Schools go back–Citybus Details

More Buses and Student Only Buses

Changes to bus services from 1^st September

From 1^st September there will be several changes to bus services in Plymouth.

These changes to services are so that children can get safety back to school and key corridors gain extra buses and capacity for the general public to use.

The new measures follow the latest guidance from the Department for Education and Department for Transport. 

More capacity on the local bus network

Service 34 will be increased form every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes

Service 43 will be increased from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes

Service 50 / 51 will be increased from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes. To achieve this the 50 / 51 will serve transit way and the 50A / 51A will serve Keswick Crescent every 30 minutes.

Borrowed Buses

We are deploying double decker buses where we can and larger single deck buses have been borrowed from some of our sister companies, so you will see some non Citybus branded buses serving in the City.

When 2 Travel

If you are planning a journey, you can now check when the best times to travel is with our ‘When2Travel’ tool. The dynamic prediction engine forecasts which journey will be quieter, or busier, when and where. Journeys in red will mean the bus has 60% or more of it’s seats in use. Amber is between 50% and 60%, with green meaning less than half the seats are in use.

It can be found on our website here

Student Only Buses

In line with guidance we are making a number of school movements that have previously been available to the general public closed for student only.

These include our 2019 / 2020 school services of 101 / 102 / 103 / 104/ 105 / 106 / 112 / 118.

Over the summer we have also picked up school movements previously operated by Stagecoach South West for Coombe Dean and Tor Bridge schools. These are services 28S / 50S* / 51S* / 806 / 807 / 808 / 809 / 810.

*Service 50S / 51S are student only between St Budeaux and Asda in both directions.

These are all outlined in detail in the download to the right of this page.

Student only buses will show their normal destination number, so passengers can see where the bus is going, but will also display ‘Student Only’ on the destination display.

Any closed school movements in Cornwall can be found on the Transport for Cornwall website.

School Bus Tickets

We would ask that parents or pupils purchase tickets for these services in advance, using our App, or key card. You are able to gift tickets from a parent’s phone to a child’s phone using our app. Meaning the child does not have to have payment details stored on their phone.

Social Distancing

The Department for Education has confirmed that social distancing will not be required on dedicated school transport, as they will be in school bubbles and not sharing with the public. Therefore the bus can operate to full covid seated capacity of the vehicle.

We are working with Plymouth City Council to marshal busy bus stops in the afternoon school peak, making sure everyone gets home safe. There are extra coaches on standby to pick up in areas where needed. As we do not yet know what areas may need the extra provision, based on the number of students wanting to use the bus, we ask for your cooperation and patience in the first week.

• Plymouth Schools timetables (archive copy)
• Plymouth Schools Timetable – Download from Plymouth Citybus Web Site
• Callywith College Timetables (archive copy)
• Callywith College Timetables – Download from Citybus web site

Amazing to think that these finished 7 years ago!