iSepta Has Landed!
Last night we officially launched our latest project, iSepta, "Simple SEPTA Schedules on the Go". Our goal was to make accessing the SEPTA regional rail schedules simple on your cell phone. Although iSepta was initially built for the iPhone, it works just as well on many mobile devices and even your laptop or desktop.
Our number one goal with this application was to make it as simple and intuitive as possible. Although SEPTA's presentation of schedules works great on paper pamphlets, it leaves something to be desired on mobile devices as you can see in the screen shot on the left. We decided to throw away any preconceived notions of how users should interact with train schedules and think we came up with sexy solution that you see on the right.
Features
- Start/Stop: Catching the next train is as easy as choosing your start and stop stations, which will return information for the next 5 trains.
- Recent Trips: Your five most recent trips you have planned will now show up on the home screen along with the next three trains for each trip.
- Route Numbers: The appropriate route number is now displayed with each train
Upcoming
- Route Names: This will really connect people with what they see at the station. So rather than displaying just "R5" with each train, soon we will display "R5 Thorndale/Paoli."
- Alert Notifications: SEPTA does provide realtime information on trains that are running late or have been cancelled which we will be integrating shortly into iSepta
One more thing...
Text message support! Simply text "iseptanow start station name to stop station name" to 41411 and receive the next 3 trains. For example, typing "iseptanow market to doylestown" will return the next 3 trains from Market East Station to Doylestown. You only have to type enough of the start and end stations to make it unique, so "iseptanow mark to doy" will also work.
Stay in the Loop
Make sure you keep up to date with what's going on with iSepta by subscribing to our RSS feed or following us on twitter. And as always, let us know what you think! Suggestions? Comments? Anything!
Credits
iSepta developed in partnership with the talented Mr. Tremblay who developed the awesome user interface. This project would not have been possible without Indy Hall where all of us met.
37 Responses to “iSepta Has Landed!”
Nice work! It’s a shame you can’t text ‘isepta’ to 41411. Heh.
This project is so great. I love the spirit and execution of it.
Thanks for the Indy Hall shout out!
Aw man, I woulda killed for this back in my philly days – Nice work! Now we need nyc to pick up the pace!
Randy, this is awesome!
Wow, congratulations guys! Really excellent interface. I bookmarked it and put in on my iPhone home page…plus it looks great in FF and Safari on my Mac.
Really nice work. Thanks!
Incredible work! The interface is top notch. You take away all the distractions and only show what needs to be seen. All the information on the screen is pertinent. No more, no less. Fantastic.
Congrats!
Septa needs to step in to the 21st century, this helps that along in a great way.
Thanks
Congrats on rolling isepta out!
You guys rocked on this project. It fills a giant void.
This is great even if you are one of the huddled masses (as I am) without an iPhone. SEPTA’s schedules give me such a headache. Congrats!
Fantastic piece of work! Congrats on launching it… version 2.0 request… automatically figuring out multi-part trips (How do I get from Wynnewood to North Philadelphia?)
Sick, dudes. Congrats on everything. Excellent work.
Slick! Can’t wait to test the text messaging.
Wow, good stuff here! Thank you so much!!
Freaking awesome. But aren’t there a bunch missing? No Pattison station, for example…
Love it. Another version 2 request: tell me if my train is on time or is delayed.
Is the implication that those of us who take the bus and frequently find ourselves waiting in the cold cannot afford an iPhone or fancy mobile device? Because, I’ve gotta tell you, I own a Blackberry and a Transpass and would really like to know when the 57 is coming…
this is great, but for someone who doesn’t know the system already. . .how about an interactive map that can drill down to the schedule? maybe too much for mobile?
but seriously, great job.
Awesome!
Seconding the feature request: BUSES BUSES BUSES!!!
Congratulations! Looks great
3rd on the bus request – this is great, but bus schedules would be key. Would finally give me the justification for buying an iPhone.
Now if we can just get SEPTA to put in a system for passengers to get real-time info on the next vehicle coming, like in Portland.
finally something 2.0 from Philly I can be proud of. Great work. Two of my favorite things, trains and wicked lovely user interface. Really thanks, I really am kinda proud.
Yow! Amazing job! So needed – simple, clean, pretty, easy, and fast. You guys rock.
fanfreakintastic work folks. i’ve been lovin on this for a while, now it’s fully hot!
Happy to see this make prime time – congratulations! Now I get to show it off to my train-commuting colleagues, too.
Great work, folks!
Looks fantastic. Almost makes me wish I commuted.
The app looks great, guys. SEPTA and a lot of other transit agencies should be falling over each other to hire you to replace their sites with this.
this looks great but one think is a must is adding just adding to look at the schedule. I’m sure people know were they’re going and end point but just need to see the next train that comes threw 30th. Next would be going to the part of the schedule that would match the time. Eitherway, this could be a great project to show to septa and have them pay to the dev time. (assume they aren’t already)
Amazing stuff guys. Nothing like citizen hackers making Philadelphia a better place to live.
Wow. Great work guys. I really like the trip schedule graphic so I can see intermediate stops also. Now if it just had fare info also:)
Have you seen Google Transit [http://www.google.com/transit] They don’t have Philly coverage yet. Maybe that could be your next project. Or making a iPhone interface to it.
Fantastic job! The interface is incredible. The temptation with something like this is to do too much and you end up with too many options and usability sufers (see Septa’s “Plan My Trip”!) You guys have kept it simple and user-friendly. I’ve been fooling around with something functionally similar to this, but it’s light years behind yours. http://phila3d.com/septa/pick.php It contains some bus data for 23, 55, C bus, and BSS, weekdays only. Since manual entry was so intensive I only entered data for lines I cared about. If you get an error, that data probably hasn’t been entered yet. For me, bus information is a huge need; most train stations have schedules or signs, but for buses you’re outta luck. I’d rather not wait forever for a bus if I don’t have to. Again, excellent work!
Congrats to Umlatte on such a hugely successful application and launch!
There is a great interview of the founder of Umlatte about iSepta at Philebrity:
http://www.philebrity.com/2008/05/20/exclusive-technologicology-special-report-after-yesterday-no-one-will-ever-again-wait-for-septa/
I don’t see Pattison station listed as an option? Am I missing something…
Same thing I said, Leah! There seems to be a bunch missing…
Man, this is awesome, I constantly use septa to get from newark to philly and back, now if you guys can manage to incorporate trainview that would be swell, trainview shows ontime or late etc.
I just tested it today (5/21/08) using IE6.0 on WinXP platform and I don’t see any images of the map, schedules or anything (just small hash marks where the stations are supposed to be).
There’s no Broad and Pattison because the app is only for regional rail—no bus, subway, or trolley info (and no trips that involve switching trains). Fingers crossed for these transit modes in the future.
Allow me to throw in my request for bus, trolley, and subway coverage. You guys did a great job with iSepta, and I want to use it, but I’m rarely on the regional rail.
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