Live map of London Underground Trains

http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/

by nkhumphreys • 13 years ago

112 43 13 years ago

traintimes.org.uk

hp50g• 13 years ago

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).

alexcroox• 13 years ago

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!

nilliams• 13 years ago

Wow, that's great. Especially love this route finder view: http://planefinder.net/route/EMA/

ceeK• 13 years ago

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.

viame• 13 years ago

This helps me track my gf while she is working hah! I love this. Do you know the delay on this one? I heard there needs to be a delay of a few minutes when tracking aircrafts? Are you able to confirm? Beautiful work.

And beautiful work to the UK's underground rail tracking as well.

jodrellblank• 13 years ago

http://www.flightradar24.com/ does similar, is it related?

dracos7• 13 years ago

No-one has minded for nearly three years, and TfL are the ones providing the data :-)

mcdowall3• 13 years ago

We won't, this data is readily available on our data page. In fact our new API will have much more information available, with a lot lower latency.

nchuhoai• 13 years ago

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

six• 13 years ago

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

omh• 13 years ago

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.... gives you everything you need to query it.

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

octagonal• 13 years ago

I came across the same hindrances when trying to build something similar to this. Public transportation data is surprisingly private.

miguelpais• 13 years ago

>> "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...

pixelcort• 13 years ago

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

bugsbunny4341• 13 years ago

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

LaSombra• 13 years ago

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

gala8y• 13 years ago

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

dracos7• 13 years ago

A variety of reasons, including having to change stuff anyway for Google Maps v2 deprecation, preferring OSM's open model to Google with MapMaker, preferring Leaflet, and yes, possible cost too.

wal5hy4• 13 years ago

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/

archangel_one2• 13 years ago

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.

wal5hy4• 13 years ago

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

spuz2• 13 years ago

Could you explain how this differs from the route planner provided by TFL which also takes into account closures and line status?

wal5hy4• 13 years ago

The key concept which we considered interesting was that the image of the underground map also updates to reflect the current status of the lines. Giving instant visual feedback.

mcdowall3• 13 years ago

This is great, I'll forward over to the guys working on the replacement to our current Flash version.

The data you are using will be superceded soon with a new API with more rich information at a lot lower latency (don't worry we won't decommission the old one for a long while).

We'll be mailing all our subscribers in the very near future for early access.

dreamfactory• 13 years ago

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

ah-• 13 years ago

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

anselm_eickhoff• 13 years ago

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.

spuz2• 13 years ago

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.

ImprovedSilence2• 13 years ago

Yeah, but at the very least, maybe some sort of color coding to suggest direction the train is moving.

dracos7• 13 years ago

The code is on github ;) I only really have time to keep it running and e.g. move it to OSM, but pull requests always welcome.

mocko• 13 years ago

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.

ImprovedSilence2• 13 years ago

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

dracos7• 13 years ago

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!

elemeno• 13 years ago

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!

dracos7• 13 years ago

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.

evertonfuller• 13 years ago

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

dracos7• 13 years ago

It's OpenStreetMap: http://www.openstreetmap.org/

SiVal• 13 years ago

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....

tragomaskhalos• 13 years ago

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 ..

dracos7• 13 years ago

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

Live map of London Underground Trains

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