Press release: Yuba-Sutter Transit goes live with Google Transit trip planner

Trillium recommends for our clients to conduct press outreach following the launch of Google Transit.  Yuba-Sutter Transit provides a great example of a press release disseminated about two weeks after Google Transit launched for the agency.

25-April-2011 — Yuba-Sutter Transit’s local and Sacramento route and schedule information is now included on Google Transit and Google’s Trip Planner is now available on Yuba-Sutter Transit’s website. Passengers provide the trip origin, destination and travel time and Google Transit does the rest. The Yuba-Sutter Transit Trip Planner will provide transit options for trips anywhere in the Marysville/Yuba City urban area and throughout the greater Sacramento area.

From the Yuba-Sutter Transit home page at www.yubasuttertransit.com, simply enter the necessary information in the Trip Planner by either street address, cross streets or major landmarks along with the trip date and desired arrival or departure times – for same day service or many weeks in advance. The Trip Planner will then display several options from which to choose. Each option will include directions to and from the nearest bus stop; applicable route numbers including any transfer information; and, total travel times for each trip option.

Yuba-Sutter Transit offers fixed route service in the local area and to downtown Sacramento, but Google Transit includes one-stop transfer information for trips throughout the region as Sacramento Regional Transit, Yolo County Transit and others are included in the Trip Planner. As a result, potential riders no longer need to consult bus and rail schedules from two or three different transit operators. In fact, Google Transit will even provide transit options for trips well outside of the region (to the Bay Area and beyond) by way of Amtrak connections in downtown Sacramento.

This exciting new tool was made possible through a Caltrans program to help smaller transit agencies provide convenient and accessible forms of transit schedule information. Such information on transit options improves the overall quality of service and encourages casual users, non-locals and social service agencies as well as regular transit riders to make greater use of public transit services.

Contact Keith Martin at (530) 634-6880 for more information.