You can now plan a journey with public transportation for select cities

Sep 11, 2014 20:53 GMT  ·  By

The Bing Maps Preview app for Windows 8.1 received a new update this morning, getting route planning with public transportation options for select cities in the US, Canada, and the UK.

Basically, you can now plan a journey in a supported city via bus, train, or subway, all directly from the Modern UI of your Windows 8.1 device. Once you start planning your route, the app displays quite a lot of options, including routes, time, estimated departure and arrival.

Planning a journey isn’t too difficult and is very similar to what you can find in the Bing Maps service available in your browser.

“On your Windows 8 PC, simply pull up the transit experience within the app and enter the airport and destination. We’ll beautifully render a layout showcasing all the different options overlaid on a timeline,” Microsoft says.

“Now you can see how many transfers might be involved, how long the walk is to and from each stop and the overall travel time. Armed with this you can pick the best option for you. If you click into one of the listed options, you can learn more about the particular route – walking directions to your stop and estimated walk times.”

This new option is exclusively available in the Bing Maps Preview app, which is only offered to Windows 8.1 users, so unless you run this modern operating system, you can’t give it a try.