Concessionary travel data

We monitor data relating to our National Concessionary Travel Schemes (NCTS), which provide free bus travel for those aged under 22, 60+ and eligible disabled people, on a regular basis. You can find the latest data on concessionary bus journeys and cardholders below.

Journeys

The number of smart journeys made by bus through the different NCTS and the totals
Scheme January 2025 1 April 2024 - 30 January 2025
Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme 6,468,323 66,142,987
Older & Disabled Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme 8,002,651 90,666,204
Total 14,470,974  156,809,191 

Cardholders

The number of valid National Entitlement Cardholders who can access the different NCTS and the total
Scheme As at 1 February 2025 
Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme 793,833
Older & Disabled Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme 1,548,569
Total 2,342,402

Important information about this data

  • All information is correct, based on available data, at the time of publication.
  • Transport Scotland does not own the National Entitlement Card. Cardholder data is supplied by the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO).
  • Cardholder data refers to the number of people with a valid NEC but does not include products which either start in the future or have expired.
  • NECPO are working with stakeholders and partners to carry out a data cleansing exercise of the customer database which may impact cardholder numbers when records are updated.
  • ‘Journeys’ refers to a smart journey recorded against a valid product that has been received and processed for payment by Transport Scotland.

All data is subject to change due to late data being received.