Canada’s Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) riders can now track their bus in real-time by downloading Transit to their smartphones.

The new real-time bus tracking system allows riders to see accurate countdowns and know precisely when their bus will arrive. Riders can also track their bus location on a map and receive alerts that notify them of service changes.

Real-time tracking is available to STO riders through Transit, which the STO has endorsed as its official mobile app to check real-time information, look up schedules, and plan trips across its transit network.

Transit, the leading public transit app in North America, is based in Montréal and counts millions of active users in over 175 cities worldwide, including tens of thousands in Gatineau and across the National Capital Region.

Upon launching the app, STO riders can see nearby transit options and departure times in big text and bright colors, including connections to OC Transpo, Communauto, VRTUCAR, HOPR bike-share, and Uber. Users can easily navigate the region, aided by accurate real-time bus tracking, trip planning, and step-by-step navigation with Transit’s GO feature.

By tapping GO, Transit users receive updates telling them when to leave to catch the bus and when their stop is approaching. They also help improve the real-time data available to other STO riders by anonymously contributing to bus location information, and can compete to help the most people on their bus line with better bus tracking.

The STO’s partnership with Transit offers, at no cost to the agency, an app that’s comprehensive, easy-to-use, and already widely adopted by riders. Under the agreement, Transit will provide the STO with technical support and aggregate usage information. In exchange, Transit will be marketed as the STO’s endorsed app via its website and social media, as well as at bus stops and onboard vehicles throughout the National Capital Region.

The STO introduced real-time information to its network after executing a contract with Engie Ineo, which added Computer Aided Dispatch and Automatic Vehicle Location to the STO’s fleet of buses and is providing the technical backend to relay bus location information and real-time countdown estimates to Transit.