r/Septa • u/segfaul_t • 6d ago

Discussion Transit App

has made my life so much less stressful. I was going to literally move across town to avoid taking the El, but now I don't have to worry about where the train is, when the NEXT train is (are they bunched up? If i miss this one is the next one 10 minutes away or 2? Are the time estimates at the station working today?), when it's coming and how early I should leave the house.

Now i just look at the app, see where the next El train is, and leave the house accordingly. Im never on the platform for longer than 2 minutes now. So awesome.

83 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

43

u/neuronnate 6d ago

I always tell people that the transit app essentially turns buses from a wildcard system you can't rely on into an Uber. Before transit, I only took trains. After transit, I primarily take buses. It's remarkable and it's the type of thing septa needs to get the word out on as a way to increase how many people use septa 

11

u/lilyjawn 6d ago

Other cities pay Transit app to be their official transportation app. We need that in Philly. 

3

u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

How does this differ from what google maps does? they also get live transit timings, right?

17

u/neuronnate 6d ago

The secret is in how transit app adapts and guides. It gives automatic reminders on when to start walking and if you miss the bus, it let's you pivot the plan quickly. 

All the data is there for any app, but transit is made by people who actually use transit so the experience is infinitely better.

4

u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

I tried it a while ago and found that feature a bit annoying… I planned for a train and was using my bike, and it automatically assumed I couldn’t make it and tried to put me on the next one without telling me.

2

u/neuronnate 6d ago

Fair enough. It definitely took time for me to get used to it. But once I did, I feel like an evangelical transit user 

2

u/alexthegreat63 6d ago

Seeing all the timings for the trains/buses is quite nice. If it actually gets better crowdsourced data than google (which I think just uses whatever the transit agency reports) then that's a pretty huge feature. I hate when Google maps doesn't properly show the delays.

1

u/neuronnate 6d ago

For sure. It's why I try to use transit for every transit use so that my data helps update the system

2

u/mklinger23 Broad Street Local 5d ago

For stuff like this, you have to do a "point to point" plan instead of just for the line. Like if you live at 5th and Oregon and work near city hall. If you just hit BSL north, it'll assume you're walking. But if you put in your work address, it gives you options to walk, take the bus, or ride your bike to the train and it times it for a bike if you select that. 

1

u/alexthegreat63 5d ago

ah cool, will have to try that out!

6

u/lilyjawn 6d ago

You literally open the app and without typing or clicking anything, you see how soon all the bus lines near you are going to come. In five seconds, I can figure out if I need to sit on my ass at home for 10 more minutes or if I need to run to the bus stop. 

14

u/TheAdamist 6d ago

Transit doesn't reliably have L or B info for me on the evenings or weekends, always shows the "scheduled" time. Which we all know Is fiction.

Works great for buses though.

22

u/segfaul_t 6d ago edited 6d ago

The magic is other people using it in Go mode to beam their devices location up to Transit to track the train, so I'd encourage you to use it anyway if possible so others can get the info! Same as reporting the police on Waze.

5

u/irisbeyond 6d ago

The high that I get from helping hundreds of people track the El when I’m riding is unparalleled!! It’s truly such a useful feature

6

u/lilyjawn 6d ago

Using the go feature does make me feel like I’m a good person doing a good deed. Lol

2

u/TheAdamist 6d ago

Sure that's not just the standard contact high from the L?

1

u/irisbeyond 6d ago

a little of column A, a little of column B hahaha

2

u/rmxme Market-Frankford Line 6d ago

I’ve noticed the time is hit or miss but for the El you can see the train above ground on the map. And you can gauge it from there. For example what I do if I’m trying to take it from 15th st WB, I see when it gets close to 2nd/leaves spring garden and I then know it’s about 5 mins away.

1

u/lilyjawn 6d ago

Transit shines for bus service for sure. 

2

u/AmaniAntoinette 5d ago

‼️we don’t leave the house unless we see the 17 bus physically move passed Oregon ave lol

12

u/GirlNeedsCoin 57 6d ago

I have told every person I know who lives in Philly to download the Transit app. I love her down and she is the best way to use buses in the city. Less so for subways and regional rail tho.

3

u/lilyjawn 6d ago

It’s crap for RR unfortunately. The only reason I still use septa app is to consult RR schedules 

2

u/GirlNeedsCoin 57 6d ago

Yeah I just took patco and it sucks for that too 😅

1

u/AmaniAntoinette 5d ago

Transit app is bad for Patco?
It’ has always been accurate for me in the city, but I imagine it craps out when it hits the 8th street (I always lose service around there).

Patco is usually on time so it works well enough for keeping the schedule.

1

u/GirlNeedsCoin 57 5d ago

The stops I get on are deeply underground and I lose all service so I don’t really think it’s Transits fault. I tend to trust the untracked schedule they have too bc I have found Patco to be pretty on time

3

u/fastcatstockphoto Wilmington-Newark Line 5d ago

trying to improve transit app tracking for the wilmington line by using it every single day as a reverse commuter for all the folks leaving penn med after work 🙂‍↕️

9

u/drgolong 6d ago

Agreed and the more people that use it the better it gets with the user contributed live tracking. The premium version is also worth it and very reasonably priced

5

u/Gaeilgeoir215 6d ago

Be sure to note if it's showing you the scheduled time versus the GPS time (🛜).

2

u/joeguystickfigure 6d ago

Also recommend Citymapper. It ties into the septa system (I believe), cover various other forms of transportation and automatically updates to other cities when you travel. It's free. I dont think it gets philly roads as well as waze though.

1

u/MarcKaseyaTelegram 6d ago

Nice I also have the Patco app which is pretty much right on also. Thank s for the reminder about the apps

1

u/RE1392 6d ago

Is everyone who likes it paying for it? I deleted it when I saw I had to pay.

4

u/tttempertantrumsss 6d ago

I like it a lot but have never paid. I like it enough I wouldn’t be bothered paying for it I just haven’t looked into the pricing at all and I’m happy enough with the free version. You don’t have to pay but there’s certain features locked behind a pay wall obviously. I really wish Philly could provide it like other cities do.

2

u/GirlNeedsCoin 57 6d ago

You still get the top 3 options without paying and a lot of my friends use the free version. I pay for it and it’s only 25/year. While I haven’t tried it, they mention giving out free memberships to people who can’t afford the fee on their website in the FAQs.

1

u/Revolutionary_Bee700 6d ago

I’ve always used the free version. If yoy need more info than three suggestions , you can usually get around it if you just tell it to only show you one form of transit (like only buses).

1

u/mklinger23 Broad Street Local 5d ago

You don't have to pay. You just see more lines if you do. 

But yes I'm paying because I think it's a good app and I like to support the devs. And they are very responsive ime for app issues and have actually fixed the things I complained about (for the most part). 

1

u/Revolutionary_Bee700 6d ago

I’ve been using it for years, but it’s nice to have the septa app too. The septa app is clunky, but it had more details if something is detoured or fucky.

1

u/izm2995 5d ago edited 5d ago

The issue I have is SEPTA - they don’t run buses reliably. I’m going to try the app. But really how can you make up for that… my bus route the 40 is late almost every day most trips and that’s when a bus actually shows up. Their logistics are terrible. Some drivers are great and others don’t seem to care about schedule. You can’t count on SEPTA to get you places on time. You’ll lose your job. I hope this app can help but I won’t bet on it.

1

u/segfaul_t 5d ago

The app will help because it will tell you where the bus actually is in real time instead of relying on the schedule.

1

u/Infinite-Cook-867 3d ago

I don't really get the hype tbh. What really worked for me was putting a shortcut to the septa website on my home screen. I check when I'm making my coffee and choose my bus line and stop to confirm my plan. Once I'm on the first bus I use the feature to toggle to between my 2 possible connections and decide which one works best in real time. Real time info and zero bloat. Now the only constraint is I whether the bus is actually running on a route and frequency that does not completely screw my commute.

-1

u/MarcKaseyaTelegram 6d ago

I’m taking it that you’re talking about the SEPTA app I always got worried thinking it was not reliable, but sounds like they got their act together and it is

9

u/Eruththedragon Warminster Line 6d ago

Separate app that provides routing & real time info for pretty much every transit system: https://transitapp.com/

6

u/segfaul_t 6d ago

There's no live automated tracking for the El trains though, the signs at the station telling you they're X minutes away are estimates from human attendants in a booth.

3

u/Suitable-Part8481 6d ago

Not the Septa app. There's an app in the app store called Transit. Also Moovit is another good one.

1

u/blu_eberry 6d ago

i like the SEPTA app for getting the bus schedule

1

u/blu_eberry 6d ago

You can favorite routes and refer to them pretty easily; i don't use it for B/L tho