The Apps on the Bus…

The long running go-to resource for planning journeys across The Capital is TFL’s Journey Planner website. The service supplied is satisfactory; enter your journey details; select any advanced options, such as fewest changes or via a certain station; and you’re presented with a number of options, each available in more detail when clicked upon. More recently there have also been a few apps appearing across smartphone app stores, such as Pubtran London for Android phones and London Tube for the iPhone, which have put the information supplied by TFL to good effect. This is a logical step as the service offered by Journey Planner would clearly be even more useful whilst on the go, although rather ironically the lack of mobile internet access on the Underground means the majority of these apps won’t work when you’re actually on the Tube.

Journey Planner has, for a considerable period of time, been the one and only credible option for journey planning and continues to be at the forefront, however, there is a new(ish) kid on the block and predictably internet giant Google is behind it. Google Maps has been around for a long time but recent upgrades to both the website and smartphone app mean they now support a public transport option, as well as the traditional driving or walking options, when you hit ‘Get Directions’. On the mobile app you are now also able to use your current location to determine the best way to get to your destination and on Android devices, because they’re part of the Google family, you can use the Transit Navigation feature to alert you when you need to make a transfer, change direction or have arrived at your destination.

If there was an obvious gap in TFL’s Journey Planner and Google’s services then it was the lack of information on buses, particularly up to the minute service information. When travelling around London via bus it is always a bonus when you arrive at a bus stop to find it has a screen offering you a list of the next few buses along with their expected time of arrival. Unfortunately very few bus stops in London actually have one of these screens (around 10%) and so most of the time you’re left waiting for a bus, clueless of when it might turn up and toying with the idea of taking a different one because even though it’s slower it has just turned up. However! This shall no longer be the case as the saviour of bus travellers everywhere (well London, at least) has arrived in the form of a new website and SMS service from TFL: Countdown. It offers live bus arrival information for every one of London’s 19,000 bus stops through an SMS service using bus stop codes or via the website. A similar SMS service already existed in cities such as Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester but none consisted of anywhere near the number of stops in London. The other side of the service, the Countdown website, is potentially more exciting; particularly if you own a smartphone or have access to the internet on the move. If you’re sat waiting at your regular stop, or a strange and unfamiliar one in deepest darkest Penge, then just navigate your way to the Countdown website (mobile optimised version available) and search for your bus stop via street, postcode, route number or bus stop code.

Despite the service seemingly working very well it is nevertheless a test version and no doubt does have some bugs lurking in it somewhere; TFL also say the service may be withdrawn for further upgrades and tweaks before the full launch in autumn. It will be around this time as well that they will be launching syndicated data feed to enable developers to create apps using the TFL supplied data, so keep your eye out for these.

Although Google maps doesn’t have live bus times it does have other advantages over TFL services. It has far superior maps for you to trace your journey on with Street View being incredibly useful for actually seeing what your destination or route looks like. It also has the benefit of showing traffic and weather where you’re headed, not to mention the businesses along the way.

Being a government service and their willingness to distribute their data that TFL are much less hungry for a slice of the journey planning pie than the insatiable Google. You would think this would slowly lead to the demise of the TFL services but because they’re Government run and provide a great deal of data it seems Google will just have to accept them as small but long-term rival.