I think both can be used but since I am not a native speaker, I would like to get some help.
When you talk about a certain line of bus ( e.g. the bus number 227 that goes from town A to town B), can I say
take a bus
?
When you talk about the public transportation in general in the form of buses without a specific line or number of bus, can I use
take the bus
?
Similarly, what would be the difference between take a subway and take the subway ?
Best Answer
Both these mean the same thing: I take a bus from work to home and I take the bus from work to home. The first very slightly emphasises the trip from work to home while the second points to the mode of travel as being the important part of the sentence. Both though could be used without any sort of issue or hidden meaning. As to a bus line, I would say I take bus number 227 to get to work or just colloquial I take the 227. In these cases, the word the isn't quite used the same as you have in your example.