Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone
iSepta gives iPhone users Philly transit insight
iSepta, a new iPhone friendly site, has a limited audience, but to that audience (of which I am a member) it's a game changer. As I've mentioned once or twice here on TUAW, I'm a proud Philadelphia resident. As such I find myself using public transportation fairly frequently, which means I am forced to use SEPTA's website (that's the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, to you).
SEPTA runs, amongst other things, the Regional Rail, which connects Philadelphia to its suburbs with a series of train lines. iSepta lets you plan your trip from the comfort of your iPhone without having to visit the official SEPTA site, which is decidedly mobile-device unfriendly.
That's it. You're then presented with the next 5 trains that meet your criteria, as well as an option to view the weekday and weekend schedules. iSepta is even clever enough to simply swap your starting point and destination so you can quickly find out what time you need to be at the station to get back.
You can also text iSepta with your starting point and end point and it will text you back with the next 3 trains.
At the moment iSepta only offers up schedules for the Regional Rail, so users of Philadelphia's various other forms of public transportation are out of luck. The site also lacks SEPTA's up to the minute status about cancelled trains and late arrivals, but the developers are working on adding that.
If it seems like I'm gushing here, that's because I am. iSepta is such a vast improvement over SEPTA's website that I'll be using to get all the info I need about the Regional Rail schedule whether I'm on my iPhone or at my Mac.
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
schrysco said 5:14PM on 5-19-2008
The fact they're something called "iSepta" blows my mind. Time to take the R5 to broad & pattison!
E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!
Reply
twoeightnine said 11:34PM on 5-19-2008
That's impressive. How do you get the regional rail train down onto the subway tracks?
yatesy said 5:17PM on 5-19-2008
that is awesome! for one septa is doing something right! i cant wait for them to add all the bus schedules too!!! awesomenessss!
Reply
Dan Callahan said 5:31PM on 5-19-2008
Finally, no more having to hunt down maps or use their awful website.
Reply
leonwestbrook said 7:13PM on 5-19-2008
They need something similar for NYC...or do they?
Reply
scott said 6:07AM on 5-20-2008
mta.info is optimized for the iphone.
Jake.VO said 8:12PM on 5-19-2008
Do they have a setting to determine if a train will be late due to leaves on the tracks?
Reply
Joseph - gethurt.com said 8:19PM on 5-19-2008
I love this!
Reply
squasha said 8:32PM on 5-19-2008
Yesss! I have always gotten confused with SEPTA's regional rail even though I rode the R5 as a kid all the time. Scott, you are awesome, with ga$$ where it is I am thrilled to know another thrifty yet amazing use for miphone. Now I can get to da trains on times.
Reply
Joe Sak said 8:41PM on 5-19-2008
How convenient that I'm visiting Philadelphia this week!
Reply
Todd Sieling said 8:53PM on 5-19-2008
Wow - that's beautiful. I wish something like that existed for Vancouver. I'd definitely pay for it.
Reply
adammm said 9:11PM on 5-19-2008
AMAZING. Out of all the major cities out there, I am thrilled that this happened in Philly so quickly... I feel like one of the lucky few.
Thanks for posting about this Scott!
Reply
chris.rossi said 9:22PM on 5-19-2008
wow. way to go SEPTA. you suck at many things but this gets you some points.
i'm happier to know there are many other riders here.
Reply
John said 10:49PM on 5-19-2008
go eagles.
Reply
nanodalek said 11:36PM on 5-19-2008
This might just be that think that makes me NEED to have an iPhone. Wow.
Reply
John said 10:24AM on 5-20-2008
They wonder why people don't use public transit.....
Half the battle is figuring out how the hell you are supposed to get where you need..
Kudos to apple and philly
come on for md/dc region, we need this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply
Brad Chmielewski said 10:44AM on 5-20-2008
Wow! What a great idea. I would love to see a Chicago CTA version.
Reply
Dave S said 3:41PM on 5-20-2008
As a freshly minted (read: just finished my masters program) planner, I LOVE this. Nice job Septa.
For what its worth, the njTransit.com site isn't bad, not iphone optimized but I use it All The Time.
Reply
Mark said 3:58PM on 5-20-2008
Don't give Septa too much credit here guys, as I believe this is a private project. Scott, can you confirm?
Reply
Tim McCarty said 7:50PM on 5-20-2008
Great. I hated working with their counterintuitive website when I was planning a trip out to my girlfriend's. What made it really complicated was that her place was only serviced by Amtrak, so I had to negotiate two train services, and give plenty of time for both Septa and Amtrak to be late. They both were fine, though.
What we really need is our "other" love affair company, Google, to do something. Their map system makes it intuitive to go from one place to another by car, and they have transit for a few places. What they really need to do is index all sorts of transit schedules (planes, trains, busses, etc) and fares and come up with an itinerary based on two locations. I guess the "right" thing to do would be to code it myself, but I'm not that smart. I know what I want, and I know it's possible. By my logic, that means it should exist.
Reply