Swiftly and Transit partner to modernize rider experience with real-time passenger information

Nov. 27, 2019
The strategic partnership can help transit agencies boost ridership, reduce customer service load and improve overall service reliability. 

Swiftly and Transit have announced a partnership to get quality, real-time data in the hands of riders and transit agencies.  

Through this strategic partnership, Transit and Swiftly will provide riders with a better experience and agencies with more insight into how to improve operational efficiency. The companies say this partnership is designed to enable transit agencies to enhance the passenger experience quickly and inexpensively without having to install costly new hardware onboard vehicles. Rather, by providing riders with more accurate data and a seamless mobile app, agencies can improve the rider experience. 

“Our mission is to help people get around cities without using their own car,” said David Block-Schachter, chief business officer, Transit. “Providing accurate real-time information in an easy-to-use app is key to giving riders the best experience possible. Too often, bad transit data leaves riders stranded. But when agencies switch to Swiftly, we always see a big improvement in data quality, along with a drop in rider complaints. Swiftly and Transit have been recommending each other for years. Announcing this partnership makes it official, so transit agencies and riders know where to go for the best real-time information.” 

With Transit, riders see nearby options and departure times in big text and bright colors. Users can easily navigate their city, aided by accurate real-time bus ETAs and trip planning, plus step-by-step navigation with Transit’s GO feature. Transit brings multimodal options from different operators together into one app, including public transit, carshare, ridehail, bikeshare and scooters.  

And with Swiftly, transit professionals get up to 30 percent more accurate real-time predictions, allowing them to provide passengers with quality information, according to the company. Swiftly is a transit reliability platform that lets agencies analyze their transit systems and see it in real time in new ways.  

The partnership builds upon existing collaborations between Swiftly and Transit in cities including Boston, San Jos, and Baltimore, with Swiftly powering real-time predictions for agencies that have officially endorsed Transit as the best app for riders. Swiftly sends updates every few seconds. This new partnership will extend the same information and rider experience to more cities. 

“Swiftly was founded to help transit agencies provide high-quality real-time information for their riders,” said Jonathan Simkin, CEO of Swiftly. “This is extremely important because many studies have shown a strong correlation between real-time information and overall rider satisfaction. Beyond information quality, our agency partners often ask, who has the best app to get this information in the hands of riders? And the answer for us is easy: Transit. We are thrilled to formalize our partnership with Transit so that we can ensure that all of our partners have access to the top transit app in North America.”