Google Maps gain Transit layer for selected cities (Updated)

Stephen Withers
Friday, 16 January 2009 07:57

Business IT - Networking

UPDATE: Google now says the inclusion of Melbourne was 'inadvertent'.

"Overnight, some grey lines between publicly known Melbourne tram stops were inadvertently superimposed on Google Maps on the 'Transit' layer. They're being removed as they don't represent actual tram routes," said Google spokesperson Rob Shilkin.

"However, our users tell us that they're keen to see Melbourne public transport information on Google Maps, so we'd love to incorporate it as soon as possible and are working towards this," he added.

The list of cities shown on the Google Lat Long Blog has been revised to exclude Melbourne.

When iTWire checked on Friday afternoon, the Transit option was no longer available when viewing maps of Melbourne.

Some tram lines had been removed from the maps but others were still visible. Even where the lines had been removed, the stops were still shown.

Asked to clarify his previous statement, Shilkin said "Neither the Transit layer in google maps or Google Transit are available for Melbourne yet."