Please only travel if your journey is essential - unless it’s really necessary to travel for work, or to shop for essentials, please stay at home. For advice on how to travel safely, take a look at our travelling safely webpage.
Temporary Timetables
Following the government and public health advice to stay at home and only travel if your journey is essential. We’re maintaining essential routes where possible and have taken into account the needs of our communities. Please click below for the temporary timetables.
If you’re working in the NHS or a key worker elsewhere, thank you for looking after us all. We’ve tried hard with our temporary timetables to make sure we continue to maintain critical routes. But if you feel we haven’t got things quite right with these or you’re concerned about the number of people travelling on your service making it difficult to practice social distancing, please complete this form with your feedback
FAQs
We know you’ve got lots of questions and the situation is moving fast. We’ve given some answers below relating to travelling on our services and we’ll continue to update this page. Please click on the FAQ link below.
For more information about coronavirus, visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Our commitment to your safety and well-being
At this uncertain time, we want to reassure you that our absolute priority is to protect the safety of our customers and our own employees. Our focus is on how best we can maintain essential services, safeguard jobs and ensure that we continue to be a central part of our economy and communities.
Our expert teams are following the very latest advice from the Government and public health authorities regarding coronavirus (COVID-19).
Government and public health advice is to stay at home, unless it’s really necessary to travel for work, or to shop for essentials, please stay at home. We know that key workers aren’t able to work from home and we’re doing our best to make sure that they’re able to get to where they need to be. We support the government advice to regularly wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water, or use a hand sanitiser gel if soap and water isn’t available to protect yourself and your fellow passengers. We’ve issued detailed and regular reminders to our own teams about hygiene good practice and the importance of hand washing.
We already have well-established and rigorous cleaning regimes for our buses, coaches and trams, and we’re continuing to enhance the measures we have in place in response to the developing situation with more regular cleaning of the main customer touch-points such as hand poles and grab rails.
We encourage you, if you can, to use contactless as a method of payment to pay for your journey. It keeps us all a little safer as it reduces the need for contact. Find out more about how to use contactless
Q. Are your timetables changing again after the latest government advice?
For now, we’re continuing to run our newly revised services and are focusing on making sure key workers can get where they need to be. Please give these critical workers priority and follow the latest government rules to stay home and avoid non-essential travel. It will save lives.
Q. Where can I find your revised timetables?
You can find timetable information for your local area on our website under “Service Updates” or in the temporary timetable section below. Please know we’re constantly reviewing these so keep checking to make sure you have the most up to date information.
Q. Are you giving free travel to NHS staff and other key workers?
We’re proud to be providing lifeline bus services for the country’s key workers and have revised our timetables around the needs of the key workers who are working hard to fight the virus. We’re working with the government to find how we can continue to play a vital role in helping the country at this time, including how buses can further help the health service and other priority areas.
Q. How do you know that the people travelling on your buses are actually making an essential journey?
We’d hope that everyone was following the government guidance to only travel if absolutely essential. We know that, in some areas, the police are checking why people are travelling and we’ll support the police in any way we can.
Q. Are there any extra measures I should take whilst travelling?
You should only be travelling if your journey is absolutely essential. If you do need to travel you should follow these simple measures to stop the virus spreading:
- wash your hands with soap and water often – do this for at least 20 seconds
- always wash your hands when you get home or into work
- use hand sanitiser gel if soap and water are not available
- cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze
- put used tissues in the bin straight away and wash your hands afterwards
- try to avoid close contact with anyone – seat one person per double seat, where possible
Q. How are you enforcing social distancing?
Your safety and the safety of our drivers is our number one focus and we’ve put posters on all buses to encourage our customers to:
- keep their distance from fellow passengers
- seat one person per double seat wherever possible
- use contactless payment wherever possible
- take your newspaper home with you
Q. You’ve reduced your services so much that the buses are too busy to practice social distancing.
Following the latest government advice, only essential workers should be travelling which should reduce the number of people travelling on our services. If you’re concerned about overcrowding on your service, please give us your feedback via this form so we can focus on any changes that might be made.
Q. I’m a key worker and your revised timetables aren’t meeting my needs, what are you doing about it?
We know how important key workers are in this fight against coronavirus and we want to play our part in making sure that you get to where you need to be. We’re working hard to match the resources we have with the demand that still exists and are constantly reviewing this. If you feel our revised timetables aren’t meeting your needs please give your feedback via this form ASAP so we can focus on any changes that can be made.
Q. I’m working from home/self-isolating or I need to look after a dependant, can I get a refund on my ticket?
If you'd like to talk with us about a refund about any of our tickets, please email customer.services@stagecoachbus.com. To help us with your request, please include:
- the name of our ticket and the duration
- whether you bought in person/online/on the Stagcoach Bus App
- StagecoachSmart card number (if available)
- the email address linked to your Stagecoach account (if bought online/app)
- any receipts/confirmations about the start/end date of your ticket
We hope you’ll understand that our customer service team is really busy just now. Please bear with us and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. View our standard refund policy in section 13 of our online terms and conditions.
Q. Are you carrying out additional cleaning on your services?
We already have well-established and rigorous cleaning regimes for our buses, coaches and trams, and we are continuing to enhance the measures we have in place in response to the developing situation with more regular cleaning of the main customer touch-points such as hand poles and grab rails. We’re also giving additional cleaning materials such as personal hand sanitiser for frontline employees, as well as extra cleaning materials for depots and other work areas, and are issuing detailed and regular reminders to our teams about hygiene good practice.
Q. I’ve heard you’re not letting customers pay by cash on your buses, is this true?
We’re still accepting cash on our buses but as this puts you and our drivers at higher risk of spreading the virus, we’re encouraging customers to pay by contactless whenever possible.
Q. I can’t pay by contactless, I only have cash, will your driver take my money?
Yes, our drivers are still accepting cash but another option for you, if you don’t have contactless, may be to buy your ticket in advance on the Stagecoach Bus App. Any reduction in contact between drivers and customers is a benefit at this time.
Q. The government has said it’s safer for the over-70s to travel and visit the supermarkets at quieter times. Can I use my concessionary pass before 9.30am?
For now we have to follow the local authority rules on concessionary travel and we know that some areas are temporarily allowing travel before 9.30am. Check in your local area for more details.
Q. Is it true that you’re continuing to run inter-city coach services when the government has told everyone to stay at home for at least the next three weeks?
We’ve already reduced the number of inter-city coach services we’re running but we also know that these services are vital for many key workers. We’ll continue to review these services in line with the latest government guidelines.
Q. Do you have hand sanitisers available on your buses?
No but our drivers are being given their own sanitiser and we encourage them to reapply this regularly. We’re also making sure that all areas that are likely to be touched by anyone on board, ie the hand poles, grab rails, stop button, ticket machine etc, are being cleaned thoroughly and regularly. We ask that all customers work with us by following the NHS guidelines for hand washing/sanitising.
Q. Are you closing your travel shops and ticket offices?
Yes, as we’re making sure we follow the latest advice from the government. Customers who still need to make essential journeys can continue to pay by contactless or cash on our buses and timetable information can be found at stagecoachbus.com.
Q. Are all your offices now closed?
Yes, as we’re making sure we follow the latest advice from the government. Where possible, many of our staff are working from home so that vital services, such as payroll can continue.
Q. How are you protecting your staff, such as drivers?
We have provided all of our frontline teams with personal hand sanitiser and are reminding everybody of the important of hygiene good practice. In addition, as with the main customer touchpoint areas, we are also increasing the frequency of cleaning within driver cabs and other areas our staff come into greater contact with.
Q. Is it true you’ve sent a lot of your drivers home?
Yes, some drivers have been asked to stay home for now because the decrease in travel and reduced services means they don’t currently have a service to work on.
Q. What contingency measures do you have in place if the spread of the virus continues?
We have in place a dedicated team which is closely monitoring and managing the current situation. Our priority is to protect the safety of our customers and our own employees. In addition, we will continue to liaise closely with government and public health authorities on any further steps we should take.
Please click on your area below to access temporary timetables. If your area is not listed please keep checking back on this page before you travel, to ensure you have the most up to date information.
