Goin' underground with TubeStatus

TubeStatus for iPhone Londoners like to know what's going on in the tunnels beneath their feet. The Tube is how every Londoner gets pretty much anywhere, and when bits of it are broken, it helps to know before you walk to the nearest Tube station.

The beauty of the Tube, (well, the central zones in particular) is that the lines are so intertwingled that it's often quite easy to route yourself around breakages or blockages. If the Northern Line's hosed, maybe the Piccadilly or Jubilee Lines might get you close enough to where you need to be. And if the Circle line's running slow (which is often is), you might be able to skip round the problem via one of the many other lines that bisect it.

Which might explain why TubeStatus (App Store link) by Malcolm Barclay is such a good idea.

Oddly, though, Malcolm had been hoping that it wouldn't appear in the App Store, while he sorted out some copyright issues with Transport for London, the body that manages not only London's transport network but also the data feeds about it that make apps like TubeStatus work. If we hear anything further on the status of TubeStatus, we'll let you know.

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Source: http://mbarclay.net/?page_id=74

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Londoners like to know what's going on in the tunnels beneath their feet. The Tube is how every Londoner gets pretty much anywhere, and...

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James Grinter

Got to agree with another poster - just create a webclip or bookmark link to one of the existing status web pages (I found that http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/syndication/widgets/serviceboard/netvibes/default.htm worked ok).

No standalone application required (although an application could be marginally quicker at retrieval, if there is a raw data feed lurking in there somewhere.)

Now, when will OS X/iPhone stop messing with images saved from Safari or Mail, so that the underground map remains readable direct from the Camera Roll? Eh? (At 256kB for the TfL-supplied GIF it's a bit big to download quickly over the air each time.)

August 08 2008 at 3:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom

at first i was hoping there would be a similar app for the trains here in tokyo. then i realised that we have the most reliable train system in the world and rarely have delays. ha!

August 08 2008 at 12:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dswift

At least something is a series a tubes.

(Okay, Danny Goodman beat me to the Ted Stevens ref)

August 07 2008 at 8:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ian Patterson

The App is quite good - and free - though I can understand TfL having copywrite objections since it lifts raw one of their web pages.
Given the App only works when its connected to the network anyways, why not bookmark one of the TFL web pages. One good one thats not widely known is a dynamic map off current issues:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/im/RD-T.html

August 07 2008 at 4:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Macintosh Lou

Ooh! This is the application that I've been waiting for. The amount of times I've left the flat without checking to see if the dear Central Line is having a wobbly or not.

Here's hoping TFL can let this one live.

August 07 2008 at 3:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Danny Goodman

At first I thought this was an Internet ISP status app for Senator Ted Stevens.

August 07 2008 at 3:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Raheem

As a Londoner i totally love this app as I previously has the Tube Status web page on my iPhone. I was waiting for this on launch of the app store but it's not been that long so props to the dev behind this.

N.B. - Not every Londoner uses the tube... most still use cars :P

August 07 2008 at 2:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex

Yes, I'd been waiting for this!

Totally agree with N J A about the licensing thing... just leave it be, please TfL. Oh, and TUAW: please keep on reporting on London related stuff like this :]

Cheers

August 07 2008 at 2:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ximon

'intertwingled' - great word!

August 07 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

guise

Personally i am really looking forward to Tube London from Visual IT which looks infinitely more useful

http://www.visualit.co.uk/apple/iphone.htm

August 07 2008 at 2:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply