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Catch the London underground with Google

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Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#11

Post by nopassrecover »

How is this only just happening? I live in Adelaide, Australia (1.2 million approx) with some of the worst public transport I've experienced in the developed world and we've had Google Maps with public transport integration for years.

Incidentally, there was a cool iPhone app called TubeMap that made travelling on the tube a breeze when I was there last which included service downtimes which are apparently quite common, worked fine offline and was pretty fully featured in all ways you could want. However, the Tube is only a small part of the public transport for greater London.

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#12

Post by avar »

nopassrecover wrote: post #11

How is this only just happening? I live in Adelaide, Australia (1.2 million approx) with some of the worst public transport I've experienced in the developed world and we've had Google Maps with public transport integration for years. Incidentally, there was a cool iPhone app called TubeMap that made travelling on the tube a breeze when I was there last which included service downtimes which are apparently quite comm…

Because bureaucracies are slow, and it's taken this time for London to release up-to-date and machine readable data.

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#15

Post by toyg »

corin_ wrote: post #5
adamcollingburn wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network rail arn't a touch on TFL. ..In terms of crappiness.

I could be wrong, but I suspect the reason Londoners think that is just because they use it so regularly. If you're catching 2+ TFL tubes a day, and national services maybe a few times a year, maybe even a couple of times a week, if they both have pretty similar success rates then TFL will feel much worse, because it will get so many more bad memories. I probably go to London at least ten times a month (either for a…

This sort of perception is what makes one think that train services in other countries are always better than in your own backyard. The truth is that, in Europe, the average level of railway service is more or less the same everywhere these days; the exception is recent high-speed technology, which is only available in a handful of countries ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Europe ).

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#16

Post by panacea »

bhickey wrote: post #9

This is worlds better than TfL's route planner. However, it seems to be confused about where King's Cross/St. Pancras is located. Moreover appears prone to suggesting some peculiar routes: http://bit.ly/qNyvHb

That's not very peculiar though, is it? A short walk and a single direct bus.

On the weekend I prefer to catch buses over the underground (no pun intended) even if it takes a bit longer.

I'm not in a rush and I enjoy the scenery (the front top seat of a double deck bus is a very cheap VIP way to tour London).

I'd probably use that route.

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#17

Post by babul »

The Transit Navigation android app is a welcome addition, but I wish these types of android apps would work without constant need for data connection (i.e. would cache results and work offline once route downloaded) as nothing is worse than taking an underground train and losing all route information due to loss of signal. On a side-note "Pubtran London" is another good (and free) android app for London travel which also takes into account route/line closures and can also find National Rail train times/route info (for entire UK) from within same tool.

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#18

Post by corin_ »

toyg wrote: post #15
corin_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but I suspect the reason Londoners think that is just because they use it so regularly. If you're catching 2+ TFL tubes a day, and national services maybe a few times a year, maybe even a couple of times a week, if they both have pretty similar success rates then TFL will feel much worse, because it will get so many more bad memories. I probably go to London at least ten times a month (either for a…

This sort of perception is what makes one think that train services in other countries are always better than in your own backyard. The truth is that, in Europe, the average level of railway service is more or less the same everywhere these days; the exception is recent high-speed technology, which is only available in a handful of countries ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Europe ).

Yep, and in other (non-travel) areas as well - grass is greener and all that.

Re: Catch the London underground with Google

#20

Post by nopassrecover »

avar wrote: post #12
nopassrecover wrote: post #11

How is this only just happening? I live in Adelaide, Australia (1.2 million approx) with some of the worst public transport I've experienced in the developed world and we've had Google Maps with public transport integration for years. Incidentally, there was a cool iPhone app called TubeMap that made travelling on the tube a breeze when I was there last which included service downtimes which are apparently quite comm…

Because bureaucracies are slow, and it's taken this time for London to release up-to-date and machine readable data.

That's the easy and somewhat circular answer. I'd be curious to know what rationale the service had for not integrating with Google Maps or vice versa. Cost is the only legitimate one that comes to mind - I can't imagine concerns about open data were a massive issue given that third parties have been using and providing a subset of the same data for some time.
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