The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) reported its Ride MCTS app is now the highest-rated customized transit tracking and mobile ticketing app in North America. In less than two years, the app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, received thousands of positive reviews, and achieved an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars in the iOS App Store.

App users can purchase a 90-minute ticket for $2 or a 24-hour ticket for $5. Some of the app’s other popular features include trip planning, detour alerts, real-time arrival estimates, and live tracking maps — which physically show where a specific bus is at any given moment.

The app was developed in partnership with Tixora, a Wisconsin-based start-up company that has worked with MCTS since 2016.

MCTS, which was honored this year with a prestigious Innovation Award from the American Public Transportation Association, has grown from a single horse-drawn streetcar in 1860 to the largest transit system in the state. With a fleet of 370 clean diesel buses and a dedicated team of 1,000-plus operators, mechanics, and administrative staff, MCTS provides 30 million rides annually.

The agency recently introduced more than two dozen state-of-the-art GILLIG buses, which feature improved fuel economy, lower emissions, optimized driver visibility, anti-slip flooring, easier-to-read digital display signs, a stainless-steel understructure designed to reduce salt corrosion, and heated side mirrors to help melt snow and ice.