As a daily TriMet commuter, I rely heavily on this app. The features are easy to access once you learn your way around, and the data is completely reliable. Can’t believe the developer created this for free; it’s brilliant! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to use it for a few weeks, and have been trying to reach the developer for help. Just bought a new iPhone 11 thinking the problem was my old phone, but still can’t get the app to work. The TriMet website is horrible to use (they don’t even have an app for tracking/trip planner) and I can’t wait to be able to use this is a app again. The other available TriMet apps are disappointing, too - don’t bother!
I’ve loved this app since I first downloaded it years ago. There were some problems but they fixed them. I swear I’m always discovering a new function and everything about this app is made with the user in mind. It has all kinds of functions and safely features that enhance your bus riding experience in my book. You can look at the bus you are on and the next stops to tell you when your bus will get there. You can set up favorites and look at them in advance for you next stop. You can also set even plan out a whole trip and look at all the stops you need at once, including alternate stops so you can see what bus you want to take. Might not be as simple as google maps but it actually gives you lots of options especially if you know where you’re going and how you want to get there. Plus the safety creature of the lights are super helpful once it’s dark out especially in winter! Helped me be seen and not get run over multiple times and the bus never misses me! All around the best features. Just explore it and you’ll find something that will work for you and you’ll use this app forever!
I’ve been using this app for over 10 years, and while there may be glitches from time to time (like there is with every other app I’ve ever used), it has been one of my most used and needed apps. For some reason I’m not aware of, Trimet has not developed their own app. For a city that relies so heavily on public transit this seems ridiculous to me so I very much appreciate that the developer has created and maintained this app for so long as a volunteer. I find the current Trimet website to be annoying to navigate except for looking up the standard schedules. Also, the majority of the low ratings on here either make no sense to me (the app is perfectly easy to navigate if you’re at all iPhone literate), or it’s clear people did not read the details about the app and want to complain about Trimet. To those people, take the time to read before you post an inaccurate review—this is a free service generated from Trimet’s online data and the app is not responsible for your complaints about Trimet. Kudos to the developer for doing this for so long and helping many Trimet riders.
I love PDX bus. I've been using it for almost 5 years, it's amazing! Although I like these, it is lacking just one or two features I want. Although it includes the trip ID (or block), it does not include vehicle numbers, which would seem like a easy feature to implement, would help me out so much!! I like seeing what vehicle type I ride, because they all are slightly different) I hope that your able to implement it (because the current way to access vehicle numbers are very hard to find), but again, very easy to implement. Thanks!
When I first opened this app I was overwhelmed by the amount of text and thought it would not be for me. Wrong! Once I got over the hump and bookmarked a few key stops, I realized this option-packed app is a bus riders’ dream. Even though I go many different places on transit, the commuter bookmarks are still handy, and the nearby stops feature is the most functional I’ve seen. I may have quibbles (like what I think red bus times should really be for), but overall this is a reliable app with lots of options to set up what works best for you with just a bit of effort at the beginning.
The app is much better than it used to be. I use it daily to identify where and when the nearest MAX train will arrive and whether there are any delays. The only issue I see is sometimes the app will show a train is coming or due, and no train comes. All if the busses and trains have GPS, and it seems odd that the app would not have 100% accurate location data. Having said that, this seems to happen very rarely. One feature I would like to see is the ability to set custom alerts, e.g. notify me 10 minutes before the next red line train is due to arrive at X station.
I use this app multiple times each day during the work week. I really liked the flashing light to alert bus drivers during the winter time but it seemed to have disappeared. I read some reviews today and the latest app description and realized that it wasn't gone but just "hidden" in the optional settings that I never thought to review! I also found the ability to bookmark my stops which is very handy since I previously had a note on my phone with all my favorite stop ID's. I really do find the app to be helpful and pretty accurate.
This app technically has all the information you need to plan your trip around the city using public transportation. However, when you’re outside at a bus stop or Max stop trying to figure out how to get from point a to point B sort of on time, the interface is cluttered and needlessly complicated, especially on a small phone screen. I would like to be able to pick the starting point and a destination and get all the potential routes in a format that’s easier to read and navigate on the go. This app is a neat miss for me.
this app has a very complex interface; however once you learn it is very powerful. You can tell there has been a lot of thought gone into this app. The app works vey well when connected to wi fi, however I found it spotty to use even with a strong 4G signal. If it’s reliability on cell signal could be tweaked to be more reliable then I would give it 5 stars.
This app hasn’t been updated in a month and, after the new IOS update, it’d be nice to have an updated version. It lags when I try to look at a specific bus’ real time location and has now been saying that the bus I’d been waiting for hasn’t been located in 3 minutes and it just showed up a minute early. I know it’s not the biggest deal but when it takes 3 minutes to locate a bus that does indeed have real time on, it gets a bit frustrating. Just don’t want anyone missing their bus because it came early and they didn’t know because the app is lagging.
PDX Bus turns regular bus riders into bus whisperers. It pulls up my morning and evening commute options automatically, and I can easily see my fastest route home from anywhere. It shows alerts, delays and buses that might be no-shows, so nothing’s left to chance. I just noticed that you can refresh arrival times by shaking the phone, a real mittens season game changer, and I had to finally leave a review. It’s years overdue.
This morning, I was waiting for the 15 bus at Belmont and 14th. The app said that the bus was running behind with 7 minutes left to wait. I switched to the 70 bus to 12th and Morrison, which was 4 minutes away. As I walked to 12th,, I saw the 15 bus at Belmont and 12th. That is very inaccurate for the app. This has happened before. This afternoon, at Gateway Transit Center, I put in the stop id for the departing buses. I read that the 15 bus was 12 minutes away. So I hung back and waited, Two minutes later, the 15 bus pulled up to the stop, and again, the app was inaccurate
We bike most places but when the weather is foul we use TriMet. I'm thankful for many features in this app, especially the ability to set an alert when your bus is getting close and to set a color for a bus so you can track it in the app once you're on board. Both features calm down my kids (and me) so the "is it almost here" and "are we there yet" questions are easier to answer.
Update 8/8 I use this every single day to get home it's been accurate about 95% of the time. I love it. I have my work saved as a trip and I love it's easy to just locate transit near by. Good stuff. Sorry about the outage thanks for the response, devs. -Original This is my usual everyday, go to, transit app. Since update it won't open maps, load trips, or find nearby transport on or off wifi.
I’ve been using this app for years and have always really enjoyed it. It seems like a couple times a month someone asks me to help them navigate the trimet site or some other app and I always steer them directly to this. Love the ability to see recent stops and manage bookmarks.
Used this app for the first time after a high recommendation from my son who uses it daily. While the route is correct, the bus left four minutes early, as I was a block away. I went to check the app again and it said the bus was arriving in four minutes. Now standing in the cold for 20 minutes on Sandy. I’d be less upset if there had been a notification saying that the bus schedule was the source of the arrival times, not live tracking as I’d assumed.
As TriMet is my only mode of transportation I have 2 use this app everyday. It works fantastic I’ve never had a problem with it. It always updates quick with location data & reroutes. The only thing I wish was different was that the maps & schedules were in the app & it didn’t have 2 take U 2 the website 2 access them.
I am only writing this to report a bug, since there doesn’t seem to be any other way to do so. Lately, when trying to set an arrival alarm, I get a notification a few minutes later saying that iOS has blocked access to the app, rendering the alarm useless. I get no advice on how to change any settings to resolve this. Otherwise the app works great.
This, 2 Across and Wikipanion are my best reasons for having an iPhone. PDXBus is without doubt the best transit app I have ever had the chance to use, is better than TriMet's own website, is feature rich and has had so few problems over the last five years that I wouldn't hesitate to say that this is the must have app if you live in the area.
I use this app multiple times a day to help determine if I’m going to wait at a Max stop or walk to the next one. I have tried others and they don’t even compare. Siri shortcut integration is great! I can make a shortcut widget of my most frequent stops and go right to them. Honestly, if you’re in Portland and you ride TriMet even occasionally, get this app! So well done.
This has been my app of choice since it was released. I've tried others but this is my go-to and currently the only one I use. For users complaining that times aren't loading, when that happens is usually because the problem is coming from a TriMet transit tracker outage and *not* the app developer itself.
I use this app almost daily and it’s very helpful. The times are usually incredibly accurate. My only complaint is that if I set an alarm to alert me and move to a different app (with this one open in the background) it doesn’t alert me unless I go back into this app. That is utterly useless.
I use this religiously, it’s incredibly helpful to use while exploring Portland or just going to work, although if you’re using it to go to work you should arrive at least five minutes early as the times the train arrive aren’t always exactly then, but other than that it’s very helpful.
Great app I’ve been using for years. The ease of setting up bookmarks makes commuting and getting around a breeze. This app has allowed me over the years to continue to reduce my driving. The big map apps with transit work okay but this app is for the everyday rider.
Over the last months, I’ve received inaccurate information several times from this app with regard to Max arrival times. This has occurred when I’ve been departing from both the Bybee Bridge Max station and the 5th and Oak Max station. It’s a real bummer. I blast out of my house to get a Max that’s reported as arriving at a certain time, then arrive to the stop to find I’ve got 10+ minutes to spare.
I am impressed with how Portland is coming back and your heroic bus drivers are a big factor. During the pandemic they kept buses running, we’re and are always courteous and helpful to visitors and the buses are clean and run on schedule. Thank you Truman from a visitor to your city
I use it every day and it makes getting around on TriMet so much easier. I especially like being able to select a bus and see its exact location, which is very helpful when heavy traffic or bad weather makes the time estimates inaccurate.
This great app does a really solid job of handling the nuances and details of Metro Portland’s multifaceted transit system. From GPS locations to bus-route options to Max train times — it covers it all, and keeps up with the evolution of the technology and the transit system itself. Thanks for the good work!!
Something is up with the app. I went and put in the info needed for the trip and it kept giving me nothing which I found strange, so I went on to the TriMet website and was able to get a schedule for my trip for the next day. Please fix this issue with the app.
Thanks to the developers for better map search functionality. But the prior search is prefilled in the search box and the only way I can find to get rid of it is to delete ONE character at a time which takes forever. Needs a clear button or not to prepopulate with meaningless data.
aug 10 Thanks devs for fixing the problem and reading reviews from users! Now it works flawless. aug 2 so frustrated when you need this app to estimate time but it won't load. I am going to delete this app to use another instead.
This is a great app that does everything you need with no bloat. Just bookmark your most common stops and then you’ll always have live arrival times literally two clicks away. Oh, and I just discovered the QR reader - who knew! Highly recommended.
I don't know if it's my phone, my lack of color discrimination ability or the app itself, but the blue border, which I believe has blue words are not different enough for me to even see! White or yellow words would be so much better!
It can take some time to figure out how to bookmark stops & trips & it can tell u to walk wrong direction to your stop! This might be due to TriMet starting one in the wrong direction at first from an approximate gps point
Belated thanks for fixing the departure-time problem, and/or prodding the folks at TriMet to correct it! Whenever I'm on the bus (which is often) I use this app, and I appreciate having such a solid transit tool available.
This is the best app I have ever used. It gives you all the bus lines, Max and street car. The arrival and departures times, route maps and schedules. It even gives you the bus number and route number. Well done Tri-Met and thank you !!!!!!
This has restored functionality and now one of the apps I use the most now works. Appreciate the developer reaching out director and getting the app fixed.
This app always works. I use it to see when the next MAX or bus is arriving at my stop. I don’t know how it works, but it knows exactly where they are regardless of schedule.
I’ve been using this app for years, and just a few weeks ago it stopped working. The schedule is still there, but all in grey with no more real time updates. I really rely on knowing when the bus or tram will be coming. But now I just have to hope it’s on time.
Kudos for getting new Streetcar feed. But cannot figure out how to use the app. No "back" button? Once you get to a screen you're stuck there. Eventually find a useful countdown but it's kind of random.
This is my first review on the iTunes Store and all I can say is WOW! This app is awesome! I save my trips and can easily update the schedule to accommodate time changes to/from. Great app! Thank you!!
This app never and I mean never gives me the buses close to my job. I live by the 9 and 75. All three options are the 9 and then get on another bus and then walk 8 mins to my job. I always take the 75 to 20 or 19 which drops me off 2 blocks from my job! I’ll be at the 75 stop and it will tell me to walk to the 9!!! I’m over it!!!
I heavily rely on this awesome app to get me to work and home again every day! Great job! Especially liking the new feature listing how full the buses are! Good to know!
If all you want to do is put together a schedule the app is ok, not great or good, but it works. But just try to figure out how to get a ticket for your ride & the app is totally useless. They need to look at Denver’s RTD ticket app. Takes about 30 seconds to get your ticket purchased with no hassle & no complications!
PDX Bus is an award winning application that displays arrival times for public transport in Portland, Oregon. ** PDX Bus won Best in Show at the CivicApps.org awards ** This app uses the Internet to quickly access TriMet's live tracking data to display arrival times perfectly formatted for the iPhone. It allows you to bookmark frequently used stops, displays recently accessed stops, and gives details for arrivals which are en-route. You can enter the stop "id" of the stop (as displayed at each stop or station) or you can browse the routes for the stop. Feature includes: - Interactive rail maps, showing the MAX, WES and Streetcar stops. - Embedded maps, showing locations of stops, and when available, the last known position of the bus or train. - Use GPS to locate nearby stops or rail stations. - Browse routes and stops, show an entire route on the map. - Links to TriMet route information. - Displays Rider Alerts, and Detours. - A "Nighttime visibility flasher" - a flashing screen that can be used at night so that drivers can see you. TriMet suggests holding up a cell phone to make yourself visible to bus drivers. -Trip Planning - now you can use the same trip planning feature that is available on TriMet's web site. - Specially formatted text to work with the iPhone 3GS VoiceOver accessibility feature to speak arrivals. - QR code reader to read codes at bus stops and stations Route and arrival data provided by permission of TriMet. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Note: this free application was developed as a volunteer effort to provide a service for TriMet riders, the developer has no affiliation with TriMet, or Apple. Suggestions and feedback are welcome.
