Apple Maps Now Supports Transit in Paris

[MacRumors]

Apple Maps has been updated with transit data for Paris, enabling iPhone users in the city and the greater Île-de-France region to navigate with public transportation, including the subway, commuter trains, and buses.

Apple Maps supports many public transportation services operated by the RATP Group, including the Métro subway system, RER commuter trains, and buses. Transilien trains and select other services are also supported in the suburbs.

Apple Maps is several years behind Google Maps in supporting transit routing in Paris, as in many other cities, but Apple's public transportation support is comprehensive, mapping all station entrances and listing departure times.

Apple Maps has had a Transit tab since iOS 9.

At launch, the feature was limited to Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. Since then, Apple has been working to expand support for public transportation to other cities around the world.

Newer additions include Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Montréal, New Orleans, Portland, Pittsburgh, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C.

Apple Maps transit support in Paris was expected, as station outlines in the city increased significantly in the weeks leading up to today's rollout. Likewise, transit directions may soon be enabled in Adelaide and Perth in Australia, Las Vegas, Madrid, Phoenix, Rome, Singapore, Taiwan, and the Netherlands.

A smaller number of station outlines in Apple Maps are visible in the American and Canadian cities of Albuquerque, Buffalo, Calgary, Edmonton, Orlando, Ottawa, Nashville, Norfolk, St. Louis, and Tucson.

A complete list of cities that support Transit in Apple Maps is available on the iOS Feature Availability page of Apple's website.

(Thanks, Bernd!)

Article Link: Apple Maps Now Supports Transit in Paris

 

[billybobthornton]

Citymapper is the absolute best app for traveling around Paris and other major cities. Works amazing without service and helps you easily navigate the city in offline mode.

 

[rebel22lax]

ITS TRAINS IN PARIS! *in my kanye west voice*

 

[swissmann]

Google maps worked great on our trip a few days ago in Paris. Also Amsterdam, London, Basel, and Venice. Salzburg was a Nightmare and we used db navigator app- Deutsche bahn or German train program. Apple maps always the one I try to make my phone work around unfortunately.

 

[jjm3]

Ooh la la!

 

[Creek0512]

In addition to the cities mentioned in the article, you can also see the station outlines in Tampa, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Manila, Hamburg, Bremen, Rhein-Ruhr, Hanover, Leipzig, Brussels.

 

[avanpelt]

Every time I see these articles about Apple Maps getting transit directions for a new city, I say to myself, "I can't believe it didn't have that already!" Thankfully, transit directions seem to be coming at a fairly good clip and Flyover announcements have slowed down. Apple seems to finally be waking up to the fact that Flyover is of little practical value in its current state.

 

[Mac-lover3]

In addition to the cities mentioned in the article, you can also see the station outlines in Tampa, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Manila, Hamburg, Bremen, Rhein-Ruhr, Hanover, Leipzig, Brussels.

YESSSSSSS BRUSSELS! Finally!
EDIT: not all metro lines are added yet

 

[simonmet]

Considering it's one of, if not the, most visited cities in the world this is embarrassingly slow from Apple. Paris should've been a launch city several years ago.

At least they seem to do a reasonable job when they do get there.

 

[Creek0512]

YESSSSSSS BRUSSELS! Finally!
EDIT: not all metro lines are added yet

Yeah, Brussels has been a recent appearance, and so it is only the mainline train stations so far, which always appear first before the metro stations. My guess is that Apple will do all of Belgium at once like they are doing in Netherlands.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Usually,local transit companies have their own apps too. Mostly they work a bit better than map-based solutions,as they also include delays,cancelled busses/trains and general transit information.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Usually,local transit companies have their own apps too. Mostly they work a bit better than map-based solutions,as they also include delays,cancelled busses/trains and general transit information.

I don't know. When I visited SF and LA I was jealous that they had the times in Apple Maps. The app that Phoenix has frankly sucks and looks like it was designed still for the iPhone 4.

 

[Fzang]

How long before Google throws a "- worldwide curated public transit info added" in the app release notes and totally leapfrogs everything Apple has been drumming on about with their Maps?

 

[petsounds]

How long before Google throws a "- worldwide curated public transit info added" in the app release notes and totally leapfrogs everything Apple has been drumming on about with their Maps?

I wouldn't hold your breath. Apple's comprehensive transit support means they have to work with all the local stakeholders. It's a slow, people-heavy process. That's not something Google has historically really cared to do.

 

[Stefan johansson]

I don't know. When I visited SF and LA I was jealous that they had the times in Apple Maps. The app that Phoenix has frankly sucks and looks like it was designed still for the iPhone 4.

Obviously i can't speak for how it works in North America, but here the local apps has lots of more information.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Obviously i can't speak for how it works in North America, but here the local apps has lots of more information.

Here the larger train stations has electronic signs that tell you when the next one comes etc, and there's apps of course. The smaller out in the middle of wherever stops look like bus stops and you have to rely on the app to know when the thing arrives. Now if I remember correctly, the one in Apple maps is real time information grabbed from the trains/busses themselves- feeding off the same information the electronic signs get, judging by what I experienced in San Francisco and Los Angeles....man I hope we get it here in Phoenix soon!

Phoenix has the text a stop thing, but it's slow and clunky. You find this sign with a Stop ID# on it, text the number to some short code, and it comes back with where the train is, and how long you have to wait...the app they have is just as crappy., and leaves your location services on all the time

 

[eagleglen]

Here the larger train stations has electronic signs that tell you when the next one comes etc, and there's apps of course. The smaller out in the middle of wherever stops look like bus stops and you have to rely on the app to know when the thing arrives. Now if I remember correctly, the one in Apple maps is real time information grabbed from the trains/busses themselves- feeding off the same information the electronic signs get, judging by what I experienced in San Francisco and Los Angeles....man I hope we get it here in Phoenix soon!

Phoenix has the text a stop thing, but it's slow and clunky. You find this sign with a Stop ID# on it, text the number to some short code, and it comes back with where the train is, and how long you have to wait...the app they have is just as crappy., and leaves your location services on all the time

I was thrilled to see Phoenix on the short list of cities suspected of gaining transit support in the near future. In the mean time, if you're looking for an app that gives real-time estimates for when the next bus or light rail train will arrive, similar to texting the Stop ID#, the app called Transit does so. For a while I used it to see when the next scheduled departure would be, but recently it has been providing real-time estimates too. My experience has been that they are reasonably accurate, particularly when letting me know how late a bus is going to be. Sometimes the estimate is completely wrong but it's usually obvious when that is the case, likely because the GPS date is not available from that bus/train. The app does require location services to be on continuously or while using. I leave it on continuously so I can see updated info on my Apple Watch. Regardless, it's a helpful option until Apple provides its solution which has certainly been a long time coming.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Here the larger train stations has electronic signs that tell you when the next one comes etc, and there's apps of course. The smaller out in the middle of wherever stops look like bus stops and you have to rely on the app to know when the thing arrives. Now if I remember correctly, the one in Apple maps is real time information grabbed from the trains/busses themselves- feeding off the same information the electronic signs get, judging by what I experienced in San Francisco and Los Angeles....man I hope we get it here in Phoenix soon!

Phoenix has the text a stop thing, but it's slow and clunky. You find this sign with a Stop ID# on it, text the number to some short code, and it comes back with where the train is, and how long you have to wait...the app they have is just as crappy., and leaves your location services on all the time

That seems ok for big cities,where I live,most countryside busses has GPS trackers,and exact information about when it arrives at every bus stop,not only in cities. We get full information even in communities with less than 10 people,and comparing how it is here with towns like phenix or Los Angeles is not very useful,as our entire country just have about 10 million people.

 

[kyjaotkb]

In London, I have found CityMapper to be light years ahead of Apple Maps and still better than Google Maps, although Google is closing in.
In Paris I have found CityMapper to be almost useless and very unreliable, and have had to rely on the good old wap.ratp.fr (!) or Vianavigo. I hear Paris is selling its real time transit data at quite a premium, whereas London makes it available for free.
I guess it depends on each place... But yeah, in Europe at least I haven't found one place where Google is inferior to Apple when it comes to mapping for walking or transit. I don't drive so can't tell about driving directions...