Apple today updated its Maps app to add Transit information in Seattle, allowing iOS users living in the city to incorporate public transportation options like the Link Light Rail, Monorail, buses, and more into Maps when seeking directions.

Transit directions within Maps became available with the launch of iOS 9, and while Apple offered directions in a limited number of cities to begin with, the availability of Transit directions has since expanded to encompass 16 cities around the world along with dozens of cities in China.

seattletransitdirections
Apple's iOS 9 Feature Availability page has not yet been updated with the addition of Seattle, but the information should be added in the near future. Including Seattle, Transit directions are now available in Austin, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Berlin, Germany; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; London, England; Los Angeles, California; Mexico City, Mexico; Montreal and Toronto, Canada; New York City, New York; Philadelphia Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California, Sydney Australia; and Washington, DC.

Though also unlisted on the Feature Availability page, Transit directions were also added for Portland, Oregon last Monday.

Top Rated Comments

doelcm82 Avatar
108 months ago
1 city per news = 2 000 000 news on MacRumors about Transit updates.


2 000 000, the approx. number of cities in the world
150 comments per post. They'll be rolling in the dough.

But seriously, once Apple starts rolling out more than one city a week, MacRumors will group several cities into one post. Just as they do with Flyover cities.
[doublepost=1461004466][/doublepost]
This is going to take forever if they keep adding cities this slow... How small is the maps team for gods sake? And is there just one team for the whole planet???
They have recently gone from one city every few months to one city a week. That suggests they are getting better at integrating the data. It won't progress fast enough to satisfy everyone, but it appears they are accelerating.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SBlue1 Avatar
108 months ago
This is going to take forever if they keep adding cities this slow... How small is the maps team for gods sake? And is there just one team for the whole planet???
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tylsimp Avatar
108 months ago
Seems like all bus systems in the Seattle area are integrated too. Which is good, since it's a massive jumbled mess around here.
If you use the Orca NFC card, you can transfer between King County Metro Busses, Seattle Department of Transit Street Cars, and Sound Transit busses and rail at no extra cost for 90 minutes. If you pay in cash, ST offers no transfers, and KC paper transfers are only valid on KC busses. The Monorail is unfortunately privately owned and not part of any fare integration, being set up as a tourist thing, $2.50 for a one way ticket, though monthly passes are available for the few that use it to commute. Hopefully this will change in the near future, because it does run frequently and is certainly the fastest way possible to get between downtown and Seattle Center/Queen Anne neighborhood.
[doublepost=1461025093][/doublepost]This is super exciting! AM is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than GMaps and I think the UI is a little better, so it's great to finally have an alternative.
This actually would have been much more useful before Link Light Rail started running to the University of Washington last month. Before that, I had to rely on busses and time schedules... now I know a train will be there every 6-10 minutes, depending on the time of day. I just walk down there and hop on!

I will have to test this out sometime, though. Last time I tried Google's transit directions - a year or two ago - it didn't handle Seattle's downtown transit tunnel very well. Google tried to steer me towards a stop that the bus in question (a 73, in all likelihood) didn't use except late at night. :D
GMaps and Apple Maps are almost certainly using the same resources from King County/OneBusAway for bus routes, schedules, stops and realtime arrival. In my experience, there are certainly issues, but not enough to possibly make me go back to learning and researching timetables. 99% good. Apple Maps is prettier. It'll probably be as buggy.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Shirasaki Avatar
108 months ago
Other Washington. The Capitol is the city in D.C., and the state on the other side of the country is the one with Seattle and rain.
Oh, my bad. Know little about United States. Thank you.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jakeoster Avatar
108 months ago
Why is this whole transit initiative taking so long?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ballis Avatar
108 months ago
Slowest rollout ever. Step it up Apple.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 17 Plus Feature

iPhone 17 Lineup Specs Detail Display Upgrade and New High-End Model

Monday July 22, 2024 4:33 am PDT by
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple TV Plus Feature 2 Magenta and Blue

Apple TV+ Curbs Costs After Expensive Projects Fail to Capture Viewers

Monday July 22, 2024 5:11 am PDT by
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports. This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix's 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim,...
bsod

Microsoft Blames European Commission for Major Worldwide Outage

Monday July 22, 2024 11:55 am PDT by
Last Friday, a major CrowdStrike outage impacted PCs running Microsoft Windows, causing worldwide issues affecting airlines, retailers, banks, hospitals, rail networks, and more. Computers were stuck in continuous recovery loops, rendering them unusable. The failure was caused by an update to the CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software that auto-installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux...