Metro News Release
For immediate release: July 31, 2009
Metro enhances popular Web Trip Planner with "advanced" search options
Improved Next Bus program a hit with customers
Among the improvements, the Trip Planner, which is featured on the home page of Metro’s Web site, will now recognize abbreviated street directional indicators, such as S, or S. for South.
Also, under an “Advanced” link, the Trip Planner will now allow address searches to be restricted to one of Metro’s compact jurisdictions, instead of searching the entire Metro service area.
“The Trip Planner is one of our Web site’s most popular features, with about 1.7 million hits per month or 400,000 trips per week. The changes we will launch tomorrow will make the Trip Planner even better for Metro riders,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe.
“These informational enhancements are an effort to significantly improve the rider's experience, and to make it easier than ever to use our system,” he said.
Another new feature will enable the original data entered for a search to remain if customers receive a “Destination/Origin Not Found” message for their search. When the rider returns to the Advanced Itinerary page, the original data will still be in place, thus preventing the rider from having to retype his or her entire entry.
Finally, the available time increment for viewing trips 15 minutes before and after a requested time has been expanded to include increments of five, 10, 20 and 25 minutes.
Another recent information improvement for Metro’s customers, the Next Bus system, has quickly become a handy tool for Metrobus riders looking to get real time information on the arrival of their bus. Metro re-launched the Next Bus service on July 1 after making upgrades to computer hardware and software, and bus route and stop information.
Today, the new and improved Next Bus program is averaging more than a 90 percent accuracy rate. Next Bus is averaging approximately 6,000 unique web hits on weekdays and 2,500 hits on the weekend, and has averaged 1,850 calls per day to the telephone line.
“After a month of running the new, improved Next Bus service, it is clear that the substantial upgrades we made have resulted in improved accuracy of the predicted bus arrival times,” Catoe said.
With a cell phone or an Internet connection, Metrobus customers can get reliable information on when their bus is going to arrive, a big improvement in service.
The Next Bus program is available for all of Metro’s 335 bus routes and more than 12,000 bus stops. Customers can learn more and obtain information about when their Next Bus will arrive by visiting Metro’s Web site and clicking on the link to the Next Bus page.
Riders can also call 202-637-7000 and follow the prompts or say “next bus” to get arrival time information by phone. Riders can enter the bus stop identification number posted at the bus stop and state the bus route number on the phone and the service will provide the estimated time of arrival for their bus.
Media contact for this news release: Lisa Farbstein at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.
News release issued at 11:32 am, July 31, 2009.