DigiGo - Travel on demand
About the service
DigiGo is a fully electric shared public transport service which offers on-demand or pre-bookable travel in parts of Essex. There is no fixed route or timetable, which puts you in control of your journey. DigiGo is booked through the TravelEssex journey planning app.
It's easy to book a DigiGo journey via the TravelEssex app.
Book - Select your pick-up and drop-off points within our operational areas and pay on the app.
Track - Watch on your smartphone as your designated vehicle makes its way to you in real-time.
Ride - Hop on and off you go!
A journey can be booked to travel on-demand or up to 7 days in advance. Bookings are made and paid for on the TravelEssex app, where you can also track your vehicle in real time before and during the journey. All DigiGo drivers are enhanced DBS checked.
DigiGo improves access to health, education, employment, and social opportunities. Some example journeys could be:
- Travelling to education at Notley High School & Braintree Sixth Form
- Commuting to Skyline 120
- Travel to local train or bus stations for onward travel to Stansted Airport, Chelmsford City Centre, Witham, Colchester and more!
- Reaching your appointment at Broomfield Hospital or Braintree Community Hospital
- A family day out at Great Notley Country Park
DigiGo is a shared service, which means you may pick up other passengers on the way to your destination. This helps reduce emissions and congestion in the operating area. Our vehicles are fully electric, powered by GRIDSERVE, with wheelchair accessible vehicles available too.
This service is made for everyone… so, whether you’re a commuter, a student, a weekend tripper or a key worker, DigiGo can get you to where you’re going.
Travel anywhere within our operational area plus key locations such as Braintree Bus Interchange and Braintree Train Station!
Operating times
DigiGo operates 7 days a week, from 7am until 10pm everyday - we've got you covered for evenings and weekends!
Excluding Bank Holidays
Making a booking
Setting up your account
Here is a quick guide to setup the TravelEssex app and create a DigiGo account:
- Download and install the TravelEssex app from Google Play or Apple App Store
- Upon opening the app, pressing ‘Get Started’ means you agree to our terms and conditions
- Next is location settings – our app works best if you allow location services and notifications
- In the app menu, tap on ‘Create an account’ – provide your details the app requests
When booking your first journey
- Enter your destination in ‘Where do you want to go’.
- On the next screen, choose to depart now or in the future and change your current location, if required
- A list of available travel options will appear. If your journey is within DigiGo's operational area, it will be displayed in this list, advising the estimated pick-up time and cost.
- To travel by DigiGo, tap on ‘Order’
- You will then be presented with more information about your DigiGo journey, including:
- A map showing the journey and walking route to pick-up point
- An option to choose an accessible vehicle (tap on ‘Change’ on the ‘Passengers’ row)
- Tap on ‘Book this ride’
- On the following screens you’ll be asked to:
- Add your payments details (required for all passenger types, including Concessionary Pass holders)
- Choose your ticket type: Adult, Young Person or Concessionary.
- Concessionary pass holders will be asked to enter their 18 digit pass reference, which will be validated and saved for future journeys.
- Your DigiGo journey details are now completed, click ‘Book this ride’ again to finish the process.
Once you have booked a journey
- Upon booking confirmation, you’ll be advised of your drivers name and vehicle registration collecting you
- You can live-track the minibus on its way to you via the app!
- Text messages will also be sent to your mobile, confirming the journey booking, when the minibus is nearby and when it has arrived
- Follow the app navigation to your pick-up point
- When boarding, show the driver your booking and hop aboard!
When pre-booking, the guide above is the same, other than you'll need to click the 'depart now' button in the app and choose 'set departure time' - giving you options on days of the week and times.
Alternatively, we have a telephone booking option for those unable to use the app 03330 137 138
This is available Monday to Friday, 10am till 12pm (excluding bank holidays)
Pricing Structure
DigiGo fares offer three ticket options - Adult, Young person and Concession.
The table below outlines single fares, per person.
From 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2024, DigiGo will be participating in the Government's Bus Fare Cap Grant. Prices shown in green below:
| Distance
|
Adult
|
Young person
|
Concession*
|
| 0 to 2 miles
|
£2.50
£2.00
|
£1.87
|
Free
|
| 2 to 4 miles
|
£4.00
£2.00
|
£3.00
£2.00
|
Free
|
| 4 to 6 miles
|
£6.00
£2.00
|
£4.50
£2.00
|
Free
|
| 7+ miles
|
£8.00
£2.00
|
£6.00
£2.00
|
Free
|
*Concession's travel for free after 9am on weekdays and at all times at weekends. Before 9am on weekdays the standard fares apply.
A young person on DigiGo services is classified as under 18 years of age.
Group bookings via the app are now available – for up to 10 people, so that’s you plus 9 others.
Contact Details
The best way to contact DigiGo is via email at DigiGo@essex.gov.uk for general queries, compliments or complaints.
Our telephone booking line is available Monday to Friday, 10am till 12pm at 03330 137 138 (excluding bank holidays)
Questions and answers
Select a question to reveal/hide the answer:
What is DigiGo?
Everyone! Whether you’re travelling to school, work or for a social occasion – DigiGo is for you. We do ask that children aged 10 and under are accompanied by parent, guardian or carer.
DigiGo is currently available in south Braintree, Great Dunmow, Broomfield, Great Leighs, High Roding, Great Canfield, Stebbing, Great Sailing and many more places! A detailed map showing the exact boundary we cover is further up on this page. This is a pilot scheme running for two years. If it works, we’ll seek funding to operate more DigiGo services in other parts of Essex.
‘On demand’ is when you book a journey at short notice (e.g. for 15/20 minutes time) - this option gives the ultimate flexibility and is the best way to use the DigiGo service.
DigiGo is an electric, shared public transport service – it operates fully flexibly. There are no fixed routes, no timetables nor use of bus stops, like a traditional bus service would.
You are in control – you can book a journey on-demand (for a journey needed quickly) or in advance (up to 7 days before) through the TravelEssex app.
Nope – DigiGo is not a private hire service - it is a new form of shared public transport. The app has a clever algorithm to group similar bookings going to similar areas at similar times; all without impacting on the time you need to arrive by. Additionally, it does not offer a door-to-door service
Bookings and payments
Journeys can be paid for through the TravelEssex app (iOS/Android)– it's the quickest and easiest way to do it. There is also a phone booking service available, where a customer cannot use the app for any reason.
Yep! Up to 7 days in advance of the journey. Ideal for those who like peace of mind that their journey is all booked in. When pre-booking your journey, please choose the 'Set departure time' option to do this. There is an option for setting an arrival time, however this feature will not show a DigiGo journey.
To do this, book your return journey at the same time as your outbound journey. You can do this through the TravelEssex app. This enables the app to operate properly based on demand from customers in your local area.
Yes you can! Through the app, you can now book for up to 10 people – so that’s you plus 9 others. When booking, you’ll be asked to select the number of people travelling with you by ticket type (Adult, Young person, Concession). The app will automatically calculate the total fare for you and, as normal, advise the estimated pick-up time.
When making your booking through the TravelEssex app (iOS/Android), it will advise you of the estimate pick-up time. Nearer the time of the journey, you will be able to track your minibus in real-time. You’ll also receive text messages and notifications advising when the minibus is nearby and has arrived to pick you up. No need to wait outside in the cold or rain unnecessarily!
DigiGo is not a door-to-door service; it is a corner-to-corner service instead. What this means is that you’ll be picked-up and dropped-off near to your start location/destination. The app will guide you to where the minibus is collecting you from, with real-time tracking available.
This means the service has been really popular in your local area/time selected. We would advise trying to book a journey for a slightly different time. There may be spare capacity for an earlier or later time.
As the demand for the service grows, we will continue to review the number of electric minibuses in operation and seek to expand, where there is a case to do so.
Within the app there is the option to cancel a journey and then you can simply re-book for the desired journey. Your journeys appear in the app menu under ‘DigiGo – on demand’; click on the one you wish to cancel, when it opens, click on the menu in the top right and choose ‘Cancel ride’.
Yes – you can cancel a booking in the app easily. The charge for the journey is placed as pending and will be taken on completion. If cancelled, the pending charge will not be taken. Those who persistently book and cancel journeys may have their accounts suspended at the sole discretion of the service.
You’ll be charged the full cost of your journey.
Yes it is – we can transport wheelchair users onboard. For now, we ask you to book via our telephone booking service; so we can ensure your journey is setup right for you.
Wheelchairs must be crash tested and have the manufacturer’s crash test certificate. We reserve the right to decline a journey if this condition is not met.
In the menu of the app, selected ‘My Account’. On the next screen, under ‘My Profile’, you’ll see the current profile selected for you (e.g. Adult, Young person, Concession). Under the same heading, the app gives you the option to add or remove a profile, giving you the flexibility to alter this to the correct type.
This is part of your account creation and only needs to be done once, after which your details are stored to make future journey bookings quick and easy. Journeys for concessions before 9am on weekdays are charged at the standard adult rate, so if someone with a concessionary bus pass travels at this time, the app needs to be able to collect a fare from you. Rest assured, no charge will be made at times when concessions travel for free.
The Bus Fare Cap Grant is a government-funded initiative that, since January 2023, has enforced a fare cap of £2 for single adult bus journeys across England (excluding London). The UK government has announced that it will extend the £2 cap on bus fares until the end of December 2024. DigiGo will be participating in this scheme with all single fares being automatically capped at £2.For more information on this grant, visit www.gov.uk/government/speeches/transport-update-2-bus-fare-cap-on-a-single-bus-ticket
Onboard the minibus
Please show them the confirmation of journey booking from the app and advise them of your name. For concessionary pass passengers, you’ll need to show your pass to the driver. Please ensure the name on the pass matches the name you entered in the app, and that the pass is in-date/valid.
When you have booked your journey, the app will advise the name of your driver and the registration of the vehicle collecting you – giving you full confidence.
We ask that passengers do not eat/drink or smoke/vape on the minibuses. Mobility scooters, e-scooters, pets and bikes are also not permitted onboard. We welcome guide dogs, folding scooters, folding bikes, folding buggies, small shopping trolleys and small amounts of personal luggage (e.g. if using DigiGo for onward travel to the airport).
Drop us an email and we’ll arrange a time for you to collect it from us. We keep items for up to one month, other than perishable items, which are disposed of daily.
Feedback
Please email us at DigiGo@essex.gov.uk and we’ll do our best to help. We’d also love your feedback directly in the TravelEssex app, which is available in the menu bar, or after completing a journey with DigiGo.
There are several ways to do this. You can rate the app in the app store, feedback directly in the app (within the menu) or drop us an email to DigiGo@essex.gov.uk
DigiGo is a brand new form of shared public transport and we want to continuously improve and develop it over time. We value constructive feedback, always, even if it might be hard to hear.