MTA Adds Real-Time To Weekender App
Earlier this morning, the MTA announced that its Weekender App has received a major upgrade. The upgrade is the agency adding its Real-Time arrival feature. Here is more via press release:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) today announced that its official Weekender™ app for iOS 7.0 and Android has received a major upgrade. It now displays real-time train arrival information at all 154 stations served by the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 lines and upcoming real-time departures for the two terminals of the S 42nd Street Shuttle. The app also now uses GPS technology to center the subway map on your current location.
Real-time information, which had been available separately on the MTA’s Subway Time app and website, is now fused with the information in The Weekender app to put weekend planned service changes and the real-time train arrivals together in one convenient place.
“Real-time arrival info complements and reconfirms the general information already being offered our Weekender app,” said MTA Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast. “The Weekender app already describes the nature of service we’re able to provide each weekend with maps and text. It tells you which trains you can expect to arrive at which stations, and where they will stop once you get on. Now, on most of our numbered lines, the app tells you exactly when those trains are arriving. There is no longer any need to toggle back and forth between The Weekender for service info and Subway Time for specific train arrivals.”
Those who already have The Weekender installed on their smartphone or tablet will receive the updated version of the app automatically as an update. To download The Weekender app visit the Apple App Store or Google Play and search for The Weekender.
Besides providing the new real-time train information, The Weekender app, which was launched in June 2012, tells you everything you need to know about the subway service being provided each weekend in light of service changes for track work. It provides the info for the numbered lines AND the lettered lines. Its key features are:
• Service by Line: Click on a subway line symbol to get a line diagram showing an overview of the line’s service changes, as well as text summaries of the changes.
• Service by Borough: Click on a borough for text-based information about any service changes impacting a borough.
• Service by Station: Select a station for details on any service changes impacting that station, or click on the map to zoom to a detailed area.Due to the large amount of data and mapping involved in the mobile version of The Weekender, MTA developers have smartly “packeted” the data, so the initial download includes the basic functions needed to get started. Then, each time the user plans a trip or taps to view a particular neighborhood map, only those images are added to the app, so the app gets smarter with every use without hogging device memory.
The Weekender for Mobile was created by MTA developers following initial design concepts from Vignelli Associates. The diagram used as the base of The Weekender both online and in the mobile app is designed to illustrate service diversions at a glance. It is inspired by the 1972 New York City subway map designed by world renowned map maker and designer Massimo Vignelli, and was recently updated by Vignelli, Beatriz Cifuentes and Yoshiki Waterhouse.
As with the web-based version, The Weekender for Mobile also provides the popular Neighborhood Maps that are posted inside subway stations. These maps show the precise locations of subway station entrances within the street grid, along with locations of popular area destinations.
The Weekender is part of the MTA’s continuing efforts to provide real time information about service status. Other digital offerings include real-time locations of buses through MTA Bus Time™ on the web and via text message, real time train arrivals and track assignments via Metro-North Train Time™ and Long Island Rail Road Train Time™ via web and app, real-time driving conditions at MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels through MTA Drive Time™, and Real-time service alerts for all MTA agencies via text message and email, and via social media. The MTA also provides raw schedule, geographic, and real-time data to third party app developers, who have built 106 apps that are listed on the MTA’s App Center.
For more information, click on http://bit.ly/1ejjBma or http://web.mta.info/apps/weekenderApp.html
A nice addition to what is a good app that every rider should have at their disposal.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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