Rome bus

Rome Bus: What You Need to Know

The Rome bus lines cross the entire city. Rome buses can be crowded, quite unreliable and can get stuck in traffic, but they still beat driving in a very busy town and looking for a parking space in narrow streets for ages. Due to unpredictable traffic flows, the vast majority of Rome buses are not able to run according to their schedule, so tourists, and Romans too, are under the impression that there is no schedule at all. If you’re going to catch a bus in Rome, you better know that you’ll never really know when it is going to show up. Fortunately, in the historic centre, you don't usually have to wait too long, unless you're tired and it's raining! There are a few buses, called Linea Esatta that are able to follow a predetermined schedule and usually run only in working days.

Rome Bus: Tickets
Rome bus and Rome metro use the same tickets, so you can transfer from one to the other. There is no such thing as a transfer ticket; you can change from one Rome bus to another and take one trip on the metro for as long as the ticket is valid. You can purchase tickets ahead of time, they are considered "in use" only when validated on the bus or metro, buying your tickets beforehand is strongly recommend, because normally you cannot do that on board, only a few Rome bus lines have automatic ticket vending machines on board and bus drivers are not even allowed to talk to passengers. Keep your ticket for the whole ride, you may be asked to show it by inspectors and the current fine for those travelling without a ticket is around 75 Euros. Tickets may be purchased at tobacconists, some newsagents, the SMA supermarket chain, from vending machines at the train station and in the metro stations. It can be difficult to find tickets at night or on Sundays, so keep a supply of them.

Rome Bus: Times
Most Rome bus lines run from 5:30am to midnight, 7 days a week, you can expect fewer buses and longer waiting times on Sundays and Holidays. There are a few buses that start later, usually around 7am, and end earlier, usually around 9 or 10pm. There are also some night buses that begin around midnight and run all night, usually about every 30 minutes. The number always ends with an N (ex 60N). You can purchase tickets onboard the night buses for 1 euro. The hours of the bus in Rome are indicated at the bottom of the sign at the bus stop.

Rome Bus: How to use it
Rome Bus stops have yellow (sometimes white) signs, with each bus line in a column. The column will show all the stops for that line, with the current stop highlighted by a red rectangle. The type of bus will also be noted at the top: Express (more frequent, less stops), Urbano (normal), Notturno (night). In principle, on a Rome bus you should get on by the front or back doors and off by the middle doors, but sometimes the front or back are so crowded, that the only choice is to try the middle, that’s why you'll see many people breaking this rule. Unless you have a pass, you'll need to validate your ticket immediately. Ring the buzzer to signal the driver to stop at the next stop and if you’re waiting at a stop out of the centre or if there isn’t anyone else at the bus stop, flag down the arriving bus to bring to a halt, some stops are optional and they wont stop unless you wave at them.

Rome Bus: Sites
If you have to take a Rome Bus  we strongly recommend you to check the ATAC (roman public transport company) site, to see the English version, click on the British Flag located on the bottom right corner. Under Fares and Tickets, you'll find information on the different types of tickets and the costs as well as where to buy them. The site has really good transportation maps of Rome too. If you type a starting point and an arrival one, it will show you the Rome bus and/or metro routes to take. Another site we want to bring to your attention is Trambusopen.com, where you can find useful information about the high-quality tourist service offered by this public company. Trambusopen has a huge fleet of brand new buses either traditional topless double-deckers or new single deck topless ones and guarantees low cost tariffs and a wide range of tickets. On the site you will also view maps of the routes of Rome bus tourist lines  such as the 110 and Archeobus. If you want more information about transport in Rome and in particular about the metro, you can check our page Rome Metro.