Wondering how to keep track of scheduled disruptions for your bus and train lines? Well if you live in the metropolitan Washington (DC) area, the folks at Greater Greater Washington have made it a little easier. A couple of months ago, GGW introduced a calendar that lets readers keep track of scheduled service disruptions. Matt Johnson, who developed the calendar, told The Transit Wire about his inspiration in an email:
As a daily user of the Metro system, I often notice end-user issues. Because Metro is aging, there’s a lot of track work going on. But it can be very difficult to keep track of which line is single-tracking and where. In May of this year, I believe, Metro sent out its monthly press releases about track work, and the amount just seemed too overwhelming to comprehend. So, I decided to use a calendar to visualize it.
The Disruption Calendar uses the Google Calendar platform to list scheduled disruptions for maintenance, trackwork, and special events. The calendar includes updates for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority‘s Metrorail and Metrobus services, as well as Maryland Area Regional Commuter and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail services.
Johnson updates the Disruption Calendar manually, using information provided by the agencies. Readers can click on an entry for more detailed information and they can add specific events to their own calendars. A recent update allows users to select and display specific lines or modes.
Johnson and GGW’s David Alpert are working on some improvements to the calendar, including the ability for users to subscribe to updates from a particular calendar. They are also interested in adding information from other bus operators in the region. And while GGW has no particular plans to expand the calendar beyond the capital area, the concept could be translated to other agencies fairly easily. As Johnson wrote in an email, “Because Google Calendar is such an easy platform, any advocate could set up this sort of thing in a matter of hours.” The calendar just requires readily available data.
WMATA was already providing information about scheduled disruptions. The challenge was getting the information in one place in a user-friendly format. Johnson added, “We’re providing a service that Metro does not provide currently. I hope we’re able to fill this gap effectively.” What do you think, readers?
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