Transport · Nottingham
Getting Around Nottingham on a Student Budget
Nottingham City Transport sells its student fares in its app, the tram has student fares of its own, and a Robin Hood card covers both. Here’s the cheapest way to pay, depending on how often you ride. Prices are from NCT, the tram, the Robin Hood network, the two universities and the railcard’s own pages, read on 10 October 2026.
Checked 10 Oct 2026Research-led10 min read
Student fares are in the app
NCT’s student singles and day tickets are sold only in the NCTX Buses app or on a student Robin Hood Pay As You Go card. You need photo ID from your UK college or university that shows your course expiry date: NUS Extra, ISIC and TOTUM cards aren’t accepted.
In the City Zone, a student single is £2.50, 24 hours’ travel £4.70 and a ten-trip ticket £22.50. Tap a contactless card instead and you pay adult fares: £3 a trip, capped at £5.70 a day.
After 7pm, a single is £2 for everyone, every night until the last bus, whether you pay by cash, contactless or the app. NCT brought in the £2 Evening Single on 21 June 2026; it can’t be paid for with a Robin Hood Pay As You Go card.
Ten student singles bought one at a time cost £25. The ten-trip ticket is £22.50.
If you ride most days
NCT’s Academic Year Pass gives unlimited travel in the Nottingham City Zone from 1 September 2026 to 31 July 2027, weekends and holidays included, for £349, or £579 with the Outer Zone. NTU’s version, also £349, includes the route to the Brackenhurst campus. Buy it in the NCTX Buses app or at the Travel Centre. NTU says its £349 annual bus pass is free with selected NTU accommodation.
For shorter spells, NCT’s student Easyrider tickets for the City Zone are £21.60 a week, £69.15 a month or £499 for a year.
At £69.15 a student month, the £349 Academic Year Pass pays for itself in its sixth month.
The tram, and tickets for both
The tram has its own student fares: £3 a single, £4.70 a day and £20 a week, or seasons at £70 a month, £175 for three months, £285 for six and £415 for a year. Its Student Academic Year ticket, 1 September 2026 to 31 July 2027, is £365; the NETGO! app offered it for £315 until 18 October 2026.
Riding buses and the tram? A student Robin Hood Season covers any bus, tram or train inside the Greater Nottingham boundary: £84 a month, £237 for three months, £448 for six or £627 for a year. There’s no student version for the academic year. Bring in-date photo ID from your place of study (NUS, TOTUM, UNiDAYS, Student Beans and ISIC aren’t accepted), and get your first card in person at the Travel Centre. NCT’s student page gives its address as 28–30 Lister Gate, but the Robin Hood pages put it in the Nottingham Tourism and Travel Centre on Smithy Row, so check before you go.
Or pay as you go: a student Robin Hood Pay As You Go card has no card fee, charges £2.50 for an NCT single and £3 on the tram, and caps a day at £4.70 on NCT or £5.60 across operators. Student cards expire on 31 August each year.
An £84 Robin Hood student month costs £55.15 less than an NCT month and a tram month bought separately (£139.15).
Buses to each campus
The University of Nottingham’s hopper buses are free for its students, staff and visitors: show your University card. NCT has run them since 1 August 2026. The 901 links Kegworth and the Sutton Bonington campus with University Park, stopping at NTU’s Clifton campus and Clifton South Park & Ride; the 903 runs in a loop between Jubilee Campus and University Park, every 15 minutes on weekday daytimes in term; and the 906 links University Park and Jubilee with Lenton and Beeston on term-time evenings, Monday to Saturday, hourly. The 904 to the Royal Derby Hospital stopped after 31 July. New hopper buses are due in the first half of 2027, and the current ones have no cycle racks.
Driving to the 901? Don’t leave the car at Clifton South Park & Ride: NET, which runs the tram, clamps hopper passengers’ cars there, with a £140 release fee, unless the driver has a valid tram ticket for the day.
For University Park, the University lists the Orange 34, 35 and 36 from Lenton, Beeston and Chilwell; the Pink 28, 30 and 31 from Lenton, Radford and Wollaton; the Navy 1, 3 and 4, the Grey 53 and 54 and the tram from Clifton; the Turquoise 77, 78 and 79 and the tram from the Arboretum; and the Green 5, 6, 7 and 11 from West Bridgford. The nearest tram stops are University of Nottingham, University Boulevard and Queen’s Medical Centre. For Jubilee Campus, NCT gives the Pink 28 and 30.
NTU’s campuses are on NCT’s ordinary routes: any NCT bus towards the city centre for City campus, the Navy 4 for Clifton and the Pathfinder 26 for Brackenhurst.
Trains and the railcard
A 16–25 Railcard is £35 for a year or £80 for three, and takes a third off most rail fares; full-time mature students can get one too. From 4.30am to 9.59am, Monday to Friday, there’s a £12 minimum fare.
The tram from University Park runs to Nottingham station, on the line between Toton and Hucknall via Beeston and the city centre, and a student Robin Hood Season covers trains inside the Greater Nottingham boundary as well as buses and trams.
A third off £105 of fares is £35: the price of the railcard.
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