Every time I attempt to get directions from one rail station to another in Maps on iPhone or MacOS, I am given bus routes. It no longer seems to matter what I set as my preferred transit method. If I select only light rail and commuter rail, I am still given bus routes and I can't make sense of it.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13
Can you expand a bit on your question? In which city are you using Maps for this?
I tried to replicate your search between two of my local railway stations with and I was given the route by foot to the nearest station, and then by rail between the two stations.
I then went into Settings > Maps > Directions, and removed the tick from all the options for Public Transport in the Directions panel except for Bus. This is different to the the Preferred Type of Travel panel above, in which I had selected only Public Transport. Back in Maps I did the same search again and I was given the route between the two railway stations by bus.
Perhaps you are getting only the bus routes in your search for the same reason?
Another option, of course, is to use the rail/public transport maps or the app issued for mobile devices from the local transport authority.
In Los Angeles I'm getting Bus directions between rail stations despite having the bus option de-selected. I've tried every combination of preference selections just to see if I could get a different result but I keep getting bus routes.
I should reiterate that this issue is consistent between iPhone and Mac OS so something seems off with way maps is flagging the routes in the database.
Hi, I did a search between Highland Park station and Heritage Square station (both on the Gold line). The result was a bus route. However, when I went into the settings as I described above and removed Bus from the list under 'Prefer Trips Using' I then was given a result using the rail line.
I don't know if this is of use to you but your Metro authority provides a link to their app and system maps here.
For the search using two of the railway stations on my line in Melbourne the result, as I mentioned, was by rail.
I seem to be able to get a rail route to load if the start and destination are on the same line but not if they are on different (but connecting) lines. I know I can use other apps for this... but that's basically the point. Every other map app is able to navigate the lines according to the chosen preference *except* for Apple Maps and this is a new problem that didn't exist brefore.
Yes, I get that also. I did another search Heritage Square station to Vermont/Beverly station and the trip was by bus.
However, for my rail network I did a search for two stations on different lines (all ours are connected) and the entire journey was by rail using the connecting station.
We have to conclude that the data Maps uses for the Los Angeles public transport network is incomplete, and therefore is giving sub-optimal results.
I have to add too that my search was for heavy rail, not our trams (aka light rail) so perhaps that is a factor? I understand your rail network is of the light variety. A search I did of two connecting tram lines in Melbourne gave me a journey on both lines using the connecting stop (which also noted the very brief walk at the road intersection).
It seems to have this issue now with both light and heavy rail lines (we have both depending on the destination). Seems like something went wrong with a data migration because I've regularly relied Apple Maps for this type of navigation until now.
It's something Apple up the road from you needs to work on. Feedback - Maps for iOS and iPadOS - Apple
Metro Transit Preferences not working
