Planning a school field trip? Consider riding Big Blue Bus! BBB provides easy access to destinations across the Westside and in Downtown Los Angeles. We go where you want to go-museums, UCLA, beaches, and more.
To avoid delays in service, BBB welcomes school groups of 25 or fewer during off-peak hours. Here's how to get started:
- Contact us first. Before you bring a school group on board, please contact BBB by calling (310) 451-5444. This will allow us to help you with trip planning and payment options.
- For safety reasons, at least one adult must accompany every 10-12 children. On every bus your group boards, there must be at least one adult who is an experienced transit user.
- Please have your payment ready prior to boarding. Plan on paying for multiple fares using one of the acceptable forms of payment below:
- Transit: Buy your BBB fare with the Transit app! Available for iPhone and Android, Transit allows you to buy BBB passes with your smartphone. Purchase “Single Ride” or “10 Ride” passes for students ahead of your trip, and store them on your phone until you’re ready to ride. As the bus approaches the stop, use the app to activate each individual ride pass, and show the Operator your activated passes when boarding the bus. Click here to learn more about Transit, or download the app.
- TAP: Big Blue Bus accepts TAP cards. Please note that every member of your group must have their own TAP card in order to board the bus; a single TAP card can only be used once every 7 minutes. When boarding the bus, simply tap your card on the validator and look for the green screen to verify that your card is valid.
Note: Big Blue Bus does not accept Metro youth monthly passes as a valid form of payment.
- Take Advantage Of Online Trip Planning. You can use Google Maps for transit directions too. Big Blue Bus and most other transit operators in the Los Angeles area are on Google Maps.
- Big Blue Bus has real-time bus arrival information. When you get to your bus stop, you'll be able to track the predicted arrival time for your bus. Big Blue Bus offers real-time bus arrival predictions through the Transit app, as well as by phone, text message, or our website. Signs posted at every bus stop have instructions for accessing real-time information using a Stop ID.
- Be prepared to split up if your group is larger than 20-25 people. We welcome groups to ride Big Blue Bus, but strongly encourage you to split up if your group is larger than 20-25 people. We also encourage groups to ride during off-peak times (weekdays from 9am-3pm or after 7pm, as well as weekends and holidays). Please note that bus schedules can vary on weekends and holidays. We ask groups to travel off-peak to ensure that there is adequate space for our regular customers. Big Blue Bus is not able to add extra service to accommodate special groups, so please be sure to ride off-peak to ensure that your group does not displace others. We do not offer charter bus services for groups.
- Review our tips and code of conduct with your group, especially if they are infrequent riders.
- Go on a Practice Trip. If you're leading a large group and are unfamiliar with your itinerary, you may wish to take a practice run to help make your field trip day less stressful. If questions arise during your practice trip, please don't hesitate to contact us on Facebook, Twitter (@SMBigBlueBus), via our website, or by phone at (310) 451-5444.