Google Maps now gives live transit updates

By: Aseem Gaurav on June 9, 2011

Google Maps for mobile and desktop will now provide live transit updates in select cities, helping let you know how late that bus is going to be.

Image courtesy: Google blog

For this service, Google Maps has partnered up with local transit agencies in order to list real-time transit data.

The Internet giant has rolled out this service in four U.S. cities: San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, Portland, as well as Madrid, Spain, and Turin, Italy. It plans to add more cities in its list later on.

Image courtesy: Google blog

"Often when I'm taking public transit, I arrive at my stop on time only to anxiously check my watch and look down the street for my bus, which is running late once again. Those extra minutes I'm forced to wait seem like an eternity, and the only information I can access on my phone is when the bus was supposed to arrive," Google said in its official blog post.

"Starting now, Google Maps for mobile and desktop can tell you when your ride is actually going to arrive with new live transit updates."

Image courtesy: Google blog

So after you have planned a transit route from your mobile device, just tap on a transit station icon and you'll see Live departure times along with any service alerts or station delays.

You can see the up-to-the-minute updates either via Google Maps or on apps running Google Android operating system.