Festivals

Download our app!
Getting around the city has never been easier with our Bus & Tram App! 

• Plan your travel in the app with our dedicated journey planner, reliable timetable information and on-map vehicle tracking.
• Purchase and gift tickets for the entire Lothian & Edinburgh Trams network all in one place thanks to secure, integrated ticketing. Make use of our handy filters and find the tickets you need whether you’re travelling across the region, in the city or to Edinburgh Airport.

• Keep up-to-date on the go with the latest service alerts, plus live arrival times updated every 30 seconds. 

Waiting to board
Please be aware of your fellow passengers, and allow those who’ve been waiting before you to board first. We realise it’s not always easy to tell who’s been waiting before you – particularly if the bus stop/shelter is very busy – but it’s always appreciated.

Allow those on board to depart first
Before boarding, please check first to see if there are other customers waiting to disembark the vehicle. While some buses do have double-doors, with customers exiting from the rear door only, on others there is only one set of doors and it can cause a bottle-neck if people try to board while others are trying to leave.

Paying by cash?
All our buses accept cash (although we are unable to provide change). If you wish to use cash to pay for your journey, please try to use exact change and have it ready to help keep boarding as quick and seamless as possible. For fare prices, see our Fares and Tickets page.

Capped Contactless

TapTapCap is Lothian Buses’ capped contactless system. For adult passengers, tap the same card or mobile payment device for every journey across our entire network, and the following morning we’ll automatically charge you the cheapest adult daily fare for the journeys you’ve made. On Lothian city buses, this is capped at £4.80 per day!

You’ll neve pay more than you need to, even if your plans change.

Keep using the same card or device all week and once you’ve reached one of our weekly caps, which run from Monday to Sunday, you won’t pay any more for the rest of the week. On Lothian city buses, this is capped at £22.00 per week! All you need to do is tap, wait for the beep, and take a seat!

Please note – you won’t receive a paper ticket using TapTapCap.

Learn more about contactless here.

Contactless

You can also buy paper tickets using contactless – just advise the driver of the ticket(s) you want, wait to be prompted to tap your card/device (to avoid accidently registering a TapTapCap payment) and then take your paper ticket(s).

If you’re an adult using TapTapCap and want to pay for another ticket as well as your own, just tap your card to record your TapTapCap journey and then ask the driver for any other tickets you need, following the steps above.

Using cash?

All our buses accept cash payments, but please note that our drivers are unable to provide change. It’ll speed up you boarding time if you can have the exact fare ready to put into the coin hopper.

* Aged 5-15-years-old.
** Up to 2 adults and 3 children.

Learn more about fares and tickets.

Luggage

If you’ve got any luggage or suitcases, please use the luggage storage facilities on board where these are available.

Standing room only? Help keep yourself, your belongings and other customers safe by taking off any bulky backpacks and holding them in front of you.

Seating

Please don’t use bus seats to store bags or personal belongings. We want to make bus travel as comfortable as possible for all our customers – make space for others. While we want you to be comfy, please remember that our ‘seats ain’t for feet’! 

We also offer priority seating. These seats are positioned near the bus entrance and exit doors, have more leg room and include appropriately positioned handrails and bells. These seats are intended for use by individuals with visual, hearing, mobility and cognitive impairments, and pregnant customers. Please remember – not all disabilities are visible.

Accessible Spaces

Lothian endeavours to provide an inclusive service for bus travel in Edinburgh that is accessible to all. For this reason, our bus drivers and customer support advisers receive training on a range of disabilities and our buses are designed with safety and accessibility in mind.

All of our buses have at least one wheelchair accessible space available for adapted pushchairs, manual and powered wheelchairs. These spaces allow wheelchair users to travel safely and in comfort. It is important that this space is available, so if other customers are sitting or standing there we ask that they move elsewhere to free-up the space if it is required by a wheelchair user.

Travelling with small children

We recommend customers consider using foldable and lightweight buggies to make travel as safe and as easy as possible on our services.

Lightweight and foldable buggies make it easier to get onto and off of the bus, as well as manoeuvring through the aisles and positioning safely in the wheelchair accessible or shared spaces. It also means that the buggy can be collapsed and stored as luggage on our busier services or where the wheelchair accessible space and/or additional shared spaces are already in use.

Many of our buses also have ‘parent and child’ seats located at the very front of the bus near the driver. These allow easy access and are close to the doors and driver. Please ask your bus driver if you require any assistance 

There’s nothing worse than leaving something behind on public transport in an unfamiliar city! Don’t panic though – just complete our online form and a member of our team will get back to you.

The population of Edinburgh in August explodes, meaning that streets and pavements are filled with more pedestrians than usual, many of whom are unfamiliar with the city and its layout. For your safety, we would encourage you to always use pavements – keeping cycle-paths clear! – and to use the designated pedestrian crossings.

Don’t follow the herd! See someone cutting across the road in front of you at traffic lights even though the red man is still on? Wait for the green. Our buses are very large, very heavy and their stopping distance is greater than that of a car.

Please help us to help keep you safe.

A brilliant way to take in as much of the city as possible in a short time frame is with one of Scotland’s most-popular paid-for visitor attractions, Edinburgh Bus Tours!

With three tour offerings available – CitySightseeing Edinburgh, Edinburgh Tour, and the Regal Tour – there’s something for everyone.

CitySightseeing Edinburgh

The CitySightseeing Edinburgh tour features a multi-lingual commentary in 9 languages. Headphones are provided on board. We also offer Horrible Histories Children’s commentary – narrated by Horrible Histories author Terry Deary… history with all the gory bits left in!

Tickets start at just £18 and kids go free (up to three children go free with every paying adult). See more of the city with Edinburgh Bus Tours this festival season.

If you need assistance, you can always visit our helpful teams at our Shandwick Place and Waverley Bridge TravelHubs (open Monday to Saturday, 0830 – 1730 hrs).

The Lothian Buses Help Centre is also full of frequently asked questions, articles and guidance which you may find helpful.

Alternatively, you can also reach us – Monday to Friday from 0900 – 1700 hrs – on our social media channels or give our 24/7 bus information phoneline a call on 0131 555 6363.