New Metro website is up and running

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Feb. 8 update: here is a list of fixes made so far to the new site.

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After several months of testing and input from the public, the redesigned and updated metro.net launched on Tuesday. Our web team relied on feedback to improve the site design and functionality, making it easier for customers to access the information they want on the devices they use most.

Highlights;

•Metro’s Trip Planner has been rebuilt from the ground up and now provides more transit options and service alerts as part of the itinerary. Both scheduled and real-time arrivals for Metro are included, as well as service data from the 24 municipal transit agencies in Los Angeles County that accept TAP cards.

•More than 65 percent of customers access metro.net from a mobile device, so the website has been re-engineered to ensure trip planning requires fewer clicks while remaining readable on a small screen.

•More real-time data will be added to the website in coming months, including data on Metro Bike Share and parking availability at Metro lots.

Metro will also soon release version 4.0 of the Go Metro app, which will be available through the Apple Store and Google Play.

Categories: Go Metro

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36 replies ›

  1. I have attempted to use the new website several times ;it is all fluff without necessary details…the former website was so much better…Cannot figure out how to place an address with a slash i.e. doheny/santa monica blvd without bring up thousands of names on santa monica blvd…..Also where to wait for bus is hidden somewhere ; this is a flawed website..

    I have resorted to paper timetables until the site is configured for the rider. .

    Also please do not tell me to send to webmaster; whom ever is reading these comments it is your responsibility to send these comments to the appropriate place…

    Grade D for content

    • I have to agree. What is it now, two weeks since the unveiling of this extremely flawed, utterly useless Metro site… and nothing has improved. I’ve had to cancel plans due to not having paper schedules to refer to, while waiting for Metro to send in the mail. Not one bus I have traveled on has had its route schedule available on board.

      This is still a mess, and all we get from Metro is more useless nonsense. It is crippling those of us who must use metro transit of necessity.

      FIX THIS NOW!! PLEASE!!

  2. Awful website, Nextbus map feature moved? Taken away? Who cares, old site was bad, new one even worse, as usual. I guess this is still the RTD – slow pokey transit district – corrupt and mediocre. No bus north through Laurel Canyon any more either? What is this? What kind of junk is this? Pay taxes AND fares? For what?

  3. I have to join in that this new site is horrid. Currently, there’s a bunch of routes in the CBD that are on detour but there is no information on the detour on the website (e.g. what streets the routes are taking). All we get is:
    Lines 2/302 and 16 other routes detoured from 9:00AM to 7:00PM on Sat Feb 4 due to special event.
    Wow, that tells me a lot.

    When you click on meetings and agendas on the old tool, you will see all of the meetings including the subcommittees and what’s important to me, the sector councils. Now that information can’t be navigated to. You click the link, you go to the external site that only handles the main board.

    According to the map on this new website, the Orange Line no longer goes to Chatsworth. So for those of you waiting at Roscoe… it ain’t coming.

    I would be interested to know if anyone who is disabled is having any accessibility problems with the site (e.g. getting it to work with JAWS or other screen reader software, etc?).

    Sorry Metro, this is truly a case where you all need to roll back.

    =m

  4. Hi … Just tried the new trip planner. It has several shortcomings – for example, printing my route so I can take it with me, or knowing how much I will have to pay, given my senior metro TAP card. I’m sure you’ll work the bugs out. But in the meantime, I wish you’d allow the old version for a while (just like you offered the ‘beta’ version for a while before the switch).

  5. I think we should all band together and email the Metro Board of Directors and demand answers. This is tax payers money being wasted, this is a horrible service and whomever pushed this project though should be looking for new employment. How can the Board and the CEO feel comfortable putting out an inferior product ?
    John Fasana: fasanaj@accessduarte.com
    Eric Garcetti:
    mayor.garcetti@lacity.or
    Kathryn Barger:
    kbarger@lacbos.or
    Mike Bonin:
    mike.bonin@lacity.or
    James Butts:
    mayor@cityofinglewood.org
    Robert Garcia:
    mayor@longbeach.gov
    Janice Hahn:
    hahn@bos.lacounty.gov
    Paul Krekorkian
    councilmember.krekorkian@lacity.or
    Ara Najarian:
    anajarian@glendale.gov
    Mark Ridley-Thomas:
    markridley-thomas@bos.lacounty.gov
    Hilda Solis:
    firstdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov

  6. Terrible. Now it won’t even accept a destination location or address — it deletes it as soon as I click on. Ditto the Beta of the new site. And the old site link is giving me nonsense routes with multiple connections and much longer transit times on routes I already know by heart.

    I am highly mobile and totally dependent upon Metro — which has really messed me up with this garbage site. I dare not go to unfamiliar places as this new bit is totally unreliable.

    I started collecting the paper route schedule/maps today… back to the drawing board, Metro!

  7. This website is now as useless and complicated to use as the app. The one thing that’s gone from the immediate homepage are the Twitter alerts. Some of us don’t use Twitter, and since that’s the only way you guys can update us as to issues immediately, it is imperative that it be seen at the top. I’ll use some other service that provides me the same information until this is changed.

  8. This Trip Planner is a joke. Do us all a favor and switch the old site back on until you 1. Actually ride the bus and 2. Use that knowledge to fix this.

    • Good points. It does seem clear that these systems are designed by people who never actually have to use them.

  9. Did I miss something? Had people been complaining about the old trip planner? I never even comment but honestly, this update is terrible. At least socaltransport.org still works for now. This trip finder on the homepage is virtually unusable for the average rider and will probably turn people off of metro altogether because it’s so hard to use. Even if a new rider was going to try one of these routes, they’ll probably never ride again because this update gives trips that have you going all over town making all kinds of unnecessary transfers. Not well thought out. Not for the public. DISGRACE

  10. This trip planner is far less superior than the previous trip planner. The other trip planner gave service for over 70 carries, covering Los Angeles County and the 4 surrounding counties along with fare data, head sign info, the compass corner of the bus stop and it gave you reasonable itineraries. This new trip planner gives me a 4 bus trip without any rail, when the other trip planner gives me one bus and the red line–not happy with this–bring back the other or at least give us both.

  11. Can’t even click on a stop and have it populate the starting point field? Really?

  12. My 2 cents. If the “old” website was slow, then fix it! Why re-hash the entire site and force users to learn a new interface? I hope this is not an indication how the new tax increase is going to be spent… (my feeling is this is only a preview)

  13. why should I use your trip planer when I can just use Google Map and get info on all transit serving the area? You’ve make the site too complicated. More bells and whistles not necessary easier to use and better…

  14. Good news, everyone. The old Metro Trip Planner can still be found at its longtime URL, http://socaltransport.org/tm_pub_start.php. It looks and functions just like before. They’re testing a Beta trip planner in the upper right corner, which made me nervous at first, but I tried that and it also works much better than the new planner on Metro’s homepage.

    • NOT SO!! The Beta you refer to is giving me nonsense routes with multiple connections and longer transit times on routes I am already familiar with, and will not accept destination locales or addresses – it just deletes them.

      This is really messing me up, as I am highly mobile and totally dependent on Metro. Now I dare not go anywhere unfamiliar where I don’t already know — and that is costing me earnings, as my work requires extensive travel around L.A.

      FIX THIS NOW!!

  15. The Trip Planner frustratingly no longer shows any of the other bus systems (Santa Monica, Culver City, Gardena etc). I live in North Hollywood and work in Marina del Rey and sometimes save over half an hour jumping off the Expo line and transferring to the Big Blue Bus or Culver City bus.

    Additionally, while the ease of use may have increased on phones, it is temperamental on a computer. When the site isn’t continually refreshing, it is no longer able to highlight “North Hollywood Station” because it keeps switching to “North Hollywood.”

  16. Digging Metro’s new website! The transit planner is so helpful and everything is easily accessible!

  17. Now it’s giving me a nonsense route starting with a bus stop five miles from my home! This is really bad. I dare not go out and about without access to information which used to be readily available. Now I have to find a place to pick up 20 route maps… I do NOT understand how Metro could let this happen. The old site should have remained through a transition period. Meanwhile, we who DEPEND on buses are Royally Messed Up. Ugly, this. 🙁

  18. Worst remake of a site yet, constantly wants to track my location rather than let me select the location I am interested in, and then resets back to the Union Station and won’t let me navigate away from it. I don’t want you to track my location, unless I am driving somewhere I see no reason that you have a need to see my location, whether it is a mobile device or a desktop computer doesn’t matter. I want to set the location I am using, not let you set it for me.

    Secondly, I used your site mainly for the status updates of the Red Line subway, I could easily go to the alerts section and scroll down to see any issues. Now, I must select a station (which as noted above it won’t let me do) to find out information on the line at that station, and not the line in general.

    Bring the old site back, it was much easier to use and much more useful…

    • Hi Shane,

      Thank you for your feedback. If possible, I also encourage you to directly email our web team at webmaster@metro.net so they can help look into the issues you’re experiencing.

      Anna Chen
      Writer, The Source

  19. I have been trying for an hour to get a trip from Harbor Gateway Transit to Olympic/Alvarado and the web site does not give me any information on trip out there. What’s going on?

    • Hi Ramiro,

      Sorry to hear this! If the website isn’t working, please email webmaster@metro.net so staff can look into your experience. In the meantime, perhaps Google Maps would be able to help plan a trip for you, or the Go Metro app.

      Thank you,

      Anna Chen
      Writer, The Source

  20. Gotta join in the Boos so far on this. Just tried 7 items on the Trip Plan and every one came up with only “No itinerary found”. NOT GOOD when you’re trying to find your way about town. 🙁

  21. Just tried to get potential bus schedule on the New Trip Planner. Frustrating and absolutely worthless! Please return to the drawing board!

  22. Wow. I never noticed that feature because I seldom clicked on the maps, but it is definitely a feature I would use and appreciate! I hope I hope metro brings it back as you suggest.

  23. At first glance i don’t see the fact that i can see multiple buses coming within an hour or more. Right now i can see ONE Bus time and one mark on the Map. I guess people who don’t ride the buses were instrumental in this creation.
    This is worthless to me.
    You move the bus stops at Fairfax 2 plus blocks down and telling me the next bus is coming in 3 mins is not helpful. i can’t make it to the bus that fast.I need to Plan my walk by knowing when multiple buses are coming.

    Perhaps i am missing something.

    • That is where the time tables are valuable. They show every bus scheduled and are easy to read.

  24. Harrumph.

    Getting further away from the “AnyBrowser” ideal.

    I will say, though, that it’s been a while since I saw a Google Map that was only DYSfunctional in Firefox 17, rather than Afunctional.

  25. One thing I missed about the old site is in the bus timetable section. If you click the Map link of a bus line. You will see the interactive map of the buses traveling on the map in real time. This is a very useful feature because people can easily eye ball the bus in which they need to take. Will Metro restore the feature back to the new site?

    • I am going to be very blunt.

      This new website is beyond ridiculous. I have used the old website for years. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it whatsoever. This “new website” does not allow me to type in my home address and the address that I want to go to to get a bus to bus route. Instead, as soon as I click on the “end point” field from the “start point” field, the first address that I JUST TYPED IN DISAPPEARS. Very frustrating, absolutely ridiculous, and extremely disrespectful to customers. I also find it stunning to believe that the “months of testing” did not catch this VERY IMPORTANT BUG in this software. Please bring back the old site out of respect for your customers.