Photo by Joe Flood.
Updated with contract details from Metro.
Meet the new app. It provides bus times, just like the old app, but does it differently.
busETA has now officially replaced NextBus, after a month of beta testing. All of the third-party apps that relied on information from NextBus now use the new app, which is also available through a website.
An awkward break-up tweet from NextBus on Friday confirmed the change.
We’ve had the privilege of providing bus arrival predictions to #WMATA Metro riders since 2009. Our services to Metro ended on March 31st.
— NextBus (@nextbus) April 1, 2016
So what does busETA have that NextBus doesn’t? It uses “an open-source arrival-prediction algorithm that is quickly becoming a standard in the transit industry,” according to Metro.
While NextBus is a subsidiary of Cubic Corporation, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, busETA uses information from OneBusAway—an open source project comprised of public sector transit agencies, commercial firms, academic research representatives, and others. WMATA just joined the OneBusAway board.
The base annual contract is $321,000 “with options for several additional years,” says Metro spokesperson Sherri Ly.
Rachel Kurzius