Thursday, August 30, 2007

Google Transit may be coming to New York and New Jersey soon

Bloomberg is reporting that Google is working with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit to add them to Google Transit.

Google May Start New York Transit Guide in Bid for Ad Sales

By Chris Dolmetsch and Ari Levy

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, provides online transit guides for more than a dozen U.S. cities including Dallas and San Diego. Now it may take on the biggest.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit, which together carry more than 9 million people a day, are working with the company to give users one place to go for maps, schedules and trip planners. The agencies serve the five New York City boroughs and suburbs in New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester County and Long Island.

``We are always looking for ways to incorporate technology in what we do,'' Jim Redeker, assistant executive director of New Jersey Transit, said in a telephone interview from Newark. Google has ``good experience at making this work.''

...

Google doesn't disclose its local ad revenue, and Christoph Oehler, product manager for maps and transit, declined to say whether the company is negotiating with the New York and New Jersey agencies.

New Jersey Transit plans to share maps and schedules with Google as part of a pilot program to post more information aboutthe system on the Web, Redeker said. MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin confirmed the New York agency is also working with Google Transit. He declined to give specifics.

The metropolitan New York market would be the biggest and most complicated Google has tried to crack with its online guide. The New York MTA had 8.27 million daily riders as of Dec.31 and runs the city's subway and buses and the Long Island and Metro-North railroads, the busiest U.S. commuter railroads. The system has 468 subway stations, 35 fewer than in all other U.S.cities combined. New Jersey Transit, the largest statewide transit system in the U.S., carries about 857,000 passengers daily on buses, commuter trains and light-rail lines.

Bus ridership in Duluth, Minnesota, increased 12 percent since the Google system was added to its site last year, said Tom Elwell, marketing director for the local transit authority.

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Some agencies, including New York's MTA and New Jersey Transit, have trip planners on their own Web sites, as does
HopStop.com, a New York company started in 2004 that offers planners for cities including New York, Boston and Chicago. Travelers may be more inclined to get directions from Google because they already use its other mapping services, rather than trying to navigate local transit Web sites.

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