Route types and naming conventions

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As of 2026^[update], sixty local bus routes form Valley Metro's super-grid bus system. They are numbered roughly according to the address on the Phoenix area's street grid on which they travel. For example:

• Route 35 is a north–south route which runs along 35th Avenue, which is the 3500 block, west, on the street grid.
• Route 0 runs north–south along Central Avenue, which is the dividing street or "zero point" separating east and west Phoenix on the street grid.
• Route 50 runs east–west along Camelback Road, which is the 5000 block, north, on the street grid
• Route 72 runs north–south along Scottsdale and Rural Roads, which are the 7200 block, east, on the street grid.
• Route 104 runs north–south along Alma School Road, which corresponds to the 10400 block, east, on the street grid (but not in the city of Mesa itself, which uses a different street numbering/zero point origin from the city of Phoenix).
• Routes 7 and 8 each run on 7th Street and 7th Avenue respectively. Given that Phoenix has numbered thoroughfares designated as "Avenues" west of Central and "Streets" east of Central, Route 8 is one digit higher to avoid confusion with Route 7 which are both the 700 blocks.
• Route 17 runs east–west along McDowell Road, which actually is the 1600 block, north, on the street grid. Route 17 is one digit higher to avoid confusion with Route 16, which runs north–south along 16th Street which is the 1600 block, east, on the street grid.
• Route 81 runs north–south on Hayden Road and McClintock Drive, which is the 8000 block, east, on the street grid. Route 81 is one digit higher to avoid confusion with Route 80, which runs east–west along Northern Avenue, which is the 8000 block, north, on the street grid.^{[speculation?]}

The community circulator routes are free of charge except for the Avondale Zoom routes, each with a 50 cent fare; formerly the Glendale Urban Shuttle (GUS) routes had a 25 cent fare to ride, but this was dropped on October 23, 2017. They supplement the standard grid service with routes that connect neighborhoods to nearby business districts. The naming convention varies by the communities they serve, such as the Scottsdale Neighborhood Trolley, Tempe Orbit Jupiter, and Phoenix SMART.

The LINK routes were limited-stop, streamlined bus connections to transit centers served by Valley Metro Rail. These routes used upgraded bus shelters with illuminated "Next Bus" boards, and bus rapid transit-styled vehicles with traffic signal priority. They were named after the street they travel on. The two routes were the Main Street LINK and the Arizona Avenue LINK. LINK service was discontinued on October 24, 2016, and was replaced by enhanced local service on Routes 40 and 112.

The six RAPID routes are limited-stop commuter routes in the city of Phoenix that travel from Park and Ride lots in outlying neighborhoods near major freeways to RAPID stops in the downtown business core (including the Arizona State Capitol complex). These routes are mostly named for the freeway on which they travel, such as RAPID I-10 East and South Mountain RAPID routes (two routes connect newly developed neighborhoods along Baseline Road with downtown via 19th Avenue or 24th Street). They are unidirectional, traveling toward downtown in the morning and out of downtown in the afternoons.

The express routes are also limited-stop commuter routes with higher fares than standard routes, but the same routes and similar operation to RAPID, operating from outlying Park and Ride lots and pickup points in suburban areas outside the city of Phoenix. They are numbered in the 500s, with the second digit indicating the area they serve, using the following scheme:

• 51x – Scottsdale
• 52x – Tempe
• 53x – Mesa and Gilbert
• 54x – Chandler
• 56x – Southwest Valley (Avondale, Goodyear, Buckeye, and Tolleson)
• 57x – Northwest Valley (Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, and Sun Cities)

These routes are also unidirectional, traveling into downtown Phoenix and the State Capitol in the morning (using the major freeways after traveling on other streets for part of the trip) and out of downtown in the afternoons.