Google Maps groks New York public transit

Google Transit now offers directions for New York. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: CNET News)

It's too late to use it to get to T-Mobile's launch of the first phone using Google's Android operating system, but Google Maps now offers the ability to navigate using New York City's public transit system.

The online map service now has data from New York's Metropolitan Transit Agency, one of the largest, most complicated, and most widely used transportation systems. It includes data from buses and subways, the Long Island Rail Road, the Long Island Bus, the Metro-North Railroad, and the MTA Bus Company. And it connects to regional systems, including New Jersey Transit's commuter rail, light rail and bus service, the Staten Island Ferry, and the Port Authority's PATH Rail, AirTrain JFK, and AirTrain Newark.

So you can see one reason why more than 75 other public transit agencies made it in Google Transit first.

The service is available through Google Maps. Public-transit options will appear next to driving directions, and public-transit icons for locations such as subway stations will appear on the map, Google said.