How to use HERE Transit on Windows Phone 8

Navigating around any large city via a public transit system can often seem intimidating. Even if it’s a city you’re familiar with. HERE Transit is at hand to help you on your journey, and here’s how you use it.

For Nokia Lumia

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HERE Transit

Other Windows Phone 8

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HERE Transit (free)

HERE Transit (paid)

The first place to start is to make sure you’ve installed, or updated to, the latest version of HERE Transit on your Nokia Lumia with Windows Phone 8. You can do that by scanning the relevant QR code on the right with your phone.

HERE Transit is laid out in a simple to follow panorama view so you can easily slide from left to right to find plan your next public transit journey.

Plan Route

Starting at the Plan Route pane, you can jump straight into planning a journey by selecting the time you want to depart or arrive. If you don’t have to travel until tomorrow or next week, there’s also the option to add those details in the planner.

More often than not, you’ll need to know how to get somewhere from your current position. Whenever you launch HERE Transit it will look for your position and insert it for you into the From entry box. When it comes to your destination, you’ll need to input that yourself by typing in the location into the To box.

For future reference, you’ll be reminded of any location you enter in either box the next time you go to look for an address. This makes it easier for those repeat journeys we have from time to time.

 

Once you’ve entered when you’re travelling, where from and where to, tap the Let’s go button to see the public transit options.

Deciding which route you wish to take is simple. The planner lays out in a really clear way what the time is with a darkened nowsection at the top which informs you of any journeys you’ve just missed.

In addition to this timeline, several routes are provided for you to decide which is best or more suitable for you. These routes are organised horizontally, using the colour coding, number or naming system that the local public transit system uses to help you identify at a glance the right transit line to take.

Each route can consist of a number of parts. If you need to walk to a station, or between stops, you’ll be shown a walking icon. If part of the journey includes a bus journey, this will be shown in light blue. Whichever route is right for you, you’ll be shown the journey time beneath the route.

 

If this is a route you might be taking regularly, you can pin the route as a tile to your Start screen for easy access at a later date.

Once you’ve decided on which route you’re going to take, selecting it will detail every step of the way.

Tap the Show map icon at the bottom to see the route on a map.

The map shows the starting point, any train or bus routes you may have, and includes all the stops that they stop at.

If HERE Transit is letting you know you need to walk to the station, tapping on the walking section at the bottom of the screen will bring up the Start navigation button – this will help by providing you with turn-by-turn navigation to the station.

The same will happen at the other end of your journey. Once you’ve left the station HERE Transit can help you get right to the door of your destination.

Here’s a tip: create a journey to your home and pin it to your Start screen. The next time you’re out and looking for a way to get home, tap that tile – the destination point won’t change, but the starting point will.

Nearby

Besides planning a journey, HERE Transit is also great for finding nearby train stations or bus stops.

At the main screen, slide to the Nearby pane to see a little map of your current location that also includes a number of local stops/stations.

This is especially useful if you’re interested in knowing what time a particular bus is due to leave a particular bus stop.

By tapping on the map you can see a broader view of the local area and where all the stations/stops and transit lines are.

 

Favourites

If you’re a regular user of HERE, you’ll have probably collected a number of favourite locations from HERE Maps, HERE Drive andhere.com. These are automatically synced into HERE Transit to make it easy to find the places that really matter to you.

Tapping on any of your favourites will open up a journey planner detailing how to get there from your current position. Although, you can change the starting point by typing in another.

History

If you’ve created a journey using HERE Transit, it’ll appear here. This is particularly useful when looking back at your previous journeys or searches but when you can’t remember the details.

HERE Transit is available in 740+ cities in 50+ countries. Keep in mind that some countries strongly rely on departure schedules, while others have only frequencies, others don’t even have bus stop names, so the info shown may vary depending on your part of the world, however the experience/way of using HERE Transit won’t change.

Download HERE Transit today and tackle the public transit system with ease.