Metro News Release

For immediate release: March 28, 2013

Metro launches new mobile website to help customers on the go

  

Metro today launched a new mobile website to give customers quick access to the most popular features of wmata.com while on the go.

The new mobile site is designed for today's smartphones, and replaces an earlier version that was launched years ago, prior to touch-screen navigation. 

"Our new mobile site is a significant step forward toward giving customers access to the information they want and expect while on the go," said General Manager and CEO Richard Sarles. "Today's launch is another 'progress point' in our Customer Service Action Plan that has delivered dozens of improvements over the last year.”

Among the new site's features:

  • Trip Planner gives mobile users access to Metro's website trip planner, including ability to plan a trip by bus, rail or both. Customers can select their preferred departure or arrival time based on their needs.
  • Next Train shows real-time train arrival times, number of cars and destination for any of Metro's 86 rail stations.
  • Next Bus uses a customer's GPS location to display bus arrival predictions for all nearby bus stops. For additional detail, customers can tap a route to see bus locations on a moving Google map.
  • Service Nearby allows customers to see all bus and rail transit service near their current location.
  • News gives customers mobile access to all recent Metro news releases.
  • Elevator Status shows out-of-service elevators and alternate shuttle bus options.
  • Alerts & Advisories provides continually updated service information from Metro's control centers via the MetroAlerts system. Customers can stay up to date on planned detours, service changes, track work, elevator outages and more. Urgent service messages are displayed in red on the home screen.
  • Call Transit Police allows customers to quickly initiate a phone call to Metro Transit Police should the need arise.

The new mobile site is the latest project to be delivered as part of the General Manager’s Customer Service Action Plan, and follows the launch in November of new flat-screen displays at every Metrorail station entrance. The kiosk displays, which are also linked to the MetroAlerts network, turn red when there is an alert that could affect a customer's trip.

Customers can access the new mobile site by navigating to wmata.com from their smartphone's browser. Metro suggests that customers add the site to their home screen for quick and easy access.  

Also today, Sarles announced the integration of bus MetroAlerts with NextBus. The upgrade allows customers to see service information about bus delays and detours within the NextBus website.

Yesterday, Google launched the integration of rail MetroAlerts into their popular trip planning tools, Google Maps and Google Transit. Now customers who use Google to plan their Metro trips will see rail service alerts alongside their itinerary.

Since 2011, communication and web improvements include the introduction of MetroAlerts for bus customers, new "advisory" emails providing detailed information about planned track work, detours and service changes, and two-way social media communication on Twitter and Facebook. Customers also now have more convenient options to manage their SmarTrip accounts online, including an auto reload feature that adds value to the card whenever the balance drops below a certain threshold.

Sarles noted that the mobile site is considered to be in a "beta test" phase for one to two weeks to allow for incorporation of customer feedback.

The new site was designed in-house by Metro's web development and digital communications teams.

News release issued at 12:06 pm, March 28, 2013.