Not in Brighton
Weāve had contactless down in Cornwall for about a year now.
Contactless in both London and the city Iām in second most often (Bristol). I donāt use it in either. Oyster in London and First Bus app in Bristol. Cheaper.
Iām in London mostly, so I use contactless there (when Iām not at uni, during uni I have a travelcard on a student oyster).
In Barrow, the buses are crap and old fashioned. They do have a half-useable app that Iāve been using, but itās not the best serviceā¦
We generally have cash only buses, some of them donāt even have a giant plastic screen to protect the driver.
1 Like
Also they have contactless on buses in Cheltenham when I was there last week.
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/help-and-contact/national/is-contactless-available-in-my-area
I emailed Stagecoach and itās not available in the Midlands
Iām currently in London and abuse the wonderful Oyster card/contactless.
Other places I know:
Dublin buses only accept exact change.
Though there is the reloadable Leap card.
(I donāt live there, but am there often)
Belfast still takes cash and doesnāt have a reloadable card/contactless system yet (as far as I know, been away a few years now).
Metro smartlink card for the Belfast buses. Smartlink for translink/goldliner services. But works out more expensive off peak when offers are on
Well itās a start. Translink are still terrible.
1 Like
Blackpool Transport donāt have contactless, but they do have a mobile ticketing app. If you pay with cash on the bus, it costs more than if you buy at a PayPoint. Some of the tickets are also cheaper in the app than buying from PayPoint. Depending on the ticket you buy, you can save between 25p and Ā£2.50 iirc (Basically, never buy on the bus in Blackpool! Itās a scam!)
If thereās any Blackpool tourists on here, hopefully this saves you a bit of money.
1 Like
Yep.
I live in Paisley and all McGillās busses and First Glasgow busses accept contactless and mobile ticketing.
My birth town of Grimsbyās bus operator, Stagecoach, also recently introduced the same.
Makes it much less painful whenever I need to take a bus as I donāt have to worry about having the right change and donāt have to know in advance how much the bus will cost (as itās quite complicated with multiple operators and different fare structures).
3 Likes
Your right, contactless isnāt available on First Manchester but you can buy tickets in their app and show them to the driver. Its how I do it for the Metrolink too.
Go North east accept contactless, they cover Tyne & Wear, Durham, parts of Teesside (X9/X10 services) and the parts of Northumberland they have services in.
In Cambridge, Stagecoach accepts contactless, but Whippet doesnāt.
It was a revelation to be in Bath recently and be able to pay a bus fare by card.
Buses are the only thing I need cash for these days; itās frustrating to know that Stagecoach take cards in some places down south but frown at a Ā£5 note for a Ā£3 fare in Fife. 
A few years ago when I was in Dudley, if all you had was a Ā£10 note that was what it cost you. Change just wasnāt given
The two main operators here in Plymouth (Stagecoach and Go-Ahead) accept contactless.
The same is true in Edinburgh, at least in the centre.
If you do overpay then you will be given a receipt that can be used to refund the difference if you go to Lothian Busesā offices in person.
This makes me angry. Theyāre obviously making the bet that 99% of the time it wonāt be worth someoneās time to rock up and collect their Ā£1.50, so they can pocket the rewards of making their service less convenient.
If youāre going to run a no-change policy, then not taking card payments is shameful.
Edit: even the ability to get that refund is only documented deep in their Conditions of Carriage, and a refundable receipt will only be given when explicitly asked for. Source.
By bus, presumably.
2 Likes