Apple delivered a major upgrade to Maps in iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, and watchOS 2 with the addition of transit directions in select cities, and now its rolling out additional cities and transportation methods to bolster that feature. In addition to expanding transit, Apple has found a new partner in Canada to provide rich local business data for use in Maps.
Transit in Apple Maps already supported buses, ferries, subways, and trains in supported cities including San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC, and today users noticed Amtrak train routes between major Northeastern cities in the United States (via MacRumors). Not all Amtrak routes are present within Apple Maps as routes for cities that currently support Apple’s transit feature are presented but the new data does add to the feature.
Continuing transit’s rollout, The Boston Globe reports that Apple Maps today turned on support for the new feature for customers in the area. Transit in Boston supports viewing routes for the city’s buses, commuter rail, subways, and trolleys within Apple Maps.
Before Apple officially unveiled its transit feature in Maps, 9to5Mac first reported that Boston would be absent at launch but on Apple’s list to target next. The rollout comes just as Apple pulls the plug on HopStop, which was a transit service app that provided data in Boston acquired by Apple in 2013.
Sydney, Australia is also set to gain transit in Apple Maps this moth according to Apple’s site, joining Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, China, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and now Boston.
Finally, Apple Maps in Canada is set to improve with local business data. As iPhone in Canada points out, Apple has partnered with Yellow Pages in Canada to provide local business information like hours, ratings, website, and contact information within Maps. Apple has similarly partnered with Yellow Pages in other regions including Turkey for sourcing local business data for Maps.
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Apple Maps for mac isn’t showing boston as a available transit city
I am still waiting for public transit for Montreal! Google has it!
same here.. Apple should just buy or partner with the iOS app called Transit.. I think the dev is from Montreal too.. they have the best transit experience on mobile..
I understand Apple bought Hopstop and Embark 2 years ago. Although, yes, that information doesn’t seem to be integrated into Maps yet.
Speaking of Apple Maps and trains, I keep feeling that Apple maps is chasing a train that left the station a long time ago – Google Maps. The feature set and functionality is so far behind. Periodically I check to see if Apple Maps would be sufficient for me to use and every time I’m disappointed. The POI, ease of use, traffic and rerouting, and ability to fix map errors all fall far short of Google Maps. C’mon Apple, step up your game!
Sadly, I believe that some cities may be contractually prohibited from sharing their transit data with anyone but Google.
Back 5-10 years ago, it might have seemed like a win for a city to get their transit data onto Google maps “for free” if they signed a contract with Google. But if so, the Google contract could be written in such a way that it potentially prohibits the city from sharing transit data with others – putting them at significant financial risk.
Big cities generally have good lawyers that would scrutinize contracts before they are signed. But some places might just see dollar signs and sign on the dotted line before fully understanding the ramifications.