Troubleshooting

If MTA Bus Time isn't working as you expect, try the following tips:

• If you're searching by bus stop code, be sure the bus stop code you are using is six numbers long. It should not contain spaces, dashes or letters. If you need help finding your bus stop code, see Finding Your Bus Stop Code.
  
  
• If you're searching by intersection, be sure to spell the street/avenue name completely and providing street types such as "St" or "Ave". There may be another street and avenue with the same name, so it's important to specify which one you are searching for. Make sure to separate the intersecting streets with "and" or "&".
  
  
• If you're having problems searching by bus stop code, try adding the bus route you're interested in.
  
  
• If a phone isn’t receiving text messages – or if it's getting texts that say “mobile messaging is blocked” or "Service Access Denied" – there’s usually one of two reasons:

          1) The phone plan doesn’t support messages from short codes (the 5-6 digit numbers many organizations use for SMS/text such as MTA Bus Time's 511123).

          2) There’s a parental control in place that prohibits text messages. For T-Mobile, see this page.

          The best solution is to contact the service provider and check the phone plan. Make sure that the phone can receive messages from short codes, and there are no parental controls in place.

If you still have issues using this service after trying the above, contact us.