MBTA Android app?

kartvelo

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Aug 12, 2003
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I am an infrequent traveler on the T, as I am an infrequent visitor to the city. When I do travel into town, I sometimes take the commuter rail and sometimes the Red Line.

What is/ is there / a "best" Android app to help me navigate my way into and around Boston? Rail schedules, maps, nearest T station locations, maybe delay notifications, etc. for those times that I do find myself there?

Thanks!
 

kenneycb

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I have ProximiT on my phone that gives me notifications of when there is delays on the red line. I don't use it that much but it seems like a decent enough app.
 

Toe Nash

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Jul 28, 2005
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The officially-endorsed MBTA app is just called "Transit" and I think it is pretty good. It will geolocate you and tell you where the closest stops are and when a train or bus should arrive there using the real-time arrival prediction feed. You can then tap and navigate to schedules and routes. It is probably most helpful if you already know the route you want to take. If you don't, the transit directions in Google Maps are pretty good for that. I believe Google also incorporates the real-time information.

The back-end of all the apps is the same (using the MBTA realtime API and GTFS feeds) so it's just a question of which app's interface works the best for you.

Transit is nice because it also includes non-MBTA services (if they have an API and realtime feed), and will work in most other cities as well. But other apps probably do this too.
 

Spelunker

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Jul 17, 2005
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The officially-endorsed MBTA app is just called "Transit" and I think it is pretty good. It will geolocate you and tell you where the closest stops are and when a train or bus should arrive there using the real-time arrival prediction feed. You can then tap and navigate to schedules and routes. It is probably most helpful if you already know the route you want to take. If you don't, the transit directions in Google Maps are pretty good for that. I believe Google also incorporates the real-time information.

The back-end of all the apps is the same (using the MBTA realtime API and GTFS feeds) so it's just a question of which app's interface works the best for you.

Transit is nice because it also includes non-MBTA services (if they have an API and realtime feed), and will work in most other cities as well. But other apps probably do this too.
Another vote for Transit for real time data. It's what I used in Boston, and what I continued to seamlessly use after I moved.

But if you don't know what bus/line/whatever you want, then Google Maps is the right approach.