A BIG shift in travel habits has been revealed after the city’s bus companies reached their 50,000 mobile ticketing customer.

Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company and Metrobus made the milestone with the M-ticket.

The mobile app and ticket was launched across the bus network in Brighton and Hove in April 2013, and later in the rest of Sussex in November.

Individual tickets are expected to exceed one million within the next two months with customers quickly adapting to the new technology.

The flexibility of mobile technology makes it faster for the bus companies to respond to customer feedback with new tickets.

Martin Harris, managing director, said: “The rate of growth in the take-up of the M-ticket has been incredible.

“In fact, with mobile and smart card tickets combined, fewer than 20% of bus users in the city now pay cash to the driver as they board.”

The companies celebrated the 50,000 customer milestone by giving away free travel to M-ticket holders in the form of complimentary four-week SAVER M-tickets (worth £66 each) and Metrovoyager M-tickets (worth £84 each).