
Live map of London Underground Trains - nkhumphreys
http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/
======
mocko
This is the kind of information which should be freely available for all
public transport. Tfl are a shining example of the right way to support
developer communities and help them bring better information in a multitude of
formats to the traveling public.

Tragically other data holders in the UK lag far behind.

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wal5hy
Weekend project of a friend and I uses live London Underground tube line
status to improve route planning. Its still in a very rough state, but
feedback of any kind would be very interesting to hear. Thanks.
<http://www.livetubemap.com/>

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archangel_one
Nice to have routing that takes live status into account, but it's a bit
limited since it only does station->station and doesn't do buses. Often if a
line is closed you're better off going to a different, nearby station and
walking or taking a bus rather than trying to get to the exact one you
normally do.

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wal5hy
That's a very good point and we want to add that feature. Is the fact that it
redraws the map based on the current state of the lines visually useful? I
would like to redraw the official tfl underground map

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archangel_one
Yes, I rather like it. In fact, with the appropriate lines removed, 90% of the
time I wouldn't even need it to navigate for me - and it's definitely good for
more fuzzy journey planning.

I can't see such a thing anywhere on their website, but in stations TfL often
have the inverse; a map showing the closures with the rest greyed out. I've
always felt that's the wrong way around.

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wal5hy
Thanks. We felt for London commuters just the live image of the map would be
enough to enable them to visualise their route. And for tourists/infrequent
users the added route planning would show them how and why they should take a
particular journey. You can also manually open and close stations/lines and
get instant feedback on how that effects the planned journey (although this is
mainly hidden in the UI)

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SiVal
I just watched one of the trains labeled "Northern train to unknown" derail
and run across Bloombury neighborhoods without need of rails until it ground
to a halt and vanished.

I have to wonder if Harry Potter was on that train....

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pixelcort
See also <http://www.demap.info/tetsudonow/> for Japan.

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bugsbunny4341
Indian Railways on Google Maps: <http://railradar.trainenquiry.com/>

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elemeno
It's a nifty idea, but sadly there's some problems either with the data, or
how the data is being handled - it's currently showing trains running on parts
of a line which are shut down for engineering work this weekend. (Northern
Line, Camden to Charing Cross). There's also a train running under Bloomsbury
without a line to run on...

So cool but not quite trustworthy!

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dracos
It's more a work of art ;-) I basically show the data I get, but I don't fully
understand it all - those Northern line trains all have a 477 id, which I
think may be ghosts or tests or something else. Trains can jump lines if
they're, for some reason or misparse, going straight from one station to
another much further down the line.

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anselm_eickhoff
Improvement suggestion: Interpolate between the transmitted positions for a
smoother animation. It's really difficult for me to detect movement directions
at something like 3Hz.

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spuz
That is exactly what is happening. The positions of the trains are only
available only every minute or so. I expect the animation speed is limited to
3fps due to performance issues.

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ImprovedSilence
I'm a huge fan of the Skyfall version. Very well done, cheers!

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dracos
Thanks :-) I like to think they'd seen my original version, who knows, so
don't mind my backport. Theirs was a bit snazzier, but far too empty for my
liking!

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miguelpais
>> "Live departure data is fetched from the TfL API, and then it does a bit of
maths and magic"

Even though this actual service is probably not so accurate, it does give an
interesting view on what the transportation information services can become in
the future!

The transportation companies probably do already have the data anyway...

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dreamfactory
Cool, would also be curious to see it mapped against the tube map as printed,
not geographically accurate.

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nchuhoai
this kind of information should be available all around the world. Love that
the tube has an API for that

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six
Good luck getting access to it though (especially the National Rail one), I
tried and failed.

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omh
The TFL tube and bus data is effectively open now. I think I actually applied,
but the URLs don't need any authentication and
[http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/syndication/16493....](http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/syndication/16493.aspx)
gives you everything you need to query it.

I know that National Rail is a lot more awkward though.

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LaSombra
It seems it changed from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap. I would like to
know/understand why.

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gala8y
Google Maps, above a certain threshold, is a paid service for websites. I bet
on this.

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hp50g
Really neat stuff, but knowing how paranoid TFL and our current overlords are
and the hysteria around 7/7, I'm sure someone will get rattled about this
(even though its of no use to terrorists).

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alexcroox
Our company worked on this (<http://planefinder.net>), the data is actually
live ADS-B information rather than a simulation based on scheduled departure
times and destinations. I'd say that's a lot worse!

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ceeK
I could stare at this for hours! Not sure if its a coincidence, but I waited
for a plane that would fly past my town (no other planes nearby). When it got
reasonably close I looked out of my window and there you have it, plane in the
sky. I'd like to think it's the same one.

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tragomaskhalos
This first appeared a couple of years ago and shortly afterwards TfL pulled
the API, apparently due to excessive demand. Going to check my little app to
see if the original API is back up ..

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dracos
Yes, the API returned in December 2010 and has been fine (from my PoV anyway)
ever since.

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ah-
Here's the same thing for Munich: <http://s-bahn-muenchen.hafas.de>

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evertonfuller
What maps is it being overlayed? Haven't seen that one before.

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dracos
It's OpenStreetMap: <http://www.openstreetmap.org/>

