Both local bus companies First and Stagecoach are involved in the national £3 fare cap scheme, and
you can travel from Portsmouth, to Chichester, and Brighton for just £3.

Check out these routes to take you to local hotspots:

• 700 Stagecoach route from Portsmouth Harbour – Brighton
• X4 First Solent route from Portsmouth – Southampton
• 700 Stagecoach route from Portsmouth Harbour – Chichester
• 20 First Solent route from Portsmouth – Wickham

Along with local bus companies, we have launched the Pompey ticket range. These tickets can be used on both Stagecoach and First buses interchangeably, to take you all over the city, anyway you want to travel.

The tickets include:

• Pompey Hoppa90 – an individual ticket valid for 90 minutes of bus travel. Costing £3.50, the ticket is activated when you start your first journey and you only have to scan in to your last journey within the 90 minute, so get even more time on the bus!

• Pompey Group – a day ticket for unlimited travel for up to five people, costing £14

• Pompey Night Owl – an individual ticket available from 7pm, costing £4.40

Bus companies in the city have extended their children’s discounted tickets to young people under 19, so they can benefit from child’s discounts, to give a helping hand and get young people accessing the training, education, work and fun they need.

The range of young people’s tickets includes single tickets, return tickets, day passes, and 7-day passes, and all tickets are available on both First Bus South and Stagecoach South buses.

There have been many improvements to bus services, making them more frequent and convenient for you. These include:

• Two 24 hour bus routes, on route 2 and route 23, for revellers, early risers and shift workers alike
• A new route 19 linking Leigh Park with Farlington, the Airport Industrial Estate, Admiral Lord Nelson School, Ocean Retail Park, and Portsmouth city centre
• Routes 7 and 8 are running more frequently in the evening to get passengers between Waterlooville and the city centre
• Routes 13,14 and 18 have new evening and weekend journeys, to transport passengers from Baffins to Milton, Paulsgrove to Southsea and more

With information and audio-visual screens added across our buses to highlight key sights and connections, we’ve increased our support to passengers to get them where they need.

We’ve also installed 287 new live information screens across Portsmouth’s bus stops. The screens display:

• Arrival information in real time, including a countdown showing when the next bus will arrive
• Bus capacity information, allowing passengers to know how busy a bus is before boarding
• Additional live updates, including weather information and relevant news updates

All the screens are equipped with a push-button feature that enables passengers with visual impairments to hear the information displayed, making bus travel more inclusive and accessible to all.

If you’re not sure which bus stops you need or which route to take, visit the First Bus and Stagecoach websites, or download their apps to your phone, and find information on routes, times and up-to-date service announcements.

You can also use the websites or apps to buy your bus ticket or pass in advance – or purchase from the driver when you board the bus!

You can also visit the Traveline website for routes and times for bus, rail, coach and ferry services.

On the bus, you can read your book, catch up with friends on your phone, check emails, or just relax and watch the city pass you by. How does that compare with your car commute?

If you are not using your bus pass, you are missing out on unlimited free travel across the country (after 9.30am).

Find out if you are eligible for an older person’s bus pass, a disabled person’s bus pass, or a companion pass on the Portsmouth City Council website.

Working with charity Enable Ability and in partnership with young people with disabilities, we have created a video to help young people feel confident to get around the city by bus. The video aims to give young people with disabilities, including those with visible and invisible disabilities such as mental health issues and anxiety, an idea of what it is like to catch a bus in Portsmouth.   

The video is a step-by-step guide and covers the journey from start-to-finish.

Taking the bus helps to make the air cleaner and reduces traffic congestion because it takes cars off the road. A full double decker bus can take up to 75 cars off the road, and if everyone switched just one car journey a month to the bus, there would be one billion fewer car journeys, and a saving of 2 million tonnes of CO2¹.

In Portsmouth we have electric, zero emission buses running on bus routes through four of our air quality management areas, helping to reduce air pollution in the city, in areas where it needs it the most.

References: ¹Greener Journeys, The Road to a Carbon Efficient Britain, (2009)