Sydney travellers can now track whether their bus service is running late, with the NSW government making real-time information on bus movements available to mobile app developers.
The latest versions of TripView, Arrivo Sydney and TripGo allow users to locate the nearest bus stop and ticket machine, predict when a bus is to arrive and see where a bus is on its route using GPS data from the Public Transport Information Priority System (PTIPS).
“Some of the apps will alert customers to the next bus arriving at the most convenient stop, give an estimated walk time, guide them directly to the street location, provide real-time alerts, live maps, and comparisons of similar transport options by cost, convenience and emissions,” the Minister for Transport, Gladys Berejiklian, said in a statement.
About 8200 stops, more than 1900 buses and almost 1200 routes across the Sydney Bus Network can be tracked. The areas are the CBD, eastern suburbs, inner west, southern suburbs, north western suburbs, northern beaches and lower north shore. A Transport for NSW spokesperson told Computerworld Australia the service is expected to gradually expand to other parts of the state throughout next year.
TripView allows users to view times and locations for buses, including a full offline timetable viewer. Arrivo Sydney allows users to view bus departure and location information in real time, including information on nearby ticket machines, and users can tag trips to receive automatic alters when the bus is approaching the stop they need to get off at. TripGo allows users to map out the fastest, cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to get to their destination.
TripView is available on Android for $3.29 and iOS for $2.99, Arrivo Sydney is available on Android for $3 and TripGo is available on Android and iOS for free. There are also ‘lite’ versions of TripView and Arrivo Sydney that are free to download. The full version of TripView lets users save trips, view platform numbers for trains, organise trips into folders, avoid advertisements, and use alarms. The non-free version of Arrivo Sydney lets users save as many favourite routes and stops as they like and avoid advertisements.
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