818 | NJ Transit (Operator: Suburban Transit)

Serving New Brunswick, East Brunswick, South River and Old Bridge.

7 Days a Week

Runs From: M-F: 6am-9pm | Sat 9am-9pm | Sun 10am-6pm

“I’m named for Route-18, the mother of all stroads. Want to read something more interesting than license plates? For $2.55, I’ll get you safely from one end of this unmitigated car sewer to the other. I’m the quickest way to the Brunswick Square Mall, and if you ever wanted to go to Old Bridge, I’m your ticket. But you should know, while it’s not exactly fair, I often get stuck behind a whole lot of single occupancy vehicles. Meet me at the departure stop on Somerset St and George St. My number is 973-275-5555.”

Timetables:

🚲 Bikes welcome! | 📡 Live Tracking | 📱 Mobile Tickets

This is a designated stop route, meaning that technically, you’re supposed to be at an official stop to board. Most, but not all, official stops are marked with a sign. Use Google Maps or Transit to identify stop locations. Live tracking is provided to third party apps, but is often unreliable. Real time bus locations can be viewed in MyBus, on the official NJ Transit app.

Tickets can be purchased by credit card in the NJ Transit App and are held in “My Tickets” until you activate them. Activate just before stepping on the bus, and show the driver. Digital tickets, which are  labeled with different route numbers, can actually be used interchangeably between routes, as long as you are traveling the same number of zones. You can also pay fares in exact change.

Transfers can only be paid for in exact change. When you get on your first bus, ask for a transfer and pay the $0.75. You will receive a transfer ticket stamped to expire in 2 hours. Use this to board the second bus. If you’re only traveling 1 zone on the second bus, then have a seat. You’re good to go. If you’re traveling more, then you’ll have to pay an “override” on all the zones after that first one, and sadly, it can only be paid in cash. (It’s also exact change only, unless it’s a long-distance “full service” route.) You can calculate it using the fare table below. But if you’re short on coins, you can just buy separate tickets, since the transfer only saves you $0.85.

818: North Jersey System
1 Zone Intrastate: $1.60
2 Zone Intrastate: $2.55
^Only these can be bought as tickets.^

Purchase transfer if transferring: $0.75

Second Bus (if transferring)
First Zone: Paid for with transfer ticket
Any subsequent zones are paid in override fares. Click here for a fare table.

table.

Do Not Use Google Maps, Apple Maps or Moovit.
Stop locations displayed on all apps are mostly accurate. But when NJ Transit changes their schedules, Google, Apple and Moovit don’t update for weeks. Thankfully, Transit updates almost immediately, so use that. Detours are rarely programed in, and notifications about service changes often don’t appear in third party apps. Use NJ Transit’s alert page instead.

NJ Transit charges Coach USA/Suburban Transit $150 for skipping a bus and $300 if they fail to report it. Click the link to tell NJT if their contractor left you stranded. Use MyBus to make sure your bus was really skipped, and be very specific.