Siesta Breeze Trolley live app in the works

Riders of the Siesta Key Breeze Trolley will soon be able to catch the trolley in a more timely manner thanks to an upcoming mobile app.

Breeze stops along the Key are already relatively frequent, running from The Village at Siesta Key to Turtle Beach, though riders do not always know exactly when to expect the next Breeze to arrive.

But in January, the Breeze’s private vendor began to construct an app that will allow riders to live-track the trolley’s location.

“The new trolley contractor has [an app] that's pretty close to being done,” Interim SCAT Director Rob Lewis said at a February Siesta Key Condominium Council meeting. “They’ve also been honing their ability to look in real-time with cameras on the trolleys from the contractor’s office.”

While the app itself is still in the testing phase, SCAT Communications Specialist Lisa Potts says the Android version is close to launching. Programming for Apple, she said, is harder and will take a little longer.

No launch date has been released by SCAT. However, it is expected to function similarly to SCAT’s live-tracking feature once it’s released.

“[The app] is going to be somewhere in the aspect of how our SCAT tracking app works, where you can see where a stop is and it will give you an approximate time before it gets there,” Potts said. “It will also have landmarks in there so you can see what restaurant you’re in and it can give you a better idea of where you are … that way it’s also a tool for tourists, because they don’t know the area.”