New mobile tickets for children launched

Photo: Journeaux

First launches new mobile tickets for children

A new initiative has been launched offering parents the opportunity to purchase mobile bus tickets for their children, and then allowing these tickets to be transferred directly on their child’s phone, thus removing the need to store credit or debit card details on a young person’s phone.

The First Bus mTickets app allows customers to buy and load bus tickets onto their phone, but until recently, young people without a credit or debit card, have only been able to purchase mobile tickets by using an adult’s card.

According to research by Newsround, some 90 per cent of 11-16 year olds have a mobile phone, and First has therefore adapted its mTickets app so that it is now more broadly accessible to young people.

Speaking about the new initiative, Phil Medlicott, Managing Director at First Manchester, said: “Our aim with this change is to ensure that all customers have access to the benefits of using our mTickets app, as well as helping to put parents’ minds at ease.

"The update to the mTickets app means that once a parent or guardian has purchased a child bus daily or weekly ticket through the mTickets app, then they will then have the ability to transfer that ticket to their child.

"This means that children will not need to carry cash with them throughout the day in order to purchase a bus ticket - so there’ll be no risk of children losing their bus money.”

The mTickets app is available for free via the App Store and Google Play.