Get around easier with Kitsap Transit’s new informational tools

Kitsap Transit recently launched a new portal where riders can download high-quality bus and ferry schedules PDFs.

Throughout 2025, Kitsap Transit has been working to improve the tools we use to communicate with the public. We’ve upgraded our rider alert software and real-time bus tracking capabilities; improved the availability of our print and web schedules; and are rolling out a text-for-arrivals tool that lets riders quickly receive the next three arrivals at a particular stop.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s changed (and changing!):

Real-time bus tracking

Earlier this year, we launched KTTracker.com, a website that shows buses' real-time location, crowdedness and estimated arrival time. Riders can also plan trips, view bus or ferry schedules, and find stops near their location.

The new tracking technology is made possible by a real-time data feed, which is useful to many apps that riders use every day (think Google Maps, Apple Maps, etc). Along with transit-specific apps (i.e. Transit, Moovit, Citymapper), these apps are in various stages of including our real-time data feed. Check each app for details.

Customizable Rider Alerts

At the beginning of 2025, Kitsap Transit switched to a new rider alert platform called SimplifyTransit, which offers our customers a more personalized rider alert experience.

One of SimplifyTransit's key features is the ability to sign up for alerts by stop. Riders can pick the specific stops they use (and the specific time of day!) to ensure that they get only the alerts that matter to them. It’s also possible to create multiple subscriptions for different services on different days, pause alerts indefinitely, and subscribe to topic lists to receive Kitsap Transit’s Headways newsletter and notices about specific projects or public meetings.

Text for arrivals

Kitsap Transit is testing a new system that texts riders back the estimated time of arrival for the next three buses arriving at that stop. Riders can find their bus stop ID via KTTracker, our interactive system map, or our interactive system map (see below)  and then text that code to (360) 800-3433.

The bot will return the next three arrival times at that stop. To get arrival times for a specific route, riders can add a hyphen and the route number to their text. For example, if you only wanted to see the arrival times for Route 217 at stop #123435, you would enter “12345-217.”

Interactive system map

Our new interactive system map is meant to replace the static system map on our website. Riders can easily filter and drill down on a specific route or stop; after clicking on a route or stop, they can click on links to view the schedule or real-time location of buses on that route. Clicking on a stop also brings up a link to Google Street View.  This tool is an excellent resource for finding your stop number when planning a trip or signing up for stop-specific rider alerts.

Download PDFs of schedules

We recently debuted a new portal that hosts PDFs of all KT’s printed materials, including schedules and brochures, so that riders who prefer an offline version of their bus or ferry schedules can easily download them to their smartphone for handy reference or print them!

Feedback

All of these tools are a work in progress, and we want to hear from you about issues you’re encountering! If you have a suggestion, please fill out this form by clicking here.