The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) Metro-North Railroad is expanding the seat availability feature in its app on Google Maps.
The feature was first available via the Metro-North Train Time app last November for most trains operating on electric portions of the Harlem and Hudson Lines, and has since expanded to all east of Hudson trains.
The MTA says customers can now also turn to Google Maps to see the capacity of seats available in each car to make informed decisions based on the real-time data of how many estimated customers are on each train car.
The real-time seat tracking function measures the weight of each car's seating cabin using data from the suspension system, the authority adds.
According to the MTA, Metro-North modified the software on the cars to transmit this weight value to a central server, from which a nearly precise estimate of how many customers are on board can be derived.
Catherine Rinaldi, president of MTA Metro-North Railroad, says: “Through the collaborative efforts of teams at MTA IT, Metro-North and Google, it’s even easier to get access to real-time seating availability. This is especially valuable for our occasional riders who may not have downloaded our trailblazing Train Time app on their phone. We want to make it as convenient as possible as we continue to welcome back our riders.”
