Subscribe to RSSGoogle Transit Now Covers Auckland Trains
With the revamped Maxx website still causing some odd search results, it’s pleasing that at least Google Transit now covers Auckland trains and has been extended to enable train passengers to access information and directions using the Google Maps feature.
Bus users have been able to plan their trips using Google Transit since December and ARTA and Google have now added trains.
Auckland ferry services are not far away.
How to get schedules?
- Visit http://maps.google.co.nz
- Click “Get Directions”
- Enter your start and end points (it’s okay if it says “by car”) and click the “Get Directions” button
- Click on the “Public Transit” link above your itinerary
- 5) View times, and routes
Or you can directly get public transit directions from http://www.google.co.nz/transit
18 Comments
The most awesome part of this is that it works on mobile devices (Google Maps for Mobile). Even more awesome on GPS-equipped phones!
Auckland ferry services seem to be on there already:
Eden Park to Devonport on Google Transit
@Andrew Thanks for spotting that
I’ve given up on MAXX journey planner and have added the Google page to my favourites…
Interesting that they appear to only have the rail stations encoded and not the track route, as connections on the train are drawn as straight lines, whereas for buses they show the route the bus takes along the roads.
@andrew - yes I use Google Transit using the map app on the iPhone all the time, easy and gives good results.
RTC - it very much depends on the type of service i.e. the western express service is shown as a straight line from New Lynn to Newmarket where as an all stops service shows the line roughly following the actual track.
@rtc: Note that the railways are actually inaccurate on Google maps: the tracks don’t go anywhere near Britomart, for example.
That’s far more useful than Maxx, so I’ll be using it from now on. It takes me 27mins to get to work on the bus, but 13mins by car. As long as it’s fine, I’m on the bus as the walking does me no harm.
The only advantage to using MAXX over Google Maps would be to know what the fare for that journey would cost
Heck yeah, bring on the new ticket! Then we shouldn’t need to worry about that even.
I guess it doesn’t really matter if the line on the picture doesn’t follow the railway track, as far as trip planning goes all you really care about is getting from one station to the next. With lots of commuter/metro rail underground elsewhere it’d be pretty pointless mapping out the exact route of the track.
Will be interesting to see if the timetable change sunday after next flows through to Google correctly.
Google Transit does often seem to assume an integrated transferable ticket with some of its suggestions. Foe example from downtown to somewhere on Sandringham Rd it can suggest taking a bus that leaves closer to where you are, up to Symonds St, then switching to a Sandringham Rd bus there. That bus may be run by a different operator too.
Coming in in the morning peak, it can suggest transfers between transfers and all-stop services.
The other week I saw a lady try to do that at the last Express stop on Sandringham Rd - off an express and onto an all-stops, and she got surprised when the driver asked her to pay again.
Google Transit plus a Discovery Monthly pass (once you’ve paid for it!) is pretty awesome, and it shows that when we have integrated, hopefully time-based ticketing, it will really take off!
Oops, typo.
“Coming in in the morning peak, it can suggest transfers between express and all-stop services”.
Andrew - not sure that transferring (even with an integrated ticket) is all the rage. It may work on really high-frequency routes, but otherwise, it is bad.
I mean, when you look at a journey planner, what do you prefer? The route with one transfer (or none) or the one with two or more? I still have this study burned into my brain from a thesis I once did which said that every time you force a transfer, you lose half your potential riders.
[...] recent development that I think is great is that Google Transit now covers all of Auckland’s public transport - bus, rail, and ferry. It works brilliantly on my cellphone (a Nokia N97 mini) and although [...]
Ingolfson, I’d say it depends on how well supported the transfers are. I believe a high number of Perth’s Mandurah line patrons transfer to/from local buses but it’s timed to work and the facilities (and ticketing!) is there to make it as easy as possible.
I’m happy to announce that since the Google Transit has become available I have been able to build an iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad application that provides offline timetable information for buses, trains and ferries.
You can get AKL Transit (FREE at the moment) from http://itunes.com/apps/AKLTransit
Use the feature suggestion to send me your recommendations and the Send button to tell your friends about it.
I hope this will make your travelling just a bit more pleasant.
@rtc: Buses suffer from the same straight line issues as rail. It just not very obvious on some routes, but look at (for e.g.) Britomart to Glen Innes. It then becomes obvious they just plot straight lines between each stop (especially on the routes via Tamaki Drive).
@ingolfson: Yes, it is a shame that people prefer direct routes even when it takes much longer than a trip involving a interchange. I personally don’t mind interchanging at all even in Auckland, especially since there has been lots of improvements to major interchange points — such as Grafton which I often use to interchange between the Howick/Botany buses and the trains.