Google Inc. announced Wednesday the addition of live transit updates in three new metropolitan cities of the U.S. including New York, Salt Lake City and Washington D.C.
Google has simplified the local public transportation system by including the latest live service alerts for travelers on the go. The new update features real-time departure times for seven different lines of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Although Google did not give any details on the lines included but a report from PC Mag confirmed that it covered all major lines.
Besides the rail updates in New York City subway system, Google also included updates for buses and trams in the greater Salt Lake City area under Utah Transit Authority. A dedicated icon for buses and trams will detail the departure information on the Google maps. Google had included service alerts for 468 New York subway systems labeled on Google Maps July last year and added the transit directions in Google Maps for New York City in 2008, according to PC Mag.
"With these updates - part of the millions of live transit schedule updates we process every day - you get instant access to the latest information right on Google Maps, making trip planning a cinch," Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, Partnership Development Manager, Google Maps, said in a Google blog post.
Google hasn't included the real-time departure updates for Washington Metrorail, but travelers can get live service alerts, unexpected delays or scheduled track work directly from Metro's Control Center through Google Maps. Google sad this will help travelers choose an alternate route or even change departure time.
Esmaeilzadeh wrote in the blog posted yesterday that the web giant currently provides transit information including "pick-up locations, departure times, estimated travel time, and even fare amounts for 800 cities across more than 25 countries around the world."
Google Maps has been a source of guidance to millions of users for several years now and the company has added many updates to simplify the travel experience across the globe. Google had included live transit updates in four U.S and two European cities last year. Boston, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid, Turin and Italy were the cities that became a part of the real time transit update system.
The Google real-time service alerts are available in all Google's Android and Apple's iPhone devices. The company hopes to include more cities around the world in its real time service alert systems.
