Find Bus Stop Numbers in San Diego

Updated March 5, 2016

Want to know what time the bus will get to your stop in San Diego for the Metropolitan Transit System?  It's easy!  All you need is a phone that has a texting capability.  MTS calls its system GO MTS! (http://www.sdmts.com/OnTheGo)



1)  Find your stop number.  Most bus stop blades have bus stop numbers on them:

• Other stops have the stop number on the pole display in the lower left corner.  


• MTS's website (http://www.sdmts.com) has the stop number lists on each route's scheduling page.
• MTS uses an app called OneBusAway for real time arrivals.  http://www.sdmts.com/schedules-real-time-mts-go/one-bus-away

2)  Text the stop number to GOMTS (46687).  You'll receive a reply shortly with times of arrival for that stop.

• Some buses in San Diego have GPS on-board and you'll get a real-time arrival for that bus. Some buses are scheduled arrivals, but you can't tell from the text you get back.
• If your stop has multiple routes but you just want to get the results for one route, you can send the message stop number [space] route number.  This will return only times for that route.

Good luck and good riding!

Quick Way to La Jolla, University City and the Beaches

updated April 22, 2014

Did you know that there's actually several ways to get back and forth between Downtown San Diego, La Jolla, University City, and the beaches?

Between Downtown and the beaches, you can take Route 30 on weekdays from Downtown and from Old Town on weekends. The fare is $2.25 ($1.10 for seniors/disabled). Route 30 runs every 15 minutes 7 days per week! You can catch the route at most stops on Broadway in Downtown or at Old Town Transit Center.  Old Town Transit Center is a great place to catch Route 30 if you're coming from Mission Valley. Route 30 is your only way to go all the way to La Jolla on weekends, as the other faster express Routes 50 and 150 don't operate on weekends.

During the week, if you're going all the way to University City, you can take Route 150 (or Route 50 to UTC Mall). The fare on these routes is $2.50 ($1.25 senior/disabled) since they are express routes for most of the trip. You can catch either route downtown at the stops on Broadway and at Route 150 stops in Old Town as well. Route 150 is much faster in getting to La Jolla since Route 50 meanders through Clairemont on its way up to University City. They run either on a 15 or 60-minute frequency throughout the day on weekdays only.

Route 30 Map

Google Transit

[updated November 25, 2012]


Trip Planning

Have you seen that San Diego MTS is on Google Transit? Google Transit is a really cool feature of Google Maps that lets you plan transit trips in cities that are currently participating in the project. You can plan trips for all MTS and NCTD bus, Trolley, Sprinter, and COASTER routes.

Bus Stop Locations

What's a really neat feature is the ability to see where all of the bus stops and Trolley stations are in the MTS service area. If you go to Google Maps and zoom into the map near where you're starting or where you're going, you will see the bus and trolley icons. If you click on the icons, Google Maps will tell you what the next scheduled time the bus departs at that bus stop or trolley station! In San Diego, you can also turn on the Transit Layer to see if transit goes near your origin or destination.

Try it out. It is also available on most mobile phones with the Google Maps application, or on the Maps application on the iPhone (through iOS5).

Regional Transit Map

Did you know that the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) has new regional transit maps good for the entire San Diego County, including NCTD? They're dated June 2007 and take into account all of the recent changes they made to the system.

They are always hard to come by, but if you send $1 to MTS, they'll send you back a map!

Send your $1 and your return address to:

MTS Marketing Department
Regional Transit Map Request
1255 Imperial Ave, Suite 1000
San Diego, CA 92101