Blind and partially sighted customers

If you have a visual impairment, we appreciate it may be daunting to travel by bus, so here's how we're helping:

  • We've worked closely with Guide Dogs and My Sight to train our drivers, including "My Guide" training
  • We've fitted audio announcements to nearly every bus in the fleet, which announces the next stop the bus is approaching
  • We've launched "Stop the Bus" in the NCTX Buses app, which is a feature enabled for VoiceOver, where you can notify us of a bus you plan to catch and we'll alert the driver
  • You can visit the depot and get on and off an out of service bus to help familiarise yourself with the layout

On the road, all drivers are trained to stop for people with visual impairments and state their service number and destination. If a driver stops and it’s not your service, tell them which service you are waiting for and they will let our Control Room know, so they can let the right driver know you’re there.

You are also welcome to call our Travel Centre on 0115 950 60 70 to let them know when you are travelling and where from and they will contact the Control Room for you, who again can let the driver know you’ll be there.

Advice during COVID-19

When presenting your concessionary card or paying for your journey, our drivers will not be able to touch your card or cash. Ask them to guide you to the reader or coin slot.

All priority seats remain available, but some seats elsewhere on the bus are not available to allow for social distancing. This includes the sideways facing seats on all buses and the seat immediately behind the entrance doors on double decks used on most routes. If you need assistance finding an available seat, please ask the driver.

When alighting, please press the bell in good time and remain in your seat until the bus has stopped.

Routes with audio announcements

Every one of our buses has next stop audio announcements on them, which tell you the name of the stop they are approaching.

Assistance Dogs

Trained assistance dogs are carried free of charge on every bus. We’ve identified (with thanks to customers) the most appropriate seats on buses where customers with assistance dogs can sit and they will be labelled to encourage other customers to give them up for you.

"Stop the Bus"

If you're an iPhone user with VoiceOver, you may find 'Stop the Bus' a useful feature in the NCTX Buses app. 

'Stop the Bus' allows you to notify us when you're heading to the bus stop by pressing a button on the app, which in turn lets us notify the driver which stop you will be at and when.

Email [email protected] with your name and mobile number to register. Find out how it works here.