MBTA General Manager Brian Shortsleeve said partnering with the app will ensure that customers have an “easy and convenient way to provide feedback” to the T. The official endorsement will also help lead more customers to use one particular program, in case they get overwhelmed by all the choices available.

Earlier this summer, the T held a contest to find the most helpful app out of dozens that exist to help you get around with the MBTA. This week, it chose to publicly endorse Transit App, a program made by a Montreal-based company.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority doesn’t have its own smartphone application to help you find the best way to use its system — but it does officially have a favorite app.


Jake Sion, director of strategy and development at Transit App, says the move will help the program — which includes real-time departure information, stop announcements, and trip planning — get more exposure.

“It’ll be very useful for us because the MBTA has a unique ability to market to their own customers,” he said.

Sion said the company is developing some new features for T users: For one, it will soon launch real-time trip planning, which will help guide customers to routes with the least delays.

And Transit App also wants to develop a way for customers to crowdsource their delays and problems, so people can avoid certain stations or routes. Think about it as Waze for transit.

The T has been a pioneer among transit agencies in giving developers access to its real-time information on departures and arrivals. As soon as it released that treasure trove of data seven years ago, developers created websites and smartphone apps to help pinpoint where your subway or your train is in real time. Sion said he’s excited to be part of that revolution.


“The MBTA has always been at the forefront of open data, and I think their approach for making data available has always been important and useful,” he said.

Carmen’s union fights privatization

The fight over privatization at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is just warming up, and the T’s largest labor group is gathering its members for battle on Monday.

After the MBTA’s board filed a report saying it could outsource driver and maintenance jobs, union officials are asking members to rally before a Monday fiscal and management control board meeting.

The Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589, the T’s largest labor group, put out a call out for a rally and “informational picket” in front of the State Transportation Building at 10 Park Plaza at 10:30 a.m.

James O’Brien, president of the union, said the labor group has tried to work with management and Governor Charlie Baker’s administration for months, but “it is time to make sure our voice is being heard.”

“We’ve known for months the T leadership sees privatization as some sort of magic potion to cure the decades of neglect and lack of funding, but last week’s report to the Legislature went beyond anything we expected,” he said in a prepared statement. “MBTA leadership wants to privatize the core mission of driving buses.”

In a report released this month, the board overseeing the MBTA said management is considering privatizing drivers and maintenance worker jobs — which could be the largest privatization effort at the MBTA by Baker’s administration to date.


The report cited bus operations and maintenance as a potential target of privatization, which could affect hundreds of jobs: The MBTA has 450 bus maintenance workers and 1,700 full- and part-time bus drivers.

Asked specifically about Monday’s rally, Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman, did not address the union’s plans, but said it is incumbent on T management to find areas to operate more efficiently.

Efforts to outsource such “core services” of the agency will be met with noisy opposition — including some on the T’s own board. Brian Lang, a board member who also heads the UNITE HERE Local 26 hotel and food services union, expressed strong opposition to outsourcing bus driver and maintenance jobs.

Union officials say MBTA workers are being punished for decades of failure by management and the upper echelons of the T.

But the MBTA looks poised to use the labor group’s generous contracts against it: Already, officials have repeatedly mentioned that bus drivers at the MBTA earn some of the highest rates across the country. Under the current contract, bus drivers earning the top rate earn nearly $36 an hour, which beats most metro area agencies across the country — even those with higher costs of living.

Nicole Dungca can be reached at nicole.dungca@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ndungca.