Real time passenger information with live transit updates

Canada’s Regional Municipality of York (YRT/Viva) has partnered with Google and INIT, supplier of ITS and fare collection systems, to offer bus passengers real-time trip plans through Google maps. The service, Google Live Transit Updates, tracks YRT buses using INIT’s GPS-based navigation system and provides passengers with the exact time a bus will depart from their stop. YRT/Viva is the first transit agency in Canada to offer real-time trip planning on Google with up-to-the-minute next bus departure infor
October 10, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Canada’s Regional Municipality of York (YRT/Viva) has partnered with 1691 Google and 511 INIT, supplier of ITS and fare collection systems, to offer bus passengers real-time trip plans through Google maps.

The service, Google Live Transit Updates, tracks YRT buses using INIT’s GPS-based navigation system and provides passengers with the exact time a bus will depart from their stop. YRT/Viva is the first transit agency in Canada to offer real-time trip planning on Google with up-to-the-minute next bus departure information, although Boston, Portland, San Diego and San Francisco in the US have already deployed the service.  

Passengers can access the real-time trip plans and bus departure information via Google maps; by entering a starting address and destination and clicking on the public transit icon, they receive a trip plan complete with transfers, walking directions and map. Real-time bus departure information for a particular stop is accessed by clicking on the transit stop icon. An added benefit includes a satellite view in the mapping feature where passengers can view satellite photos of their travel area making it easy to pinpoint landmarks and find their bus stop.

 “The significance of being the first, and currently only, transit agency in Canada to offer Live Transit Updates is monumental. We have the ability to provide an exclusive service that is on the cutting edge of real-time technology within our industry,” said Rajeev Roy, manager of transit management systems at YRT.


Can you also please remove GPRS from the second story in Monday’s news, so the bit after the comma reads which is quickly downloaded using Bluetooth.
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Big data and GPS combine to cut emergency response times
    April 2, 2014
    David Crawford looks at technologies for better emergency medical service delivery. Emergency medical services (EMS) play key roles in transporting, or bringing treatment to, patients who become ill through medical emergencies or are injured in road traffic accidents (RTAs). But awareness has been rising steadily, in the US and elsewhere, of the extent to which EMS can generate their own emergencies. The most common cause is vehicles causing or becoming involved in RTAs, as a result of driving fast under pr
    Read More
  • New Haven shows small can be beautiful
    October 22, 2014
    Connecticut’s new administration is using smart policy and ITS solutions to bridge social divides. Andrew Bardin Williams investigates. With only 130,000 residents, New Haven can hardly be called a metropolis. Measuring less than 502km (18 square miles), the city is huddled against the coast, squeezed between two mountains (appropriately called East Rock and West Rock) that, at 111m and 213m (366ft and 700ft) respectively, can hardly be called mountains. The airport is small and has limited service, and th
    Read More
  • T-Box annunciator
    June 19, 2012
    The T-Box, from Mentor Engineering, is a state-of-the-art text-to-speech voice annunciation device for fixed-route transit ITS solutions. It provides next-stop announcements and updates onboard LED signs for riders inside the bus. Outside the vehicle, T-Box identifies the route and destination to passengers waiting at a stop when the doors open. Simple to use, the device speaks phrases entered via a text file in English, French, or Spanish, saving agencies time and money on recording studios and voice talen
    Read More
  • NOCoE delivers data for diligent DOTs
    April 29, 2015
    David Crawford talks to Dennis Motiani about the role of the new National Operations Centre of Excellence. Consolidating the collective experience of the US transportation system’s management and operations (TSM&O) community, streamlining its information gathering, while cutting research times and costs are the key drivers behind the country’s new National Operations Centre of Excellence (NOCoE). Launched in January at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), this sets out to be a sin
    Read More

Highlighted Content