Metro is relaunching Next Bus on Wednesday, July 1. The service originally debuted about two years ago, but WMATA wasn’t happy with its accuracy, which it said was only about 80 percent, so they shut down the pilot program in October 2007. After spending almost two years making upgrades, Next Bus is back, and we want to hear from bus riders as they try out the improved real-time Metrobus locating system.
There are three basic ways to access Next Bus information (much of which is already up and running, though the official release is tomorrow morning).
By Phone: When you’re at any Metrobus stop, you can call 202-637-7000 to get location information for the bus you’re waiting for. You have to say “Next Bus” when prompted, then enter the bus stop number that’s listed on the Next Bus sign on the stop post, as well as the bus route number. You will then hear the estimated arrival time of the next bus at your stop.
Internet: From any web enabled mobile device (or from your home computer), go to http://wmata.nextbus.com and enter your bus stop number. You can also choose the route number, direction and stop location instead, by using the drop down menus. (Metro keeps insisting in their Next Bus press materials that you start at MetroOpensDoors.com to find the Next Bus link, but it’s not on their homepage yet, and we’d rather send you straight to the tool anyway). Next Bus will then give the estimated arrival time of the next three buses at your stop.
LED Signs: Some popular Metrobus stops have been outfitted with LED signs that actually show you when the next bus is arriving, similar to the Metro system. If you are at a bus stop with an LED sign, all you have to do is look up. For the curious, there are currently only 38 such signs out of 12,000 bus stops, and they are mostly located at the Friendship Heights, Anacostia, and Pentagon bus transfer stations, as well as along the Ballston/Rosslyn corridor.
As you try out the system over the next couple of days, make sure to drop us a line at tips@dcist.com to share your experiences. Same goes for the recently launched Circulator tool that serves the same basic function, Where’s My Bus?
UPDATE: We’ve updated this post with the url for the mobile app, which redirects to http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/nextbus/arrivals.cfm, the original link we published, in a regular browser.
