Coming from Europe, the expectation of s public transportation system in the city was a no brainer for me. However, having lived in the U.S. for over 6 years now, I can appreciate the little network we have. I am happy we have some options in the area and Metro transit system is actually prettt vast. I take Metro Plus (Line 90) regularly from downtown to UC Hospital. It is a great bus, express line, with fewer stops, very clean and very safe. The bus is on a schedule every 15 min, but delays sometimes happen. Some drivers used to skip my stop and altering the route, out of unawareness, but when I called the help line, someone was always able to reach the driver and let them know. That helpline, although not ideal, is very useful, as I could pass the message to the Supervisor, who clearly made all the drivers aware of the stop that got skipped way too often. I had my share of frustration, but it was resolved long term and in the end and now it's great! When it comes to other bus lines, it all depends on co-commuters. I was in buses where people left behind trash and spilled drinks on the seats. Some buses go through rough areas and safety might be a concern. The biggest thing is, the bus drivers are generally awesome, very kind and helpful. They need to put up with some obnoxious passengers and I admire them for doing this job! We need more buses, more routes, less cars, more public transport options! My big critique: there is no good app for the Metro routes. This is something they should work on to see where the buses are stopping exactly, and to check the schedule (ahead of time, not just in real life). I am happy they introduced the mobile tickets now! And there is Wifi on board now! Fantastic! read more

Metro Bus System - Go Metro WiFi is working! - Public Transportation Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

People waiting for the bus at Ninth and Walnut scream and yell, disturbing senior citizens living in the highrise apartment building across the street. Not quit sure why they see the need to talk so loud. My suggestion is to move the stop a block west to the Library where nobody lives. read more

You can't rely on the schedule. Busses simply don't show up as scheduled so you have to wait for the next one and hope it shows up. The drivers drive right past you, even when you're standing right at the stop waving your hands yelling for it to stop. If you have to arrive at work or an appointment at a certain time, you have to leave hours early just to insure you arrive on time. read more

First and foremost most of the bus drivers have extreme attitudes as if we decided to wake them up out of bed and make them come to work today. The amount of unprofessional bus drivers that I have ran into Far Over ways the amount of professional bus drivers I have run into. Secondly most of the bus drivers are late on their routes and do not care. I have seen things like bus drivers getting off in the middle of a route to take personal phone calls and disregarding anyone who may have to catch a connecting route. I have seen bus drivers that drive across town buses leave Maine buses knowing that they only run an hour instead of waiting a couple of seconds to see if anybody coming off the bus pulling up needs to get on their bus. Today was the straw that broke the camel's back. While using the transit app that they so highly encourage you to use instead of calling them I left my house in the pouring rain to catch a bus that Metro did not notify was not on route. So now I'm standing at a bus stop in the rain waiting on a bus that didn't come. While attempting to call the Metro company they told me that they would send the supervisor out to me in 15 to 20 minutes but the bus comes in 14 minutes. Whoever's running Metro needs to tighten up I think they have lost track of the fact that they are a customer based company and that they rely solely on people to catch the bus in order for them to be able to provide a service. Government funding that comes from the package that I pay when I go to work and they don't even care if you're late for work. I have been told by bus drivers you should have caught an earlier bus as if I just want to be at work an hour early because you want to be lazy and not do your job. Not the best bus service I have used and I have lived in several different cities. Tighten up Metro read more

being a native Cincinnatian, I don't have many public transportation systems to compare Metro to. that being said, I am an infrequent traveler of public transportation. I have never had any major issues, and I still don't, even with the pandemic. using this system only requires a little planning and patience. read more

Metro Bus System - Public Transportation Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

This is the worst bus system ever. Theirs always problems and when theirs fault they don't care and they don't understand they should take initiative and fix it. Not you getting impacted. In the past a bus pass me because it was running late but they didn't care that I was waiting on for 20 minutes. I was late for work. Another time I was waiting on the bus on the weekend, the app had a bus coming at a certain times and it never came and I was late for another event. I don't know why you advertise this transportation when you aren't reliable and when you called to tell the bus never came they can careless and tell you that the bus didn't come out today then why you have it on the app and then they tell you the app isn't in their power. Just sad. I'm a involved advocate in the community and can't even rely on my city transportation. Today August 24,2022 I got on the bus and I was using a bus card that has 30 dollars on it. A nonprofit organization gave it to me this year to help get around places because I don't drive but very involved. The card was misread and I was trying to get a all day pass so I can get to my destination then back to my college. The bus driver could see that's their money on the card and told me to sit down like he did me favor. I told him I need a all day bus card he forcefully told me "what am I supposed to do. The card is misread". Now I am worried if the card going to misread again and will it impact me to get yo my destination because I am taking 3 buses ti get their. This could've been all resolve is Sorta/Metro would give their bus drivers extra cards in case things like this happens. Theirs been so many horrible incidents with metro that is their fault. I don't even know typing this because they don't care. I was catching the lockland bus at 1:30 at government square August 25, 2022. read more

You have some employees like Warren and Courtney who go above and beyond. Even came up a ramp to the door of the house to get this lady on the bus safely. Then you have Jeff who spoke inappropriately. I do not know this man but he is not a model of appropriate behavior. In front of my consumers he called me "Sugar foot. " I am probably old enough to be his mother! That's something only a husband or boyfriend should call a lady. Then later my consumer told me that in front of all the passengers he called me a "B ". A course in manners is needed here! read more

They stop at restaurants like people getting off work aren't ready to go home....currently. Almost never on time!

For the life of me I don't know how a bus service operates likes this... The 21 is constantly never showing up and then most drivers just blow right by you even when you're standing at a stop people are using the bus to get to work or school they pay to get to where they need to go Metro should make damn sure all their buses should up or stop funding the.. There's got to be accountability for not coming at all read more

I filed a complaint with customer service on January 29th about bus #32 failing to leave the garage on weekends and holidays at the earliest scheduled time of 6:35 am. They closed the complaint Thursday February 16, 2024. I spoke with a Samantha who is head over Transportation Services. She stated someone from customer service complaint department would call me back. This was the second time I was late for work due to bus #32 failure to leave the garage. A customer service representative called me back by the name of Tierra. With a nonchalant "I don't care attitude" she stated Metro cannot always guarantee the bus will arrive on time or at all. She suggested other for me to get to work on time. So I called Samantha back. She stated someone would call me back by Friday to accommodate me. No one called me back. Metro's disclaimer that they strive to better serve it's customer and improve it's transportation option for the regions, while also providing sustainable transportation to low income riders so they can access employment, maintain-well being as advertised on their website is false advertisement. I advise anyone if you have a complaint do not file it with customer service. Take it directly to the CEO's or COO or spread reviews across social media including Facebook. Because you will not get any satisfaction dealing with customer service or any other staff member with Sorta/Metro. Tierra is the worse customer service representative I ever had the displeasure of encountering. Was it her personally, Metro's failure to strive to serve it's customer or all of the above. I say all of the above! read more

Cincinnati has a pretty bad bed bug problem. People bring them with them when they use public transportation. You should take that into consideration if you use public transportation. You should buy bed bug traps that fit under the post of your bed. You should also buy mattress, and pillow protectors. They can act as early warning systems when you clean your linen. Prior to COVID, Sorta service was spotty. Its gotten even worse during, and post COVID. Part of this is I believe due to staffing issues. Whatever the reason, reliability has plummeted. Metro buses are chronically late, and many times won't even show up. I live in Clifton, and use the bus to get downtown to transfer to a Tank bus by 6:30 am at the latest. I can't tell you how many times the 17 was late, or didn't even show up. The same for the 78. I've had to use Lyft, or Uber to get to work. I can give you two recent examples of Sorta buses being late, or not showing up at all. Last Sunday i had to catch the 31. After ten minutes of being late I decided to walk. The Sunday prior I had to catch the 31, and after two buses not showing up I decided to just walk. The last two times I caught the 31 was after 10 am. I can understand if one bus wasn't staffed, but to have two buses in a row not come is incomprehensible. I don't believe Sorta cares about the public, its customers. We fund them, but they give us substandard service. If you have to depend on the bus to get to work early in the morning, or on the weekends, you might want to consider alternatives if your job depends on it. There seems to be no accountability for Sorta drivers being late, or buses not arriving at all. The buses are wheelchair accessible, and have bike racks for bicycles. I've been downtown, and seen multiple people in wheelchairs getting off. That can lead to buses being late. But it doesn't explain why buses inexplicably don't arrive. Sorta/Metro encourages users to use the Transit app for arrival/departure times. The Transit app is only as good as the information provided to it. The app isn't reliable either. I don't know if this is the fault of the app, Sorta, or both. If you're gonna use Metro, don't rely on the app to plan your trip. I hate to say this, but their drivers are unionized, and there's a stereotype about how unions make it difficult to terminate employees. I don't feel good about badmouthing a public transportation company, because I consider myself an environmentalist, and would like to see less cars on the road to reduce pollution. If you want to read more complaints about Sorta, then visit their Facebook page to see more rider complaints. read more

Most of the male bus drivers that drive the 17 Mt. Healthy are nasty and rude. Metro really needs to get a handle on that. Very poor customer service from these drivers, if they don't like their job, then they shouldn't be drivers. I'm gone start recording them and making them Facebook famous. read more

Most drivers are kind, courteous, but the customer service department could use some training. Rather than listening, they talked over me and cut off most of my sentence. waited an additional 45 minutes for a bus on the schedule that didn't show up. I realize they were short a driver but talking over upset riders does not help. read more

The Metro Bus system seems to have a bad rep with the older folks in Cincinnati, but I think they've successfully revamped the system so far. Fiance and I only have one car (I work Uptown, and he works all the way up north in Sharonville). It was getting kind of ridiculous carpooling, and our little Prius-that-could was racking up some serious mileage. I made the switch over to the Metro & I'm super pleasantly surprised! Being from NYC, I couldn't help but make comparisons, and the Metro wins out by a long shot. UC employees can get a discount card for free and then pay $1 per trip. I only use the bus for work so this was the best option for me. The discount card is very easy to get, and there's a machine on calhoun for the value stored cards ($10, $20, etc). I thought this was a super steal, considering in NYC bus rides were $2.50 last I checked and metrocards were sold in really weird amounts that made you count your change. I took Rt. 24 to Anderson and it took about 45 minutes, compared to 30 for driving, plus an extra 15 minutes for walking. Not bad, even on a cold day! They announce all the major stops, and the buses are clean. Machines accept bills, coins, discount cards, and value cards, which is a lot better than the old NYC system. You can also download the app that GPS tracks your bus so you're not left wondering if you missed it or where it is when there's a delay. Delays are obviously bound to happen when there's a major accident or if there's snow. That's the just way public transportation is; I don't think it's a limitation at fault of Metro itself. Awesome to see that you don't always need a car in Cincinnati! tl;dr great updates to the system & easy to ride! Better than NYC, imho. read more

Folks give Metro a lot of grief, but after living in a place with utterly awful public transportation, I've found Metro to be better than most people give it credit for. I ride a fairly direct route for my daily commute, and over the last year, have only had a massively delayed bus a couple times. Maybe I'm profoundly lucky or I ride one of the more reliable routes. Metro has been improving some of its bus stops around Clifton and Downtown with real-time arrivals board. Awesome, but when are we going to get the same thing in an app? I'd love this. It'd also be great to have a direct route from Clifton to the West Side -- right now, such a trip requires a downtown transfer. read more

I've been recently using the metro bus system. I've had very helpful friendly drivers until today. An African American lady in her early 40s ( description only since she refused to give me her name or I'd or badge number when I asked and told her what id be using it for. She drove the 46 bus on Monday around noon from MLK and burnet avenue. She told me to get off the bus several times and that I was slowing her route down ( although she had literally just stopped and was at a red light) because I was getting my transfer ticket out of my wallet?? Shr threatened me saying " yeah I better keep walking and get out of her face" as I was walking to my seat. Then a car honked at the bus and she started yelling gibberish at them. Once I started to get off at my stop I calmly asked her for her name and she told me I couldn't have it, so I let her know what it was reporting purposes only. She said it wouldn't matter and they "wouldn't do shit anyways", so either get off the bus or she wouldn't let me off the bus. Once I was off the bus she gave me the finger as well as she drove by in front of all the passengers that were still on the bus. All because I was getting my ticket out of my wallet when she was stopped at a red light? That sounds like an unsafe driver to me. If you're willing to cause that big of a scene of something so small in front of that many people while you're driving imagine what else they might be willing to do. Everything is on camera on the bus hopefully and I did call metro and leave a message but I hope what she said was wrong and something WILL BE DONE and she will be reprimanded. read more

I ride the metro every day to go to work and back the metro is my personal vehical, yes you have some rude drivers and vsome are really unpleasant, but I have seen some very disrespectful passengers, who were really nasty to the drivers nstrait disrespectful and for no reason that I could see, I ride metro every morning, and in the evening, if I see this behavior at 5am and at 6-7pm imagine what the drivers must go through in the time between I'm lucky for the most part I have the same driver every day with no complaints, but lay off the operators if you had to deal with bad moods and attitudes and just nasty and crancy people on a daily basis and couldn't respond or do anything about it you might come off as being rude. What I think it is they are reaching their breaking point (every one has one) and doesn't speak or say anything to stop the flood gates from opening, give them time to regroup, their better than me some of the treatment I have seen from riders, I would not only loose my job I would be in jail. read more

Metro bus have some very disrespectful drivers. Not all of them but it only takes a few to make the whole system look bad. They will just jump out in front of you and get nasty with you when you confront them about it. When you report it to Metro are fill out a claim that seems to be as far as it goes. Most of the time you don't get any kind of response back.. The system is poorly managed. The other day a driver jumped out in front of me and when he got back over and I got on the side of him and told him that he knew he was wrong he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and gave me the finger. I am 70 years old and to me this was very disrespectful. A year or two ago I had the same encounter with another driver. I realize that some seniors can be nasty also but still when you are serving the public there should be more respect and tolerance. I did nothing to that gentleman for him to disrespect me like that. Now if my daughter or son had been with me that would have created a problem with him giving their mother the finger, and he was the one in the wrong in the first place. read more