Editorial Policy

1. Our Editorial Mission

The U.S. bus system is fragmented across more than 2,000 transit agencies and dozens of intercity carriers. People who need a bus — whether for a daily commute, a low-cost intercity trip, paratransit access, or a school-bus question — often face a confusing patchwork of agencies, fare systems, apps, and websites. Get the wrong information and you miss a connection, pay too much for a ticket, or fail to understand a paratransit application requirement.

Our editorial mission is to publish practical, manually-verified information for every U.S. transit agency and major intercity route, so that the right answer is the first answer. Every page links to the official agency or carrier portal first, then layers in route information, fare structures, accessibility services, and connections — all from the agency’s own published documentation.

2. Quality Standards Every Page Meets

• The transit agency or carrier portal URL is verified live
• The customer-service phone number has been dial-tested within the last review cycle
• The address (headquarters or customer-service center) is verified against the agency’s contact page
• Route map and schedule URLs go directly to the agency’s published documents
• Fare structure reflects the current schedule including reduced fares for seniors, disability, youth, and (where applicable) low-income
• Fare-card system (OMNY, Clipper, ORCA, SmarTrip, CharlieCard, TAP, Ventra, etc.) is identified with the right purchase channel
• Paratransit application portal and eligibility framework are documented
• Real-time tracking options (agency app, Transit App, Moovit, Google Maps Transit) are listed
• Intercity carrier coverage (Greyhound, FlixBus, Megabus, Peter Pan, Trailways, regional) is documented with terminal addresses
• Service alerts subscription channel is identified
• Title VI civil-rights complaint channel is documented
• “Last reviewed” date appears on every page

3. Source Hierarchy — Six Tiers

Full hierarchy with named sources, URLs, and how each is used is on the Sources & Methodology page.

4. Verification — Our Seven-Step Process

1. Identify the right authoritative source. We start with the official agency page on the city/county/state .gov domain (or the agency’s dedicated .org domain), cross-checked against APTA’s member directory and the FTA National Transit Database.
2. Verify the URL is current. Agency websites get redesigned. We click through every link before publication and confirm the destination is the actual page.
3. Verify the customer-service phone number. We dial-test main customer-service phone numbers periodically.
4. Verify the address. Customer-service centers, headquarters, and station addresses are cross-checked against the agency’s contact page and USPS ZIP+4.
5. Document fare structure and accessibility. Each is captured from the agency’s own published documentation.
6. Cross-check intercity service. Greyhound, FlixBus, Megabus, Peter Pan, Trailways, Jefferson Lines, and regional carriers serving the city are verified against each carrier’s own station list.
7. Editor sign-off. A second editor reviews the page end-to-end before it goes live, including a fresh check on accessibility and Title VI escalation links.

5. Update Cycles

6. Corrections Process

1. You report it. Email info@busschedules.org with subject “Correction” and the page URL.
2. We acknowledge. Response within seven business days confirms receipt.
3. We verify. An editor goes back to the agency’s page or dial-tests the number.
4. We correct. If confirmed, the page is updated. Substantive corrections — wrong phone number, wrong terminal address, wrong fare, wrong carrier — trigger a published correction note dated and described in plain English.
5. We tell you. The reporter is notified once the correction is live.

Broken phone numbers and addresses get an expedited 48-hour turnaround because riders miss buses while a wrong number is up.

7. Accessibility — Editorial Position

8. Equity and Title VI

The Federal Transit Administration enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against transit agencies receiving federal funding. Riders who believe they have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, colour, or national origin in transit service may file a Title VI complaint with the agency or directly with the FTA. We document the Title VI complaint channel on every transit-agency page and we do not editorialise on transit-equity policy debates — we report what the law and the agency’s published policies say.

9. GTFS Data — Editorial Position

The General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), maintained by MobilityData, is the open data standard that powers Transit App, Moovit, and Google Maps Transit. Most U.S. transit agencies publish GTFS feeds. The BTS Intercity Bus Atlas aggregates GTFS feeds from participating intercity carriers. Where we mention “real-time arrivals,” we describe the GTFS-RT (Realtime) framework and the apps that consume it, but we do not republish GTFS or GTFS-RT data ourselves — those data feeds are best consumed through the apps optimised for them.

10. AI Tools and Authorship

• AI tools may be used for first drafts, formatting consistency, and language polish
• Every page is run against the live transit agency or carrier portal by a human editor before publication — AI cannot substitute for live verification
• Phone numbers, addresses, hours, fares, and route information are confirmed against the official source by a human
• AI-generated text that turns out to misstate a procedure is corrected through the standard corrections process
• We do not allow AI to invent agency-specific procedures, fabricate phone numbers, generate fictional bus routes, or describe agencies that do not exist

11. Editorial Independence

We do not take payment from the FTA, FMCSA, NHTSA, BTS, APTA, ABA, CTAA, Greyhound, FlixBus, Megabus, Peter Pan, Trailways, Jefferson Lines, RedCoach, OurBus, any local transit agency, any fare-card system operator, any bus charter company, any bus manufacturer, or any other commercial party in exchange for editorial coverage. The site is funded by display advertising on the principle that advertising and editorial are separate functions.

12. Advertising and FTC §255

• Display advertisements are visually distinct from editorial content and labelled where required
• Where any commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed in context per the FTC’s Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255
• Sponsored content, if it ever appears, is clearly identified as paid-for
• We do not insert commercial links above the verified transit-agency and carrier contacts on a page; the official source always comes first

FTC endorsement guidance: ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking.

13. Sensitive Topics

U.S. transit content intersects with several sensitive areas. We try to handle them with care:

• Transit equity and access. Service availability varies enormously across U.S. metros and rural areas. We document what’s available without editorialising on which neighbourhoods deserve more service.
• Fare evasion and enforcement. Each agency has its own fare-evasion policy and enforcement model. We describe what’s published without taking a position on enforcement.
• Disability accommodations. Paratransit eligibility decisions and service complaints are deeply personal. We describe the framework and route complaints to the right escalation channel without weighing in on individual cases.
• Safety incidents. Bus accidents, assaults, and operator-rider conflicts are reported to the agency, NTSB (for major accidents), FMCSA (for intercity), and local police. We document the reporting framework without sensationalising specific incidents.
• School transportation incidents. Bullying, missed pick-ups, and accidents on school buses go to the school district transportation office and (for safety violations) NHTSA. We do not handle individual school-bus complaints.
• Service cuts and layoffs. Transit funding is contested politically. We document service changes without endorsing or opposing the underlying budget decisions.
• Immigration and border-area transit. Greyhound and other intercity carriers have been the subject of immigration-enforcement debates. We describe the legal framework factually without taking a position.

14. Reader Feedback

Substantive feedback — corrections, suggestions, broken-link reports, dial-test failures — is logged and addressed within seven business days, with a 48-hour expedited path for actively-broken contacts. Feedback that is abusive, threatening, or harassing is not engaged with and may be reported under our Terms of Service. We do not engage with requests to remove factual statements about transit agencies or carriers that are accurate and properly sourced.