Aberdeen, Scotland rolls out Apple Pay Express Transit to all First busses

Apple watch Apple Pay (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

UK bus operator First is bringing Apple Pay Express Transit to Scotland.
Aberdeen buses now support the contactless payment system.
Other UK cities should be getting it in due course, too.

UK bus operator First has announced that it has brought Apple Pay Express Transit online in Aberdeen. The company has accelerated its pilot scheme to allow people to make contact payments more easily during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First also says that the pilot is taking place ahead of a full rollout across the United Kingdom.

The launch of this innovative technology has been accelerated through the impact of the Coronavirus, with the city's largest bus operator advising customers to avoid paying cash on bus wherever possible due to the latest government advise on limiting the spread of the Coronavirus. First Bus has seen the use of cash fall by around 5% due to Covid-19 guidance on avoiding its use where possible.

Apple Pay Express Transit allows Apple Watch and iPhone users to pay fares without having to first authenticate via Touch ID or Face ID. Apple Watch owners don't even need to press the Side button, either. What's more, Express Transit also works even when the device has run out of power, too.

On your compatible iPhone with the latest iOS version, you can use power reserve with your Express Travel cards. Power reserve enables you to quickly pay for rides. Depending on your device, it's available for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged.

Apple Pay Express Transit is available on iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus or later as well as Apple Watch Series 1 or later.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.