Good day! I’ll be flying to Australia soon, and I’m interested in trying public transport (even if it’s good or not always good, I want to see what’s there). Which apps would you recommend?

// I’ve tried googling the question, but somehow get 20-minute videos with animated characters and nonsense like that. I think I’ll trust recommendations from this community by a lot more 💚.

I’ll be in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

  • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    3 days ago

    probably google maps unfortunately

    you can use the local public transport agency’s app (e.g. PTV app for melbourne) but google maps works equally well and works for all the places

    Under the hood Google maps uses GTFS (General transit feed specification) data for live transit routing, and there’s no reason other foss apps couldn’t use it but they’re not just implemented at the moment

    • vas@lemmy.mlOP
      4·
      3 days ago

      Oh wow, that’s a lot of useful information, huge thank you! Since as you’re indicating it’s the GTFS data underneath, I’ll try Moovit, which last time I checked worked even on my de-googlified phone (GrapheneOS without google services). Thanks again! 💚

      • vas@lemmy.mlOP
        3·
        3 days ago

        UPDATE: BTW, I’ve found some experimental support in CoMaps - supposedly, haven’t tried it https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/src/branch/main/docs/EXPERIMENTAL_PUBLIC_TRANSPORT_SUPPORT.md May be broken easily due to the experimental status of course…

        UPDATE2: Tried Moovit, it still works without google services, whoray! … And still asks money or fills me up with ads to the brim, also as before…

        UPDATE3: and it doesn’t allow putting GPS coordinates in the search field, unfortunately. This adds some churn if you’re switching between CoMaps and back…

        UPDATE4: actually in Melbourne, Moovit didn’t find anything. Google Maps does. Not sure why this happens. Google Maps in a browser tab is also an option if things get dire…