Transport for London Journey Planner

[David]

Here is a near perfect implementation of a Journey Planner (http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en). I have to say that All the London Transport websites are exemplary but this journey planner is exceptionally well designed - not just as a web page but as a functioning piece of information providing. It has everything you might need. I just used it to plan a journey - what a great experience. What the web was designed for.

[Tom]

I gave it a go for a journey I have just done - and it worked beautifully. But it works much better for trains than buses. When the map section brought up Adobe I was disappointed - but the maps are much better than those provided by Maporama. Adobe need to produce a light version of their reader which is not so slow to start up. Also, why don't they have the London Cycle maps online? I once found them online and have lost the link. They promise paper maps but do not in fact send them out.

[Tom]

So what do you think of the major government website launched today: Transport Direct (http://www.transportdirect.info/). Its slow but seems to work. My suspicion is a consequence of the fact that almost all major UK computer projects fail.

I tried it for my journey to Scotland (using postcode to postcode). It advised me to do the trip by car and said I could do it in 6 hours 43 minutes. The best I have ever managed, holding a motorway speed of about 80, is 7 hours and 10 minutes. One has to be impressed by the 1:50,000 route maps. I believe it would be quicker to take the DLR to London City Airport and fly to Edinburgh - and if you book sufficiently in advance it only costs £39 return (ie half the price of a car trip). Car hire at the airport is £20/day.

[David]

Hmm - I like it. It doesn't feel as confident as the London Transport planner but it's certainly a good first step. The site makes a point of saying that this is just the first version. I used it to test my journey from home to the Avery Hill campus and was relieved to find that it recommended a journey by car although you'd have thought that it should be promoting public transport and suggesting an alternative method. The quoted juorney time was longer than I normally do on average but I guess that they have to assume that everyone remains within the speed limit :unsure:

My first reaction is that it should allow the user to choose a criterion against which the journey should designed e.g. Fastest, Most Direct, Cheapest or even Using Public Transport.

[Ronald Ng]

I have been using the TfL's journey planner for a while and i agree it's fantastic. It would be nice if it could produce a map of the journey in whole - not just the start and the end of the journey, but maybe i'm asking too much

However i have found that the tool does not load all the time, which can be very frustrating when you are in a rush.