York Region Transit, Google Map trip planner offer real-time updates to riders

TORONTO – Got a question about bus travel through York Region? Transit officials now have the solution for you – Google it.

York Region Transit/Viva has partnered with Google Maps to offer a real-time trip planning tool designed to keep passengers up-to-date with the latest system information.

The planner – hailed by the municipality as the first time a Canadian transit system has joined forces with Google to offer real-time updates – uses GPS technology to tell riders when their bus will arrive.

Reliance on GPS co-ordinates allows the planner to reflect the effects of traffic jams or inclement weather conditions that could slow a typical bus route, YRT/Viva said.

Rajeev Roy, Transit Management Systems Manager for YRT/Viva, said the new tool combines two existing services into one more convenient package.

Route schedules were always available through Google, he said, adding real-time system updates could be found through the YRT website. The information was also available through email or over the phone, and Roy described the more modern real-time planner as a distinct improvement.

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“It certainly makes transit more attractive,” Roy said. “Google makes everything look so easy.”

YRT/Viva has received mostly positive feedback on the new tool, Roy said, adding responses from the student community have been particularly enthusiastic.

Anthony Pantaleo, 17, is certainly on board. The planner will allow him to use his cellphone to access reliable information on his travels to and from school, he said.

“The website for the YRT is pretty bad,” Pantaleo said.

“I’ve been at a bus stop a couple of times and looked (the route) up and it doesn’t work.”

While the roughly 80,000 daily riders of YRT/Viva get accustomed to their new trip-planning tool, customers of a more high-profile transit system can only watch with envy.

The Toronto Transit Commission, which serves an estimated 1.6 million riders a day, does not currently offer any real-time route tracking services, according to spokesman Brad Ross.

The TTC’s trip planner allows users to map out their travel route, but leaves passengers guessing as to when their subway, bus or street car will arrive. Their most reliable source of information is the Next Vehicle Arrival system, which offers predictions as to when a vehicle will show up at its next stop, Ross said.

TTC rider Gi Park, 28, said a real-time trip planning tool like the one introduced in York Region could cut travel times and reduce hassles on one of the country’s busiest transit networks.

“I just go and wait, there’s no system,” she said.

According to YRT/Viva, the next phase of real-time trip planning is to have the exact location of the bus displayed on the Google map as it moves. Google has not yet developed such an application.