This post was written by Senior Staff Writer Gabrielle Bluestone.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority announced last week it has made route and schedule information for its bus and rail services available online, allowing riders to plan trips online and check real-time arrivals.

Metro’s Web site also offers bus and rail service status, elevator and escalator status, a station finder and a trip planner tool that plans routes by bus, rail or both. These services are also available on internet-enabled cell phones.

The newly-released data can now be used by web developers to use in third-party applications. This may signal an addition of D.C. Metro to Google Transit, a popular Web application run by Google that plans trips using public transportation. Though 115 transit agencies are represented on the site, at this time Google Transit only provides driving directions in the D.C. area.

Metro has also expanded it’s Circulator bus service, adding two more routes that will take passengers to Adams Morgan and Navy Yard. The Adams Morgan route will originate at McPherson Square, and will run untill 3:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturday.

A map of the new routes can be found here.