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TTC to use Google Transit?

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From: www.theglobeandmail.com/s...al/Toronto

Transit on the Web

By JEFF GRAY

Thursday, January 26, 2006 Page A17

The TTC may look to Web search giant Google to drag the transit agency's out-of-date on-line presence into the 21st century.

Click on the Toronto Transit Commission's website, www.ttc.ca -- which Globe and Mail Web columnist Ivor Tossell said last fall "might be the worst website in Canada" -- and you will find mostly reproductions of the printed TTC maps and schedules posted at stations and bus stops.

"It has nice chimes when you log on," TTC commissioner Adam Giambrone said, referring to the subway-door sound effect that greets users.

But then he acknowledged the site needs work: "It's pretty bad. It's useless."

Many other transit agencies, including Mississauga's, have websites that allow users to plug in a destination and receive a detailed transit route.

The TTC, at Mr. Giambrone's request, has asked its staff to look into participating in a new service called Google Transit and report their findings next month.

Currently, the website, www.google.com/transit, serves only Portland, Ore., but Google says it plans to add more transit systems.

Using Google's powerful search-engine technology and its maps database, the site tells riders precisely which public transit routes to take, shows them a map and calculates how long it will take to make their trip.

(The Portland site even calculates how long it would take to drive to a destination instead of taking public transit.)

If the TTC were to go ahead with the project, Mr. Giambrone said, officials would still have to get the route information together in a format that Google could use.

It's not clear how much that would cost.

However, Mr. Giambrone said the TTC had previously estimated the cost of setting up a similar service on its own at between $1-million and $2-million.
 
"Many other transit agencies, including Mississauga's, have websites that allow users to plug in a destination and receive a detailed transit route."

I've always wondered why they didn't have a trip planner. I figured maybe it's there but I just can't find it.
 
"It has nice chimes when you log on," TTC commissioner Adam Giambrone said, referring to the subway-door sound effect that greets users.

How interesting. I actually find the chimes to be the most annoying part of the TTC website.

Besides Google Transit, I think the TTC should also try to have the locations of its subway stations shown on Google Maps (aka Google local). Subway stations are not shown on North American maps, but Google maps of London, UK show Tube stations, and Japanese Google maps show train stations. Subway stations are also shown in the China version of Google Maps.
 

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