Customers at Cincinnati-based Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority’s (SORTA) Government Square Transit Center downtown will be able to simply look at new real-time information boards to know exactly when their buses will leave Government Square, beginning June 29.

New real-time information boards will display bus departure times at each of Government Square’s eight shelters, thanks to new GPS technology installed on Metro buses in 2011.

A master information board showing real-time information for all buses serving Government Square will be located at the front of the Government Square booth at the corner of Fifth & Walnut. Bus departure times will appear on the boards 45 minutes before a bus is scheduled to depart from Government Square. When the bus is within 20 minutes of the scheduled departure time, the board will begin a countdown using real-time information based on GPS tracking.

The real-time information boards also feature a button that customers with disabilities can push to hear the information being displayed on the boards.

Additionally, SORTA will install real-time information at the new Glenway Crossing Transit Center and in the new Uptown Transit District, which will begin construction later this year. SORTA also plans to add real-time information to its website and offer smart phone apps within the next year.

About 20% of downtown workers ride SORTA, and almost all routes use Government Square. SORTA provides about 17 million rides per year.