If you happen to regularly ride the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or the Times Square/Grand Central shuttle, Google just got better at helping with your commute. In December, the MTA rolled out an app that provides real-time location data for trains on each of those lines, and announced it would the data available to third-party developers as well. Google appears to be the first to benefit from that arrangement, incorporating location from each of those lines into its Maps service today. Now, if you’re sitting at Astor Place waiting to get to Brooklyn, you’ll know exactly when that 6 train is going to arrive.
If you, like me, don’t have a reason to regularly ride any of those trains, you’ll just have to wait. The MTA says it’ll take several years and “hundreds of millions” of dollars to take the feature to the rest of the city.
(Photo: Ioan Sameli/Flickr)
