After more than a year of collaboration with Google, the city of Pueblo is presenting a tool that makes it easier for residents to use bus service.

Google Transit, which debuted last week, allows riders to find the nearest bus stop and quickest route to their destination, said Alan Neff, the streets supervisor for Pueblo Transit, who along with the city's information technology department was behind getting Pueblo's bus routes integrated into the Google system.

Passengers who have access to the Googles Map app on their smartphone can plan their trips with the app. As with driving maps, the app requires a starting and ending point, and a tab with a trolley icon shows the Pueblo Transit options.

The process was worth the wait, Neff said.

"It's a slow process. Nothing goes fast at Google," Neff joked. "The process was done through uploading information from our bus tracking software and it being converted to a file that Google can accept. Then they create that on Google Maps for the public."

The transit department is hoping that Google Transit makes things easier for its passengers and would increase ridership of the city's buses.

The city sees between 850,000 and 900,000 bus rides annually, Neff said.

"It's an additional tool," Neff said. "We hope it makes riding a little more convenient with them not having to make a phone call to try to find out where a bus will be, and it should free up our people from answering phones and trying to help people and putting them on hold. It'll help us perform our services better as well."

Neff said bus ridership numbers have stayed strong in Pueblo, even with the emergence of ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft.

"I personally don't see it here," Neff said when asked if Uber and Lyft has had any negative impacts on bus ridership. "In bigger cities it might, but I don't think it plays a role here in Pueblo.

"We thank the riders we have, the loyal riders we have, and we just want to do our job better and be more on time and get them safely to where they have to go."

rseverance@chieftain.com

Twitter: @RyanS_Chieftain