The frustration of wondering when your bus will show up may soon be a thing of the past.

The MBTA recently began releasing much of its bus-tracking data for major routes, including Brookline's 66. Within just a few months, numerous applications have sprung up that allow riders to access real-time information on when the next bus will arrive at any given stop.

Joshua Robin, director of innovation for the T, said the public release of much — but not all — the tracking information was a logical next step for Boston bus riders.

"There's no more important information for a bus rider than to know when a bus is coming," he said.

The tracking information is available through various third-party applications. Among them is justhopon.com, which provides riders with text messages to relay service information specific to each stop along any given T bus line. The raw data can also be found at nextbus.com, which is the vendor for the T's — and now the public's — feed for the information.

The public release of bus-tracking information in Boston actually began as an offshoot of the Silver Line's tracking system in 2002, when all Silver Line buses were equipped with GPS systems. The T began equipping buses with GPS systems in 2009 and released the first bus-tracking data last November.

Robin said the T has made a point to release the raw data gradually. The MBTA is relatively new at bus tracking compared to other cities, he said, and staff members in its Bus Operations Center are still working out kinks in the system, including adjustments for holiday schedule changes.

Steve Jones, who was waiting for an Allston-bound 66 bus in front of Citizens Bank on Harvard Street on the afternoon of July 1, agreed that Boston's traditional bus schedules are behind the times.

"I would say it's 15 percent accurate versus other cities," he said as the bus arrived. He said he had been waiting for that bus for about 15 minutes.

Sitting on the steps of Temple Kehillath Israel, Aaron Raeuber was waiting for a bus en route to Mission Hill. He said he doesn't have a smart phone so the tracking info is of little use to him, but said he plans to use the tracking information for the 66 as soon as he upgrades his cell.

"I would use it to get to work for sure," he said.

There are still a few bus lines not publicly available. Robin said the T plans on having all bus data public by summer's end.

"We're still in beta phase right now," he said. "But riders won't need to suffer in the cold or the heat any longer."