Free bus travel for young people aged between 5 and 21

Children and young people in Renfrewshire can travel for free on buses throughout Scotland.

You can get free bus travel if you are between 5 and 21 years old and you have either a:

• National Entitlement Card (NEC)
• Young Scot Card (NEC).

Children under 5 years old already travel for free on commercial bus services and don't need a card.

You can use your National Entitlement Card (NEC) or Young Scot NEC to travel free on any bus service in Scotland.

Who can apply for a National Entitlement Card (NEC)

Children under 5 years old don't need a card.

If your child is nearly 5 years old, you can apply for their card up to 2 weeks before their fifth birthday.

If your child is aged between 5 and 10, you will need to apply for their Junior National Entitlement Card (NEC).

If your child is aged between 11 and 15, you will need to apply for a Young Scot Card (NEC).

If you are between 16 and 21 years of age, you can apply for your own Young Scot Card (NEC).

If you already have a card

If you are aged 16 or over, you can download free bus travel onto your existing card using the Transport Scot Pass Collect app.

You can download the Transport Scot Pass Collect app for:

• Android devices from the Google Play store
• Apple IOS devices from the Apple App store.

How to use the Transport Scot Pass Collect app

Watch this YouTube video to learn how to use the app:

If your card is lost, damaged or stolen

You can apply for a replacement card if your card is lost, damaged or stolen.

Apply online on:

• parentsportal.scot
• getyournec.scot.

If your child or children are in a Renfrewshire primary school, you can also contact the school office during term time to complete a form.

If you need help with applying for your own or your child's NEC card, contact us:

Your application for a card uses personal data held by your child's school.

To process your child's card, we need:

• your child's name
• address
• date of birth
• gender 
• contact details

Photographs are included on cards for young people aged 11 and over. They are not used on cards for children between 5 and 10 years old.

We use the personal information solely to process card applications.

The data is shared with our contractors, suppliers, and service providers, to allow us to administer, manage and maintain the travel concession schemes.

You can see more details about how your child's data is managed in the privacy policy for concessionary travel and smart ticketing, including the National Entitlement Card (NEC), on the Transport for Scotland website.

Find out more about the Young Persons' Free Bus Travel Scheme for Under 22s (Transport Scotland website.

It's part of the Scottish Government's National Transport Strategy which aims to build a fairer, greener society.