Uber's New 'Make My Train' Feature Is a Blessing for Suburban Commuters

Listen up city dwellers: You don't just "grab an Uber to the train station" when you're car-less in the suburbs. You wake up at the crack of dawn, check 60 ride hailing apps to find out how many minutes it takes, blow-dry one side of your head, leave the stove on, and still miss the hourly commuter train by 30 seconds. 

Thankfully, while city folks are out of the know, Uber seems to be picking up on the trend. According to a blog post by the company, it has designed a functionality called "Make My Train" to help the hair situation and keep your house from burning down. It allows you to schedule your ride in a way that's informed by real-time traffic and transit data.

Uber was inspired to make this functionality after noticing that users were often "opening their Uber app and entering their train station as their destination to see how long were the ETA, how long it would take them to get to the train station given ever-changing traffic conditions and of course whether the train was delayed." 

So far, the function is only available for travelers using Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in New York and Caltrain in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's how it works: When you punch in a station, the "Make My Train" option function comes up immediately. The feature lets you see train schedules at your station, select which train you want to make, choose how long before the train leaves you'd like to arrive at the station, and schedule the ride. It's as easy as burning your house down. 

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