Google recently posted file format specifications for transit authorities to publish their bus/train schedules to Google Transit.

I think I good way get more cities added to Google Transit is for local residents to call/email their local transit authority to encourage them to submit their bus/train schedules to Google. Also sending emails to mayors and city council members may help.

Here is an email I sent to the Chicago Transit Authority. I sent it to ctah...@transitchicago.com. Feel free to use this as a starting point for your own email.

Dear CTA,

I wanted to make you aware of an innovative new service that Google recently launched called Google Transit (http://www.google.com/transit). The service allows a person to enter a starting point and a destination, and the service will give the person exact directions with the best bus or train route to use along with an estimate of the time it will take and a map of the route. In addition, you can tell Google Transit when you are planning to make the trip and it will take into account the timing of bus and/or train schedules to give you an accurate estimate for the trip time. The service is currently available for six U.S. cities, and Google wants to make it more widespread.

I think it would be incredible beneficial for Chicagoans if the CTA were included. A big drawback to using the CTA now to go to an unfamiliar place is knowing exactly which bus or train to take and knowing how long it will take.

The service is completely free to users and free for transit systems to participate. They have set up a simple file specification that you can set up and quickly be included in Google Transit. Also, you can email them at labs...@google.com to get more information.

I strongly encourage you to submit your transit system information to Google. I think this would be a great help to current (and potential) riders of the CTA and would increase ridership. Google Transit is easy way to plan a trip using public transportation. This would provide numerous benefits to everyone involved. The increased revenue from riders would more than offset the small effort in submitting the bus and train schedules to Google.

Here are some useful links about Google Transit:

Google Transit - http://www.google.com/transit

Google Transit Info - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-trails-with-google-transit.html

Google Transit Feed Specification - http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.htm

Google Transit email - labs...@google.com

Thank you for you help in making the CTA more useful to its riders. Please check out Google Transit and add your information to the service.

Sincerely,