Washington DC programming rockstar Zvi Band has just launched a cool new Web app called Metro Times. It allows you to send a text message (SMS) with the name of a metro station to an address and it will send back to you the times of the upcoming trains. It’s awesome.
What’d make this app even better is if it were a mobile web app and not just for SMS.
This site provides essentially the same content as the iPhone Web app Meenster. Metro Times is great for those who are iPhone-less.
This is cool. Bart Solowiej built a similar tool a little while back: http://www.traincheck.com
Zvi, you should connect with Bart as i’m sure you two will have something to talk about. facebook him and say Corbett gave you a heads up to reach out.
Peter Corbett
Nice, but yeah, traincheck’s been offering SMS->email train times for a while. My LastCall service for DCist did the same through an all-SMS interface, although I had to shut it down after a while. It should be relaunching as a Twitter bot in the next week or two, though.
Now if WMATA would just provide a bus-location API.
Thanks guys – I actually found out about TrainCheck long after initially writing metro times. Tom, I also saw LastCall, I’m sorry you had to shut it down!