The Maryland Transit Administration is making two new improvements that should help riders track buses and trains more reliably.

The agency is covering the cost of premium access for all riders to a real-time vehicle tracking app. Also, the MTA announced this week that nearly all of the buses in its fleet now have a second antenna for improved GPS tracking. Officials say they are excited about the upgrades — as are these seemingly AI-generated crabs:

Transit, a third-party mobile application, displays real-time location tracking for transit vehicles across the world. Here in Baltimore, users can check the app to see when the next bus, light rail, subway, Charm City Circulator and even Harbor Connector ferry will arrive. It also began showing real-time detour information for Baltimore buses last year.

With the upgraded app tier, known as Transit Royale and functional as of this week, riders now have access to real-time maps and vehicle tracking for the entire system and not just transit lines in their immediate vicinity. It should mean more certainty for riders who need to transfer to get to their final destinations — they can track the second (or third) leg of their ride during the whole trip.

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The state Board of Public Works last week approved the upgrade, good for three years at a cost of $1.8 million. More than 100 transit agencies, including the Regional Transit Agency of Central Maryland that operates in Howard, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, had entered into similar agreements with the company as of last year.

“By providing free access to Transit Royale, we are ensuring our riders have access to the best tools and features available,” Maryland Transit Administrator Holly Arnold said in a press release. “This is just one example of our commitment to innovation and excellence in public transit.”

The agency expects bus tracking through the Transit app to improve, thanks in part to the additional antennas they are installing.

Until recently, MTA buses each had only a single antenna, and mechanical or technical issues with those antennas could, at times, result in “ghost buses” that went offline and could not be tracked via the Transit app.

The opposite also occurs: The Transit app will, at times, display a moving bus that isn’t actually in service. The second antenna should increase GPS redundancy and allow buses to report their locations more frequently, resulting in more accurate arrival predictions, the agency said.

Installation of the second antennas on the MTA’s fleet of 810 buses is about 90% complete, according to an agency spokesperson, and should wrap up by the end of this month.