Hamilton transit riders can track buses in real-time again, after pause due to cyberattack

Hamilton transit riders are once again able to see real-time information on buses in apps like Google Maps, Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) said.

It's been about half a year since a cyberattack on the city knocked out that capability. On Sunday, HSR posted on X, sharing the update and noting that their in-house tools including the HSRnow app and the bus check phone line are still offline.

As of Tuesday afternoon, several routes were displaying real-time data in the Transit app, but othersstill only showed scheduled times.

When the real-time information was down, riders using third-party map or transit apps could see when buses were scheduled but not if they were going to be early or late.

On Tuesday, provincial transit agency Metrolinx announced another piece of transit tech news. iPhone and Apple Watch users are now able to use Presto cards on their device's wallets.

Riders can convert their existing physical cards, or buy new digital cards. Metrolinx said the cards will continue to work for about five hours even if the device's battery is dead.