To request a transit trip itinerary, follow the basic steps below. You can also click on the links within these steps to view details.

• Enter the Origin and Destination location information for your trip or Select From the Map.
• Or Select your Origin or Destination location from the (Or Select from Recent) drop down.
• Select the date of your trip and the arrival or departure time. (Note: trip information is only available for the period of time up to ten (10) days after the current date.)
• Select your travel preferences from the Trip Options drop down.
• Select your Special Needs from the Special Needs drop down if any.
• Select the Carrier you prefer from the Carrier drop down, making sure to select a choice from the Select drop down.
• Select "Consider Park-N-Ride in Itinerary" if you would like to include Park-N-Ride options in your trip.
• Select Plan Trip (Note, if there is no transit within 5 miles of your selected Origin and Destination and only .5 miles for transfers, you will be prompted to edit your trip information.
• Review your itinerary results.

Entering the Origin and Destination location information for your trip itinerary is as follows:

• Address, Intersection, or Landmark (this field is required): Enter a specific address (e.g., 50 Wolf Rd), intersection (separated by a semicolon “;”, e.g., Madison Ave; 54th St) or a common landmark (e.g., Statue of Liberty).
• City (optional): Enter city name in the designated field. If New York is your city of choice, type the borough name for better results (e.g., Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island). If you are using a landmark for the address, leave the City field blank.
• State (optional): Select State from drop down.
• Zip (optional): Enter the Zip Code in the designated field. This entry will reduce the number of ambiguous addresses where a roadway runs through several Zip Codes within a city.

Enter the trip date and arrival or departure time as follows:

• Start date (required): Click on the calendar icon . It is important to select the correct date you expect to begin your trip since 511NY Transit Trip Planner uses weekdays, Saturday, Sunday, and other special schedules from the fixed route transit providers in the region to process your itinerary results. (Note: trip information is only available for the period of time up to ten (10) days after the current date.)
• Time (required): Choose the time based on your required arrival time or anticipated departure time by clicking one of the following options.
  • Arrival at
  • Leave after
  Based on the above selection, enter the required arrival time for your destination or the departure time (e.g., 6 in the first time entry field and 30 in the second time entry field to form "6:30" for example).
• Click either the AM or PM option for the above time. Below is an example of a completed time entry that represents a required arrival time of 6:30 AM:

All the fields in the Travel Options section of the 511NY Transit Trip Itinerary form are optional, which means you can leave the default selections as they are currently displayed. Otherwise, enter your travel or itinerary preferences as follows:

• Trip Options: Click on the drop-down list to select your itinerary prefrence:
  • Fewest transfers (Will provide trip information from your origin to your destination with the least amount of transfer options)
  • Fastest Itinerary (Will provide trip information from your origin to your destination for the fastest trip available, regardless of number of transfers. Up to 8 legs and seven (7) transfers are possible)
• Special Needs: Click on the drop-down list to select any special needs for your trip, e.g., wheelchair boarding.
• Select: Click on the drop down list to select your carrier preference for route consideration in the itinerary:
  • Any – Is the TranStar default and searches all carriers in the system.
  • Include – allows you to choose a specific carrier name to consider for at least one portion of the itinerary trip plan. Include will guarantee an itinerary with this carrier on at least one leg of the trip.
  • Exclude – allows you to exclude a specific carrier name from the itinerary trip plan.
  • Only – allows you to request a specific carrier name for the entire itinerary trip plan. Choosing the only option will yield a trip utilizing only the specific carrier selected.
• Carrier: Based on the Select carrier filter above, click on the drop-down list to pick the Carrier name to consider. The list contains all the carriers that are active in the 511NY Transit Trip Planner System.
• Consider Park-N-Rides in Itinerary: Click on the check box to include Park-N-Ride options in your Itinerary.
• After completion of the Travel Options, select Submit to see the results of your itinerary request.

• Plot Origin / Destination: Clicking on the map once at a particular geographical location displays a popup that enables you to plot your origin and destination. Selecting the radio button for origin/destination and clicking Plot Point, displays the origin as a green flag and the destination as a red flag, indicating the origin and destination that you would like to use for your transit itinerary.
• Select the date of your trip and the arrival or departure time.
• Select your travel preferences
• Select your Special Needs if any
• Select the Carrier you prefer
• Select "Consider Park-N-Ride in Itinerary"
• Select Plan Trip
• Review your itinerary results

511NY Transit Trip Planner generates an itinerary based on your request entries, starting with the first leg of your trip to your final destination. The Transit Trip Planner Itinerary includes the time that is needed for the first boarding point to your final destination. Transit Trip Planner strives to produce an itinerary with the least amount of walking distance when calculating an itinerary for the fewest transfers request.

Example Itinerary Result and Descriptions:

Each itinerary begins with a description of the selected starting point location where you board your first transit vehicle, (which is prefaced by “Depart…”). The itinerary results then show each leg of the trip, followed by the description of your final destination, as entered on the itinerary request. The following is an example of an itinerary result:

Depart at: 6.41 am
Go To: 50 Wolf Rd
Board: Cdta Bus #1/Greyhound Terminal, Adirondack Trailways line to NYC, Mta NYC
Transit/Sub Train #3/Nlts Ave
Arrive at: Wall st Station 2/3 at 10:37 am

Other options that are available from the itinerary results include:

• Get the Next Best Itinerary.
• Revise Trip: an option for creating a new Itinerary. If you select this option, the Transit Trip Planner data entry screen will display where you can modify your existing trip information.
• Return Trip: an option for creating a New itinerary. If you select this option, the Transit Trip Planner data entry screen will display where you can review and submit the return trip from your destination to your origin.
• Onward Trip: an option for creating a New Itinerary. If you select this option, the Transit Trip Planner data entry screen will display where you can create another trip that leaves from your original itinerary destination to a new destination.
• Create a New Trip: to complete a new itinerary request
• Carrier Fare / Schedule: Additional Carrier Information: a link to the selected Carrier website and to view additional carrier details
• Get Walking Map: to display a local area map, which displays the walking route based on your selected trip origin and destination, including any transfer points. The options to show the walking map from the starting location or destination are available for selection from the Walking Map list.

• Overview map: The overview map is displayed in the bottom right corner of the map. It helps orientate you by showing the location of current map view in context of a larger geographical area. The area currently displayed in the map is shown as a purple 3D box in the overview map.
  To show or hide the Overview Map window, do one of the following:
  • Click to hide the overview map or Click to display it again.
  • When you pan or zoom in the map, the overview map view changes accordingly.
  • To change the existing view in the map you can drag and drop the purple box in the overview map, or drag and drop the area outside the purple box to pan the map.
• Pan: To move the map, click and drag the map
• Arrows: the appropriate arrow buttons to move the view north, south, east or west.
• Zoom: Click + to zoom in on the center of the map. Click - to zoom out.
• Zoom Slider: Drag the zoom slider up or down to zoom in or out incrementally.

The address location can be specific address, cross streets or intersections, or a common landmark.

For example, you can enter any of the following types of address locations:

• A specific address (123 E Main St for example).
  If the address includes a direction, ALWAYS enter it prior to the street name, and ALWAYS abbreviate it, such as N, S, E or W. The Street type should always follow the street name, using common abbreviations, such as St, Blvd, Ave or Pkwy. Numeric streets must ALWAYS contain the proper suffix in order to be considered a street name (230 63rd St for example).
• An intersection (Lexington Ave AND 42nd St for example).
  The names of two intersecting streets may be separated by any of the following qualifiers: "AND", "OR", "OPP", ",","@", or "&". Using any of these qualifiers assumes that the words before and after the qualifier can be found in the 511NY Transit Trip Planner street system.
• A common landmark (Grand Central Terminal or Grand Central for example). Landmarks can easily be found for either your origin or destination by using a combination of the "?" (Question mark without quotes) as the wild card qualifier and a keyboard (or partial keyboard) to search for valid landmarks within the 511NY Transit Trip Planner system.

  For example, to search for all available landmarks that:

  • Type a keyword or partial keyword followed by "?"
    For example, Penn? Will return all landmarks beginning with Penn. If you enter Grand C? As another example, all landmarks beginning with Grand C will be listed. Complete the rest of the itinerary form and click Submit. After the submission, the first 100 landmarks that match your selection will appear alphabetically in a list; such as Penn Station Newark or Pennsylvania Station, where you can select a complete entry.
    
  • Type a "?" followed by the keyword(s):
    Type "?" before the word or phrase, complete the rest of the itinerary form and click Submit. For example, entering "?Shopping Center" will return all landmarks that end in Shopping Center. After the submission, the first 100 landmarks that match your selection will appear alphabetically in a list where you can select a complete entry for the landmark. City, State, and Zip Code information will automatically populate if available.
    
  • Type a Keyword enclosed with "?" anywhere in the landmark name:
    Type a keyword, but enclose the word with "?" to look for a landmark that contains this keyword. You may enter a keyword, short phrase, or string of letters between two question marks to look for all landmarks that contain the word, phrase, or string of letters. In one example, to find all landmarks that contain the word college; type in "?College?"; complete the rest of the itinerary form and click Submit. After the submission, the first 100 landmarks that match your selection will appear alphabetically in a list where you can select a complete entry for the landmark.
    

• Entry of a City name is optional and you would leave this field blank if you are using a Landmark for the location. However, when you enter a City for other types of location information, the City entry reduces the number of ambiguous choices that might be presented after submission.
• If your location is valid, but not found in the city you entered (as certain community names may not be recognized by the 511 NY Transit Trip Planner system), you will be provided a list of valid cities for your location for selection.
• If you entered New York as the City and it was not recognized, enter the appropriate borough name instead. For example:
  Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island.

• What if there is no transit stop within 1/2 mile of the starting location?
  511NY Transit Trip Planner examines all transit stops within 1/2 mile of your starting location. If there is no transit stop within this distance, it will select the next nearest stop within five miles of your starting location. The calculated itinerary may begin at any of these possible transit stops. If there is no transit stop within five miles of your starting location, select another location to begin your trip. If the recommended itinerary result does not provide your anticipated local Carrier to one of the segments of your trip it is possible that the specific carrier may not yet have their service data included in the 511NY database. A listing of currently participating carriers is available at the Carrier drop-down list, the link is available on the 511NY Transit Trip Planner Web page.
• What if more than one location is found in the system that matches your request?
  If the Transit Trip Planner system finds more than one location which matches your request, the system displays a list of choices for selection. If you cannot determine which location to choose, enter a nearby intersection rather than a discrete address, and then try another intersection such as a known transit stop intersection, or use a nearby landmark.
• How 511NY Transit Trip Planner calculates the fastest trip or the trip with the least amount of walking for transit stops within 1/2 mile of your final destination:
  The 511NY Transit Trip Planner system examines all transit stops within 1/2 mile of your final destination. The calculated itinerary may end at any of these possible transit stops. The system takes the distance from the last stop to the final destination into consideration by applying a moderate walking rate for requests for the fastest trip or the trip with the least walking. This rate applies more time to trips with greater distances. If there is no transit stop within a 1/2 mile of your destination, no itinerary will be generated and error message will be generated.