The new feature will enable customers to see the number of seats available in each rail car using Google Maps. New York-based commuter rail system Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has added a car capacity technology to Google Maps to provide commuters with real-time information on seating availability. The new feature, developed in-house by LIRR developers and staff, will enable the passengers to use Google Maps to see the number of seats available in each rail car at any given moment.
The move makes LIRR one of the first two public transportation agencies globally to introduce the feature in Google Maps. Transport for New South Wales in Sydney is also a part of Google’s pilot programme.
LIRR president Phil Eng said: “The LIRR is not only looking at best practices across the industry, but developing our own. “Through our work with Google, more customers will be able to know as much information about their ride as possible. We want to make it as easy as possible for riders to make safe decisions as they return to the railroad.”
The real-time seat tracking function measures the weight of each car’s seating cabin using data from the suspension system to estimate the number of on-board passengers.