Swiftly and Transit partner to modernize the transit rider experience

Swiftly, the leading big data platform for public transportation, and Transit, the app used by millions to get around cities without using their own car, today announced a partnership to get high-quality real-time data in the hands of riders and transit agencies.

Through this strategic partnership, Transit and Swiftly will provide riders with a better experience and agencies with more insight into how to improve operational efficiency. This partnership is designed to enable transit agencies to dramatically enhance the passenger experience quickly and inexpensively without having to install costly new hardware onboard vehicles. Rather, by providing riders with more accurate data and a seamless mobile app, agencies can dramatically improve the rider experience.

With Transit, riders see nearby options and departure times in big text and bright colors. Users can easily navigate their city, aided by accurate real-time bus ETAs and trip planning, plus step-by-step navigation with Transit’s GO feature. Transit brings multimodal options from different operators together into one app, including public transit, carshare, ridehail, bikeshare and scooters. This ease-of-use has made Transit a hit with riders, and the app has millions of active users in more than 200 cities worldwide.

And with Swiftly, transit professionals get up to 30% more accurate real-time predictions, allowing them to provide passengers with the highest quality information. Swiftly is a transit reliability platform that lets agencies analyze their transit systems (and see it in real time) in new ways. It only takes a few minutes to start making a network more reliable — from improving passenger-facing predictions, to reducing bunching & gapping, and increasing on-time performance.

The partnership builds upon existing collaborations between Swiftly and Transit in cities including Boston, San Jose, and Baltimore, with Swiftly powering real-time predictions for agencies that have officially endorsed Transit as the best app for riders. While other data providers keep riders waiting for up to 60 seconds for the latest real-time vehicle locations, Swiftly sends updates every few seconds. This new partnership will extend the same high-quality information and rider experience to more cities.

“Our mission is to help people get around cities without using their own car,” said David Block-Schachter, Chief Business Officer at Transit. “Providing accurate real-time information in an easy-to-use app is key to giving riders the best experience possible. Too often, bad transit data leaves riders stranded. But when agencies switch to Swiftly, we always see a big improvement in data quality, along with a drop in rider complaints. Swiftly and Transit have been recommending each other for years. Announcing this partnership makes it official, so transit agencies and riders know where to go for the best real-time information.”

“Swiftly was founded to help transit agencies provide high-quality real-time information for their riders,” said Jonathan Simkin, CEO of Swiftly. “This is extremely important because many studies have shown a strong correlation between real-time information and overall rider satisfaction. Beyond information quality, our agency partners often ask, who has the best app to get this information in the hands of riders? And the answer for us is easy.Transit. We are thrilled to formalize our partnership with Transit so that we can ensure that all of our partners have access to the top transit app in North America.”

About Swiftly:

Swiftly has created the first platform specifically designed for transportation data and operations. Swiftly works with over 60 city transportation networks around the world, including MBTA in Boston, Capital Metro in Austin, VIA in San Antonio, VTA in San Jose, and MDOT MTA in Baltimore, supporting over 2,500 transit agency professionals and impacting over a billion passengers per year. Swiftly has helped customers improve arrival predictions by up to 30% and complete planning projects up to 90% faster, resulting in increased ridership, fewer passenger complaints, and more efficient transit operations.

About Transit:

Transit solves the urban commute in more than 200 cities worldwide. Users can easily navigate public transit with accurate real-time predictions, simple trip planning, and step-by-step navigation. The app also integrates other transport modes — bikesharing, carsharing and ridehail — so users can determine the best way to get from A to B. Transit has been officially endorsed by dozens of agencies as the best app for riders, including the MBTA in Boston, Metro Transit in St. Louis, MDOT MTA in Baltimore, the STM in Montreal, and VTA in San Jose. The company is based in Montréal, QC. Learn more by visiting www.transitapp.com.