Seamless Commuting in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley

San Francisco Bay Area-based BART is now offering its riders the latest in trip planning technology: The new multimodal BART Trip Planner will help passengers go anywhere in the Bay Area using various modes of transportation.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has successfully teamed up with Hacon to provide its riders with the brand-new BART Trip Planner: Available both as a web app (https://planner.bart.gov) and native apps for iOS and Android, the new application guarantees a seamless, multimodal door-to-door travel experience including real-time information – a major upgrade to the legacy system that was solely based on the scheduled timetable.

Aside from BART's own services, Hacon's powerful software processes transit data from over 30 operators in the nine Bay Area counties, including buses, trains, ferries, and cable cars. In addition to public transit, the BART Trip Planner also takes into account walking, bicycling and car routes, including the current traffic situation in order to give users a realistic comparison for their commute. Hacon has also integrated park & ride (Drive-to-Transit) and bike & ride (Bike-to-Transit) options, including information regarding car parking and bike storage availability at the BART stations. Over the next phases of the project, Hacon and BART will begin to offer even more transportation modes, such as ride and bike sharing.

Thanks to Hacon's tool for disruption management, HAFAS.info, BART can now respond to disruptions much quicker and more accurately: Service advisories and alerts such as station closures, bus replacement services, station or trip-related messages will be communicated in real time, allowing the BART Trip Planner to re-route passengers in accordance with potential service changes. The step-by-step navigation feature factors in personal preferences like favorite modes of transportation – it even routes users to the BART stations' entries and exits to maximize convenience and guarantee the utmost passenger experience. To round out the feature portfolio, the BART Trip Planner displays train load information, giving riders the opportunity to pick less crowded trains.

Ravi Misra, BART Chief Information Officer: "The new Trip Planner takes the hassle out of commuting because it provides a complete look at someone's journey and offers a variety of ways to avoid traffic. All trips use BART as the lynchpin of the itinerary and then make it easy to get to and from our stations using the various modes of transportation the Bay Area offers."

Michael Frankenberg, CEO Hacon: "With its forward-thinking approach to offering multimodal travel chains, BART is one of the first US transit agencies to provide complete end-to-end itineraries. The new BART Trip Planner is one of the first big steps into Mobility as a Service in the United States. We are more than happy to support BART with our technology!"