Excerpts from Uber Newsroom

 

Written byDavid Reich, Head of Uber Transit

2019 was a big year for the Uber Transit team. For the first time, Uber began to bring public transit data into the Uber app – launching Transit Journey Planning with real-time transit data in 15 cities around the world. We then went one step further by enabling riders to purchase and redeem their Transit tickets, right in the Uber app – in Denver and then in Las Vegas. Amazingly, in less than one year, more than two million Uber riders have tried the Uber Transit experience.

While we’ve scaled the Uber experience, we’ve been sure to keep riders front and center, getting input from thousands of riders about how we can do more to make their Transit experience better. One important theme that emerged centered around how stressful it could be planning their morning commute when it involved multiple modes – like using Uber to request a ride to the train. Riders were getting up early, bouncing between multiple apps, setting alarms and counting down the minutes to pull off a perfectly choreographed trip to make their train.

We dug into the data and found that these weren’t just random anecdotes; many riders were doing this all the time. Throughout the night and the following morning up to 45 minutes before actually getting a ride, we saw users opening their Uber app and entering their train station as their destination to see how long were the ETA, how long it would take them to get to the train station given ever changing traffic conditions and of course whether the train was delayed. It looked pretty stressful.

To help alleviate that stress, and to make your morning commute more seamless and more reliable, today we are launching  “Make My Train” functionality. 

Now when riders enter a train station on participating systems as their destination in their Uber app, they will automatically be prompted to “Make My Train.” This feature then allows riders to see train schedules at their station and to select the train they want to make based on real-time transit data. Riders then choose how long before the train leaves they’d like to arrive at the station, confirm, and Uber does the rest – ordering your Uber for you.*

In the app it just takes four easy steps:

  • Enter in the station name as your destination
  • Choose the train you want to take
  • Select your target dropoff time (or use our recommendation)
  • Schedule a ride in the Uber app (except UberPOOL) and we’ll pick you up and get you to your station

Media Assets Available here.

Starting today we are introducing Make My Train first on two of the largest commuter rail systems in the country: the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in New York and Caltrain in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over 300,000 people ride the LIRR every weekday and over 60,000 take Caltrain. Over 3,000 of these riders used the Uber app to connect to the LIRR last month and more than 1,300 used it to connect to Caltrain.

Making your train with the Uber app has never been easier, just don’t forget your coffee.

 

 

*All arrival times and prices are estimates. Transit information, prices, routes, and schedules are estimates and provided by a third party, and Uber cannot guarantee their accuracy or your on time arrival.

By CCNM

I have functioned as a Business and Media Consultant over the past sixteen years and spent many years developing my capacity to function in our ever evolving use of technology, communication, education and training.