What Can This Web Site Do?

Currently, our site features complete, up-to-date schedules for all routes. You can access schedule information in the following ways:

If you know the route you need to use, click "Bus Schedules," then select a schedule from the route list.

If you don't know your route number, click "Bus Schedules," then click on the route name of the area in which you want to travel. Most routes listed have a PDF Map associated with each route. You can view the map and decide if that route is right for you.

You can use the Search facility to the left by entering a keyword (such as "Dickerson") and clicking "Go" to see a list of routes containing that keyword. The information searched includes the route name, names of all the time points on the route, points of interest and special notes.

In addition to schedules, you'll find a wealth of information about MTA programs and pricing.

How Do I Use the MTA System?

We have such a full array of services and programs available to riders that it's easy to be a little overwhelmed if you're new to the system. So let's take this in two steps: First, we'll list the major categories of services we offer. Then, starting with the most important, we will explain each one. Here's the list:

Regular Routes. Most routes travel into and out of a central downtown location, making it easy to get from one place to another with a single transfer. We'll tell you how.
Snow Routes. These are modifications of the regular routes when road conditions are bad.
Youth Services Routes. In addition to our regular routes, we have special runs to transport students. These runs are available to the general public as well.

How Do I Pay?

You can pay your fare in cash when you board the bus. The fare box accepts $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills as well as U.S. coins, including the $1 coin. Drivers do not give change. Change cards will be issued at the fare box for money paid over the fare amount.

Once you become a regular rider, you will want to stop by the information booth for an All-Day Pass, 7-Day Pass or one of our other convenient multi-ride tickets. Cash, checks, money orders and credit cards are accepted at the information booth. Picture ID may be required for credit card and check purposes.

For your convenience, we now offer online ticket sales. A shipping fee of $2.50 ($5 certified mail) will be applied to all online, mail and phone orders.

I'm Here But I Need To Be There. Help!

The basic idea is that the MTA goes pretty close (or right from) where you are, and pretty close (or right to) where you need to be. What you need to is determine which bus route travels through your current location, and what route travels to your destination. You can always look at the route database within our Web site and decide which bus you'll need to take by looking at time points and destinations.

I'm Looking At a Route Schedule, But I Don't Understand.

Once you master the simple art of reading bus schedules, you'll be ready to ride. So let's take each part separately.

The Route Map

Start out by looking at the route map. Most routes travel into and out of downtown through Music City Central. Here are some things to understand about the map you're looking at:

Points of special interest are shown on the map. Look for the descriptions inside boxes on the map. Buses do stop at these points.
Time points are designated with numbers inside circles. These are significant designated stops along the route that we provide times for.
A bus schedule "newbie" may be led to believe that the time points and places of special interest are the only places that the bus stops. To the contrary, there are so many places that we stop at, making it so easy to use the system, there's no way we could show them all on the maps! Your best bet is to pick up the bus at any location marked with a blue-and-white MTA bus stop sign. Benches and shelters are provided at many of these stops.

The Schedule

The schedule specifies the times that buses pass through each time point show on the route map. Each line of times in a schedule represents a single bus. The times show when the bus will be traveling through that time point.

If you happen to be catching the bus at one of these points, you know just when you need to be there. If your stop is in between two time points, the times still help you estimate departures and arrivals.

All schedules show times for weekday runs. Most routes also are run on Saturday and Sunday. There is a separate schedule for weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Good luck! Contact us if you have further questions or if you'd like to suggest more FAQs for the site.