Apple Maps transit coverage grows in Australia, may be coming soon to Ireland

Apple's Australian Maps transit coverage has expanded to large sections of the states of Queensland and Western Australia, and may be poised to come to Ireland in the near future.

The new Australian coverage includes major cities like Perth and Brisbane, and their surrounding areas like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Mandura, and Rockingham. In some cases people should be able to navigate to more remote towns, one gap being long-distance train trips down the Queensland coastline.

As usual directions include times, route numbers, color-coding, branding, and any walking needed to get to or from a station. Until now, Australian Maps users could only get this information in areas like Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney.

A tip to AppleInsider meanwhile notes that in Ireland, Apple is providing more detail around train stations, which are marked with pink borders. A closer look shows some interior details.

It's not clear how recent the changes are, but Apple made similar station improvements before launching Japanese transit directions last year alongside iOS 10. One possibility is that Ireland will be supported with the arrival of iOS 11, due this fall — most likely in September.

3 Comments

anome 1545 comments · 16 Years

About 7 years ago

Still no ACTION bus coverage in Canberra. It only seems to know about the Transborder Express, which is not an ideal way to get between here and my place.

Flyswatter 3 comments · 8 Years

Been relying on Google Maps' pretty reliable transit directions in Brisbane for ages. I suppose the next announcement will be Flyover for Brisbane, so that they can match Google there too. I can't see Apple ever doing anything about cycling directions though, so I have no choice but to use Google... except you can't make Google default and you can't delete Apple Maps. What actually is Apple Maps' raison d'être? Because all they seem to do is play catchup to Google's existing technologies, and don't necessarily improve on them. Then again, I actually prefer Here for general driving...

analogjack 1065 comments · 12 Years

Flyswatter said:

...and don't necessarily improve on them...

I'm in Brisbane and I dislike the look of Googlemaps with their clunky thick lines. Usually I would use Translink on the the Mac or iPod to get my routes and options clear, this would necessitate me having to then jot down the information into notes because it was f%$#ing impossible to follow Translink or Google, I'd click on a bus station for more information and suddenly I'd be at a page with every frikken bus stop, it was absolutely maddening design. This is why the use of Notes, or more often I had to resort to plain old pen and paper.

I was curious to see how Apple maps implemented the transport integration, I wasn't really expecting much but what I saw completely blew me away. It appears that Google has simply plugged into Translink's API and displays the same confusing images, the same rabbit warren, the same needing flip back and forth between different pages and keeping what you've just seen in your mind. A total dog's dinner.

Apple on the other hand appears to somehow have worked out how to dissect Translink's supplied information and turned it into not just a work of art on my 4" iPod screen, but they have put everything I want to know on one page, and they've done it with less clutter!

You trollishly say Apple seems to just be playing 'catch up' so what's the point. The point is this, that both Translink and Google even after having many years head start cannot make an interface that actually works. Apple comes into the picture and instantly turns the Translink pile of garbage, into how it should have been right from the beginning. This is what Apple does, they take stuff that others have already been working on for years, and then show how to do it right. I post below two screenshots from a typical thing I'd want to know.

On the Translink or Google maps, I'd get off the train and have to try and work out where the bus was. Am I supposed to walk through the building! There'll often be multiple exits and I won't be able to tell which is best, I'd then inevitably go out the wrong exit then I'd have to try and work out where I was, what side of the street I'm on. On Apple maps, it's crystal clear what I need to do, which exit I need to go out and exactly where I'll be when I leave that particular exit. It may be difficult for you to appreciate the difference Apple maps makes until you've been driven to distraction as many times as I have with Translink, which is what Google reproduces. I mean look at the bottom of the google maps image, it's got an icon of the 690 bus and a train then another bus Why? The bus is in green but the green line in their map is NOT the 690 bus the 690 only goes to Sandgate it's completely weird! The 690 is the bus I used to get to the train that took me to this station, I don't need that information any longer, I'm at the station already. FFS.

Further look how Apple maps shows me the river and the precise side the train tracks are on so that I can already locate which way I need to go without even needing to consult the map any longer. Google maps on the other hand use the whole screen yet they give less information, they completely disorient me by not providing any local context. Google maps reminds of people who write pages of A4 size writing using 24pt text thinking it will be easier to read than 12pt.

Not only are the Apple maps more precise, clear and accurate, but I can scroll left and right at the top and instantly check other aspects of the route. If the world was the way you'd like it, we'd still be using keyboards on phones.