Valley Metro Reviews

by Malcolm Lovestein

The east bound buses; Camelback, Indian School, Thomas, McDowell start at 4am-ish but the first two morning runs end at 50-something street, they make sure everyone is off the bus and then continue going eastbound EMPTY!!! How much sense does that make? You’re paying the driver, you’re running the same way, why make people get off the bus and wait for the next bus to maybe show up. I say maybe because I’ve now noticed that the McDowell bus at least once a week, the first bus that runs the full route doesn’t show up? So Valley Metro pays 8 drivers(4 EB routes at 4am and 430am) and at least one other driver that doesn’t show up once a week to not pick up passengers? How can you advertise as being good for the environment when you’re needlessly driving empty after kicking people off the bus? And supposedly just added better morning coverage? Where? How? Brain dead people running this org.

And why are the smart cards only available for businesses? 8th largest municipality and we’re going to the gas station to get a bus pass when they could just make the smart cards available to everyone and reloadable from your phone. Or… most smart phones have nfc we don't even need a smart card just need to make the option to do everything through ValleyMetro . Silly people.

by Ipad Fan 4 Good

Three times in the last two weeks I’ve used ValleyMetro to see when a bus will arrive at a stop I am at. The scheduled time passes, no bus shows up and no other information is available. Sometimes two busses vanish Customer service says they can’t track the bus either. So either the GPS is so regularly faulty as to be worthless or the drivers are turning it off when they do not feel like driving their routes.

by Godric83271

I find ValleyMetro to be useless in the early morning hours especially on the weekends. It doesn't show the buses that are supposed to be running I. The early morning hours of 5 am. I have been using google to track the buses but even now Google Maps has become just as useless. Considering I spend exorbitant amounts of money just to take public transportation one would think that ValleyMetro that’s developed for that specific task would work better.

by NatalieTk

You check ValleyMetro , the train says it’s on time. You arrive at the platform 10 minutes early anyways. Still ValleyMetro says on time. No train in sight on the map. Still, ValleyMetro says it’s on time. The time has passed, no update, no train. Fast forward to 25 minutes later, checking ValleyMetro continuously for updates, the metro just skips two set times and finally shows. There was a supposed “platform announcement” about 20 minutes into my wait, well you can’t hear because we’re literally on a busy street. What if I was deaf, how does that help? Let’s not forget the fact that no kiosks ever work, there is never security staff on site or on the trains and while I’m a paying customer via a card, homeless continue to ride for free. ValleyMetro and metro continues to do nothing but provide false information to its riders.

by Stormtracker9

While ValleyMetro promises live tracking, that’s not really the case. When you first try to track a bus, it will show the current location but it does not autoupdate or actually track the bus. Bus will show as on time until it’s already passed the bus stop early, then will update & say it was early. Manual refresh is even difficult as you have to redo the entire search for it to try to find the bus again.
There’s also no way to pay your fare in ValleyMetro , which is pretty ridiculous it being 2022…

by Guy On An IPhone

With the amount of times buses break down, how am I supposed to rely on the bus enough for a pass to be viable? Why is there tax money going to this just for them to continue to charge us? I say if we are going to make public transit, it should be open to the PUBLIC. Do I pay to go to the public park or public library? No! There is no reason for having access to public things. When you start charging what you consider a little every day, it turns into $1,200+ a person. I feel like that money can easily go to a car or even an ebike to make up for the fact that you have to suffer on most of this transit they are going to provide anyways!

by Sweetums333

I purchased a mobile fare pass on Feb 1, 2023 and it displayed on my iphone. On Feb 8, I opened ValleyMetro to use the mobile fare for the first time ever. The pass wasnt there. I tried to sign in but it told me that “device limit reached”, and wouldnt allow me to sign in. I emailed Valley Metro but got no response, so I notified the credit card company who quickly got me a refund. This was the 2nd time ValleyMetro wouldnt let me sign in due to “device limit reached”. If Valley Metro cant fix the issue then I just wont use the mobile fare at all.

by FoundGamer

App works fine, the problem is when I was on the bus there were people arguing with the bus driver because there weren’t any places to buy bus passes nearby and didn’t have a smart phone either. They had cash, but because of the way the system works an argument ensued. The driver just let the people on the bus. This update created a dangerous/hostile environment both on the bus and at the stops. I hope 3.0 doesn’t stay the way it is, makes me want to just Uber places from now on even if it costs a leg.

by Trev.U

Insane update. I don’t know why “adding funds” is important to the user experience, where is the option to buy a 1-day pass (hint: it’s nowhere)? Why do I need to add $5 increments to my account before I can buy passes? Why can’t I pre pay for passes on ValleyMetro anymore? Why aren’t my passes showing up after I scan? And they’re transitioning away from paper tickets, what if someone doesn’t have a smartphone? They just can’t ride? I know there’s multiple people working on ValleyMetro, someone has to know this is a terrible update. What are we doing here?

by The Real NBA White Boy

One of the main selling points of ValleyMetro is that you’re able to track where the bus is currently at. Despite this being a major selling point, the tracking rarely ever works it works sometimes but hardly ever. The maps app that is pre installed on iPhones tracks the bus as well and does it better and more consistently than ValleyMetro. On top of poor tracking, the times for the bus displayed on the apps are only half of the time correct. It’ll say the bus will come by 4:40pm but the bus doesn’t end up coming until 5:10pm. Again, the maps app has more consistently right bus times. The only thing ValleyMetro has over maps is that you can pay for the bus fare on ValleyMetro . Otherwise, just use your maps app, it’s better in nearly every way.

by KozmikMike

Getting right down to it: the real time tracker is incredibly unreliable. Being great when it works is less useful when it works so infrequently. It also randomly loses your trips and it’s ability to find trips. You are much better off just using Google Maps to plan your trips, then double check it on an actual computer with Valley Metro (if you really think it’s necessary). I’m sticking with Google Maps myself. And deleting ValleyMetro from my phone.

by Subway Nick

The previous app for this app seemed easier to use than the current version. Both, but esp the current, are atrocious in comparison with the free “Transit” app on this platform. Today I wanted to tell someone how to use the I-17 Rapid from the Bell Rd PNR during weekdays to connect to light rail for Sky Harbor. I gave up on the this app app and moved to “Transit” where date options were clear and the Bell Rd PNR was available for input. I believe Valley Metro (the public org) might better serve riders by supporting an existing and working app (e.g. “Transit”). I have no special interest other than being a supporter of transit and Valley Metro the public transit org.

by Rkitekt318

While I love being able to pay for my pass on ValleyMetro , I shouldn’t have to register just for a single or day pass. ValleyMetro should be able to store the info without requiring a full registration process. If only 1 pass is purchased & activated at a time, the lack of a registration process is worth the minimal risk to losing the pass if ValleyMetro gets screwed up. This is especially true for visitors who need the most frictionless process to choose transit over private vehicles, which is already an undesirable choice to access most of Phoenix.

by Neo09091968

I've gotten on three wrong buses because of ValleyMetro. Rarely gives most direct route. I can figure out my own route faster with 100% better precision. The most recent bug is the gps showed a bus pass me by, but there was no bus to be seen. So I started to walk towards my destination. Then suddenly the tracker showed the bus a block before the stop I was at. I had to run back to that stop to barely catch the bus. ValleyMetro is retarded. More retarded stuff. My destination is 9.6 miles away. ValleyMetro shows my bus already halfway through the trip on the map and reads the trip will only take 1 minute. Quantum travel maybe?
Today I missed another bus because this retarded app said the next bus was 20 minutes away. So I start walking to the next bus stop. 5 minutes later the bus passes me by. The developers of ValleyMetro are retarded.

by Exit2lef

Valley Metro has a history of stubbornly doing things its own way rather than following best practices in the industry. For years, it has dragged its feet about releasing real-time bus and train location data. With ValleyMetro, that has finally changed, but the agency is still behind where it should be with respect to data sharing and transparency. The real-time data is helpful when it actually appears, but in my experience it is not uncommon for a “location not available” message to appear when a specific bus is selected. Even when the data is available, there are significant usability issues with ValleyMetro. If a user pulls up scheduled arrivals for a specific location and then looks to see where a specific bus or train is currently situated, there is then no easy or intuitive way to return to the original list of scheduled service. Finally, I’d prefer not to have to download and install yet another app when both Google and Apple Maps already do a better job of displaying transit information. Valley Metro should focus its efforts on sharing real-time data with established third-party apps rather than creating its own product.

by Malas0912

I have lived in almost every majors city in the US, and lived in AZ over 10 yrs( the best) and still, you guys haven’t caught up with technology! Most transit APPs allow you to purchase a bus pass online with a debit or credit card, then it creates a virtual pass, that can be scanned using your smart phone, upon entering the bus. Have you guys added that on a different APP? It saves time and may increase riders by having the convenience of allowing debit and credit purchases through ValleyMetro . If you have it, please tell me where???

by Blurp057

I really like the potential that ValleyMetro has. So far the companies that make up valley metro (or whatever) make it so ValleyMetro is trash. 1 out of 3 trips are cancelled and ValleyMetro just says “delayed 5 min” until the next bus comes or “scheduled, no live vehicle data” until after the time the bus is supposed to be there then it will suddenly say cancelled. If there was a way these companies could communicate that a route trip is cancelled earlier through ValleyMetro it would really help otherwise just standing at a bus stop while two buses that were supposed to be there never come in 115 degree heat is killer while ValleyMetro keeps telling you. If I actually knew when the buses were coming I could plan accordingly.. any updates to address this would be flipping awesome!

by Nikrose89

ValleyMetro itself is fine. I dislike how it use to be $4 for all day passes through ValleyMetro to get me to and from work now I’m having to pay $2 for every bus I take because now they are only one way rides I’m spending $10 a day and nothing has changed for the prices to be that high. The buses are still late homeless people that soiled themselves still ride the bus drivers are still rude couple more dollars and you can get an Uber and get to your designation faster. I understand taking away the paper bus passes, but taking away the all day bus passes in ValleyMetro was wrong

by Sjreynoldsaz

I would have rated ValleyMetro five stars prior to the new smart fair system. Bus times are generally accurate or stay up to date with the bus- it does its job in that regard.
The “new” smart fair system ValleyMetro uses isn’t as intuitive as the old pass system. Its confusing and puts an extra degree of separation between fare users and their ticket which I do not think is useful, and makes the process more complicated than it needs to be.

by Poketuber9000

I’ve been late to work multiple times because of inaccurate times listed on ValleyMetro causing me to miss the bus by even a few minutes. The buses are either early or extremely late with almost no inbetween. It’s only a 15 minute drive to my workplace, and even leaving an hour and a half early doesn’t help. ValleyMetro is very unreliable.

by Mama EMB

Why is there no option to purchase more than a 1 day and/or 1 fare pass?!? And why don’t I get a choice to choose Full fare or discounted fare price?!? App only does what it needs, to an extent. Delays and cancellations aren’t updated immediately or at all sometimes, which can put riders stuck for hours if it’s the last bus. You can always count on a cancellation or an early or late bus no matter where you go, and you’ll never know in time to make concessions.

by Xavier87

Aside from telling you which route to take for your destination, what else does ValleyMetro do that others don’t already do better? For example, the Transit app tells you real-time transit information. This is highly useful information for when you’re sitting waiting for the light rail & have noticed it’s behind by 30+ minutes & you’re contemplating just taking an Uber, another useful app. Right now, most people are better off still using other apps for real-time transit information. If would be smart for the developers to do what the Transit app does & uses users location-tracking to update the rail/bus locations.

by Yffuyeqk

Good app with a few flaws. The location of a bus can be refreshed manually by retapping the stop and time. This gives a more accurate location versus waiting for the gps of a bus to track by itself on a certain interval, which takes longer to happen. There should be a refresh button added for the route.
Second: There is a rare bug which relocates the location of a bus to the equator, and it's already happened a few times on Scottsdale route. This does not disappear after restarting ValleyMetro . It goes away by itself but it's weird that it happens and should be checked.

by Zac19951816

This all makes getting to and from somewhere with the bus system a breeze. A convenience that makes timing everything simplified. I don’t have to go anywhere to get a pass just buy it here and plan out my trip here.

by SynchroSk8

Something the Phoenix Valley transit community has been waiting for! I was able to easily purchase a ticket for myself and my friend to head to ballpark and then easily track when the trains would be at the stations. Valley Metro has outdone themselves on ValleyMetro. Thank you.

by Justandhans

ValleyMetro is wonderful, especially with the ability for Apple Pay. Only thing I now would like is the option to add my passes into Apple Wallet so I can access them with the Wallet app.

by Haley Tilden Ritter

Being a disabled rider, I would like to have the option of purchasing a MONTHLY PASS available to passengers AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Thank you very much for reading this feedback and keep up the great work, Valley Metro! Sincerely, Haley T. Ritter

by El Guapo'

Thank goodness that ValleyMetro is around………. Now …….. at the height of my transit ridding days I could have definitely used this!!! In the 1997 to 2010 …….. now it’s a breeze to know when a train or bus is coming thank goodness…….. I would have given ValleyMetro more stars if I was able to

by Rey_410

I like ValleyMetro it’s very easy to use super convenient and I like you can get but bus passes and plan your trip accordingly i would recommend ValleyMetro to anyone who is a frequent valley metro transit user I give it 5 stars

by Whiskey Doc

Bad news missed my flight. Good news American Airlines set me up in a hotel. Bad news the hotels was 10 miles from the airport. Good news was right on the transit line and buying a pass was simple simple.

by Dslyoga

Works good except cannot purchase multi-day passes.

UPDATE: Developer of ValleyMetro sent a response that they are currently working on adding a function that would be the equivalent of Multi-Day Passes.

by Josephrothleutner

It’s about time for all the days I’ve ran after the bus only to find out and Discover. I do not have the payment method on to stay on the bus and ultimately have to get off the bus and the.