Technically-savvy travellers in Surrey are beating queues and rushing for a bus by logging on using their mobile phones.

More than 1,000 passengers a month are using Surrey County Council's mobile phone web service to check bus times.

Ian Lake, Surrey County Council's cabinet member for transport, said: "This is yet another example of the county council embracing new technology for the benefit of residents.

"We aim to make it as convenient as possible for people to use Surrey's buses and we're pleased our mobile phone services are making life easier for passengers.

"By using your mobile phone, you can receive the information anywhere, whether it be walking to the bus stop or even in bed if you've overslept."

The number of people checking bus times this way is climbing, with 1,173 getting information in April this year, up from 895 in January 2011.

The service lets travellers check how long a bus is away from a stop and find a selection of bus times.

People without mobile internet access can find out how many minutes the next three bus services are away by text by sending a unique bus stop code to 84268. Within seconds a text will be received with information on how long they have to wait.

They received nearly 600 text messages detailing bus times in the three months to this August after the real-time information service was launched and the aim is to push that figure up to 1,000 a month as more passengers become aware it is available.

Both the text and web mobile services are run in association with Traveline.

The real-time travel service giving details of the next bus arriving covers nearly 4,000 stops in Surrey. If someone is waiting for a bus not able to transmit real-time information, they will receive scheduled timetable information.

Each bus stop's unique code can be found at www.surreycc.gov.uk/travel.