A screengrab of the new MTA app.
Image courtesy of the MTA
The MTA on Wednesday launched a new mobile app boasting a suite of features intended to give straphangers more real-time and personalized information when navigating the city’s subways and bus network.
Kevin Call, the MTA’s deputy chief of service communications, said during the MTA board’s March 25 meeting that the agency redesigned its app from the “ground up.” He named its “clean” new UI (user experience) and the “incredible” speed at which it loads among its most notable features.
“[It’s] fast enough that as you’re entering a station, you can answer the age-old question: do I stay on this local or do I get off and wait for the express,” he said.
Call said the app was rebuilt with a specific focus on subway and bus riders. It also includes features that recommend to riders where to stand on a platform or how to transfer at a specific trip.
The new app is the latest evolution of several versions the MTA has rolled out over the past decade plus. Those include “Subway Time,” introduced in 2012; “MYmta,” which came out in 2018; and the 2024 MTA App.
Call said that, unlike its past iterations, which were developed either entirely or in collaboration with outside contractors, the new MTA app was built entirely by in-house agency staff.
Jennifer Chen, the MTA’s head of product, said the app was designed for riders who “know where they’re going, know how to get there” and “just need a little more information.”
“We built our app for New Yorkers who ride the bus and subway every day,” she added.
The app contains familiar features from its last iteration, including the status — which shows real-time information on arrivals for specific lines — and trip planning tabs. It also still allows users to select certain lines or bus routes as their favorites.
Among the app’s new features for subway riders is a station modeling tab, which gives directions within specific subway stations, Chen said.
For instance, the app would show a passenger hoping to transfer from the R train to the A train between the connected but separate Times Square-42nd Street and Port Authority Bus Terminal stations, that they must walk underground from the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue to Eighth Avenue.
Furthermore, the app tells users the best places to stand on the train and arrival times for the lines they can switch to when transferring.
“Transfers are a really interesting problem because it’s the combination of trying to get that feeling of triumpth as you make like a perfectly timed transfer and also I think the real test of showing a New Yorker that really knows the subway station is if you know where to stand in order to be near your closest street exit you’re trying to get to or to your transfer,” Chen said. “So we built a transfer experience that addresses both of these things.
The app also boasts an accessibility mode that shows riders which stations have elevators and the elevators’ locations within those stops, Chen said.
For bus riders, the app lets you set up a personalized map that shows live bus locations. Chen said the app provides bus location updates every 5 seconds to give riders the most accurate information on where their bus is.
Call said that later in the year, the app will also integrate the OMNY tap-and-pay system, allowing riders to check their balances on the app and eventually make payments through it.
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