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Friday, December 28, 2012, 06:29 pm
New York's MTA releases train-locating app for iPhone and iPod touch
The Metropolitan Transit Authority on Friday released an iOS app that will let riders of seven train lines plan their trips to the minute, a first for the largest subway system in the U.S.
The official MTA Subway Time app uses train location data to provide iPhone and iPod touch owners with up-to-the-minute arrival times for seven of the system's 24 lines.
According to The New York Times, the MTA spent 11 years and over $228 million to install digital train-tracking sensors and relevant equipment required to serve up real-time location data. The iOS app taps into the system and feeds commuters with arrival times, though the service is available mostly aboveground as cellular extension networks planned for underground stations have yet to be completed. A large portion of the subway's train location sensors date back fifty years, just before the proliferation of microprocessors and digital communications.
Among the first lines to get support for the new free service are Nos. 1 through 6 and the 42nd Street Shuttle. Two more lines, the L line between Brooklyn and Manhattan's 14th Street and the No. 7 line between Queens and Midtown Manhattan, are currently being upgraded to be compatible with the new system. Updates to the L line are expected to be completed in six months to a year, while the No. 7 won't be ready until at least 2016.
According to the app's description, users will also be notified of service delays and reroutes prior to fare payment, a useful tool for on-the-go commuters.
Android and Windows Phone versions of the app are in the works, but unlike the iOS app, those will be built by third-party companies. The agency is also allowing developers access to the sensor data feeds, allowing app makers to build real-time tracking programs with more robust features than those offered by the official app.
MTA Subway Time for iOS is available now as a free download through the App Store.
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Previous Comments View All
That'll increase the crime rate!
Finding trains but not iPhones...
Maybe New York City should ban subways.
Thought this was commonplace! There's loads of apps like that for the London Underground, and has been for some time.
And a lovely design and GUI typical of the MTA. Those floating 2's, messing up the line height on screen 3 is painful
Well it might increase the crime rate because more people will be referring to the subway schedule on their phone - which would otherwise be in their pocket and not in front of the eyes of would be criminals.
Thought this was commonplace! There's loads of apps like that for the London Underground, and has been for some time.
I don't know about the London Underground, but there are a number of other apps that provide NYC Subway information, including schedules. The difference with this one is that it give arrival times based on tracking the actual positions of the trains in the tunnels, not from the schedules which are notoriously inaccurate. The lines they've included this data for already have signs on the platforms that give the same arrival time information, so it's not really that big a deal that there's no cell service on the platforms. You just have to look up, not down at your phone. It's also a relatively small subset of lines that they are providing this information for.
It is interesting that they are going to allow 3rd parties access to the data.
Finding trains but not iPhones...
Maybe New York City should ban subways.
Bloomberg doesn't run the MTA.
Yet a few hours ago they blamed the Apple for NYC crime rate?? What is wrong with these people??
There have been apps that do this (real time countdown information) for the London Underground (and, infact, the entire UK wide national railway network) and the San Francisco BART system for ages. What's taken New York so long?
Nyc subway is one of the only systems that runs 24 hours a day. There's a lot less time for big overhauls when you don't shut down between midnight and 6.
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That'll increase the crime rate!