Transit Uses Email Like a Hammer to Project Manage

It feels like we are rounding a corner here at TransitChat. We have really started to work on how we can solve problems rather than listening to issues our agencies are having. Together we have learned that agencies STRUGGLE with the separation of context throughout all of their systems. They are constantly asking what the latest version of the excel ridership report is. They are tracking down Paul from planning who knows where every stop has been for the past 20 years for his inside knowledge.

I think we have really come to understand our customers. We know that their institutional knowledge is the most valuable thing that they hold, but as my co-founder once said "I think these tools are getting in between us working together".

While this might seems like an insignificant realization is a powerful statement. The issues that we were facing as a company were that of complexity of our systems. We were talking, but the complexity of our system was generating more questions than it was answering.

We just need to come right out and say it. We are not competing with email. We are competing with all project management tools that do not have direct GTFS integrations. Our intent is to get agencies to understand and communicate better. And that does not necessarily mean that you need to be able to answer all of the questions, but for Mayor Pete's sake your team needs to know where to look.

We have often talked behind the scenes that we are just as much of an organizational tool as we are a communications tool and that is more prevalent to me to this day. So we are going to start comparing ourselves to such.

Email Integrations

Right off the bat, none of these tools are offering email integrations like we are. They cannot and will never be able to taking custom tags that will allow agencies to tag routes, stops and channels with the same email address. Our solution is far and away more simple to onboard your team with.

GTFS... Never heard of it

On top of not being able to use GTFS as a tool for any of these tools is a huge miss. You cannot run a historical documentation system without knowing the stop and routes on your system more or less the frequencies or time-points of routes. These are just things that we know that our competitors will never be able to offer transit agencies.

From the Beginning of Time

Other solutions are literally scrolling away from you. While you are interested in what was your team was up to yesterday. In any type of chat or to-do platform you are going to be scrolling your way through projects, items and to-dos. Some of which don't even give you five years of data until you hit their Enterprise plan.

Files are an afterthought

We here at transit chat know that our clients biggest gripe with working with email is that they often are just using it as a shared file system between departments and projects. This is a huge waste of time and money and other solutions really aren't that much better.

We know that conversations contain files and those topics, and assignment that are associated will as well. You need to be able to find your files and search for the source of truth and that just isn't an option on the current existing platforms.

We know that analysis is done and conversations need to be documented for every stop assessment and route realignment. Our goal is to make this easy to document and find when the time comes helping you build out a system of record that would rival that of the Library of Alexadria.

Time to Call It: We’re an Organizational Tool

TransitChat is a communication tool, yes — but it’s just as much about organization. So it’s time we start comparing ourselves to the usual suspects. Let’s talk about how we stack up against Asana, Monday.com, Microsoft Teams, and others:

📨 Email Integrations

None of these tools offer what we do.
Custom tags tied to routes, stops, and channels — all within a single shared inbox. That’s TransitChat. No third-party plugins. No weird workarounds.

🚏 Tagging your schedule information from GTFS

Planning and documentation without GTFS? Impossible.
We treat stops, routes, frequencies, and timepoints as first-class citizens. Our competitors don’t even know what they are.

🕰 A Record from the Beginning of Time

Other tools hide your history behind an Enterprise paywall.
TransitChat preserves your past. Five years ago? We’ve got it. Yesterday? Instantly accessible. You don’t scroll for answers — you search and find.

📎 Files Are the Story

Transit agencies don’t “attach” files — they pass them around like hot potatoes.
We get it. That’s why every conversation, topic, and assignment in TransitChat keeps your files exactly where they belong — in context.

📍 What About Where?

Your competitors aren’t mapping your history.
TransitChat is.
We let you attach issues to stops, track location changes, and actually understand what happened and why. Geography is context. And we don’t ignore it.

We’re Documenting Institutional Knowledge

Documentation isn’t a checkbox. It’s a lifeline.
You need to know what happened, why it happened, who decided it, and where to find it — years from now.

TransitChat helps you build that record. Not just for you, but for your entire team and the ones who come after.

So What’s Next?

We’re not just building software. We’re helping agencies reclaim their knowledge, streamline their operations, and work better — together.

If you're tired of duct-taping project management tools to a transit system they weren’t built for…
Let’s talk.