactly where your journey can take you

Kingfisher

Our service operating between Hanley, Cheadle and Uttoxeter.

Hospital Services

We operate a number of frequent services to your local hospitals.