Questions
Everything below is on this page in full. Nothing is folded into an accordion, because a question worth asking is not worth a click — and somebody looking up whether they need exact change is usually already at the stop.
How do I pay?
On the bus, with coins or a card tap, or in advance on a Westbrook card. The fare is the same whichever you choose — there is no penalty for paying cash, which there is on a surprising number of systems. Tap the same card every time and the daily cap applies automatically; you never have to work out whether a day pass is worth it, because the system works it out for you and stops charging.
What is the daily cap, exactly?
Once you have paid $4.80 in one day — four full fares — the rest of that day is free. The cap scales with your concession, so it is $2.40 on a senior or disability fare and $1.92 on youth. It applies per card, it resets at 3am, and it needs no action from you. See fares for the arithmetic.
Do I need exact change?
Yes for cash — the farebox cannot give change, and the driver has none. This is the single most common reason somebody misses a bus, which is why it is this high up the page rather than buried in a terms section.
Can I take a bike?
Two bikes ride free on the rack at the front of every bus. Load your own bike, tell the driver you are loading before you step in front of the bus, and take it off at your stop. If both spaces are taken you wait for the next one — the racks do not hold three.
Is the bus accessible?
Every bus in the fleet has a low floor and a ramp, and every bus kneels. The gap is at the STOP, not the vehicle: eleven of nineteen Westbrook stops are step-free and eight are not. Which ones, and what to do if yours is not, is on the access page — including the fact that we will pick you up at the nearest step-free stop instead if you ring ahead.
What happens if I miss the last bus?
Route 6, the Night Owl, runs 11pm to 5am between Downtown, Eastfield and Northgate every thirty minutes. It does not cover the whole network. If you are outside that triangle after the last bus, the honest answer is that Westbrook Transit cannot get you home and you need a taxi — saying so plainly is more use than a page that implies otherwise.
How late does my route run?
Every route's first and last bus is printed on its own page, and the gaps widen in the evening rather than the service simply stopping. Route 5, the Ring, is the exception: it finishes at 8pm and does not run evenings at all.
The bus did not come. What now?
Wait five minutes past the printed time before assuming it is gone — the timetable is a promise about the schedule, not about traffic. Check the board, which reads the same headways the dispatcher does. If a route is diverted or a stop is closed, the board says so on the stop itself rather than only in a notice elsewhere.
Can I bring a pushchair, or shopping?
Yes to both, folded or not. The two flip-up seats opposite the doors are the space for wheelchairs first and pushchairs second — if somebody needs the wheelchair bay you will be asked to fold and move, and that priority is not negotiable.
Why is this website not a real transit agency?
Because it is a design exercise, and transit information is acted on. Somebody searching for real bus times who landed on invented ones could miss a real bus, so the city is fictional on purpose — a fictional bakery cannot hurt anybody, and a fictional timetable over a real city's route numbers can.
Still stuck? The answer to almost everything else is on fares, access or your own route page.