We’ve all been there; a strange city with public transit maps in a foreign language and nobody around that seems willing able to help (well, I know I have!).

Google has a solution with the Google Transit beta. This service currently covers 29 cities, with more being added regularly. Behind the scenes is the "Google Transit Feed Specification" which helps operators of public transport submit their route network to Google in a uniform manner.

What this means to us, is a simple to use transit planner, with the familiar Google interface and integration in Google maps.

Simply enter your starting address, end address and the time you want to arrive (or depart).

Google then displays the best public transit schedule for your trip. You get several options, and even the cost of the trip! You can click on any segment of the trip to see more details, or the location of that segment on the Google map.

You can then print the map, email it to yourself or grab a pen and paper and do things the old fashioned way.

At the moment most of the US networks on Google Transit are in California, but you also get DC, Vegas, Reno, Tampa, Honolulu, Austin, Eugene, Portland, Dallas, Hampton Roads (VA) and Seattle and Pioneer Valley (MA).

Hopefully Google will be working on other major cities, Japan is covered, but there is no Chicago, London or New York.

Some of the features I missed were to ability to email or SMS the word for word directions to your phone (at the moment it just emails a link to the map) so you’ll need to do a little cut and paste job to get them sent to you. The Google Transit beta is only available on your desktop, so those using Google Maps on the iPhone or a PDA/smartphone are out of luck (at the moment).

All in all another great Google tool, and hopefully one that will evolve into something that covers most public transit networks.

If you do need portable directions for public transit, I highly recommend using "MetrO", an application that covers over 400 public transit networks. Later this week I’ll give you a quick review of what it can do.

But in the meantime, check out Google Transit and let me know whether you find it will be able to help you on your trip(s)!