Tube Deluxe 3.1 London has arguably one of the best public transport systems in the world, but it's easy to take it for granted. You get used to trains running regularly, making it even more annoying than it might otherwise be when they don't. So often, Londoners metaphorically slap their foreheads and berate themselves for not checking …
no they're not: this is an illusion caused by them not being regularly exposed to passengers other than the indications of last trains aimed at the late-night bleary-eyed reveller who will be going to some far extreme of the system while asleep and drooling.
"London has arguably one of the best public transport systems in the world...". I presume the key word here is "arguably"? Compared to cities with comparable population, demographics and economic activity where public transport is offered as a viable means of getting from A to B, London must surely rank as having one of the worst?
Having spent over 20 years as a resident in both London as well as Tokyo, I am constantly frustrated when the media continues to perpetuate the myth that London has "one of the best transport system".
Ten years ago, there was a journey planner app on my un-networked Palm Pilot for Tokyo metropolitan area that covered underground and overground as well as buses. Using published time schedules for trains and buses, it would accurately calculate journey time involving multiple change overs across the capital even during the notorious Tokyo rush hour. This was only possible because delays and cancellations, whether scheduled or unscheduled are extremely rare on Tokyo trains and buses.
Tokyo has a population of 12million across 2,000 square kilometers compared to London's 7.5million in 4,500 square kilometers. When subway services are compared, Tokyo subways serve 280 stations on its 330km network compared to 270 stations on 400km system on London Underground.
The first subway service was inaugurated in 1927 as opposed to 1890 for the first electric train service in London. Considering the advances in technology and safety standards since the 1890s as well as the 1930s, the amount of refurbishment and maintenance required to keep the services in operation would have been comparable if not the same. Other cities worthy of comparison would be Paris and New York with similar scale and history of public transport.
In terms of reliability, punctuality, cleanliness and cost, London has the worst subway system and "arguably", one of the worst transport system of all four comparable cities. As for Tube Deluxe, does it run on Palm Pilot?
I'll assume you want utility level apps rather that fart gags:
National Rail Enquiries (given the current review).
iCab Mobile (a "Firefox" level mobile web browser).
Analytics app (mobile monitoring of your Google analytics data).
OmniFocus and Things (GTD done right).
That'll do for starters.
It is interesting that this application surfaces on the iPhone today. While not London, back in the early 1990's there was an interactive application for the Apple Newton that provided the same type of information for Washington, DC here in the Colonies. Got me to many a meeting on time back then. Wish they'd have made one for Paris too.
Could we get like a steampunk icon for "Grandpa remembers when..."?
One of the little scams London Underground has been running over the years is that they have worked hard to avoid creating any awareness of the Customer Charter. This requires them to refund the price of a journey if you are delayed by more than 15 minutes. This scam has saved them millions (just think of how many people are in one train at peak hours), and is perpetrated in multiple steps:
- you need to keep exact details of the when and where of the delay - this is where the app IMHO can help. This is a fair enough requirement, you could be lying..
- if you don't use Oyster, you needed to retain your ticket as proof - yup, the ticket that gets eaten by the gate. So, you're already late and then have to get someone to dig out the ticket.
- refunds take weeks. This ensures that a tourist will never be able to obtain a refund. Luckily for LUL, the information that a refund scheme exists is unlikely to come to the attention of a tourist.
- refunds are voucher only, so the money stays with them. That's IMHO not a refund.
- processing a refund voucher is an entirely manual process, despite barcode readers and other technology available for well over 20 years. This means you will be significantly delayed trying to cash the voucher. Expect a good 5 minutes delay.
- Oyster has NO facility to handle a refund. You're stuck with the voucher and all the hassle it represents. Rather a nice coincidence, isn't it - all that automation (get the refund immediately when you leave the station) "forgotten" to include anything that could hit revenue..
- staff has been made very aware that even as much as discussing journey refunds is seen as an exceptionally unpopular and career affecting move.
- in a survey I did a while back, in over 40 different brochures and pamphlets about London Underground offerings, NOT A SINGLE ONE mentioned a refund scheme. Only the Customer Charter was mentioned in one single brochure. Just mentioned (read: 1 single line of text).
So, if the Tube app really wants to be complete it should have a logger built in..
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...an "app" some hackers at MIT dreamed up in the 60s, on a (new at the time) minicomputer, which could plot routes on subways, listing the transfers, cheapest route, etc. I think a couple of them won some acclaim from the media for riding the whole system on one token using the app to plot their way, and for "using a computer!" to aid them.
Tube DeLuxe is OK 'till National Rail Enquiries (or whoever) pulls the plug.
There is (was) a brilliant iPhone app called "MyRail" It would work out which was your nearest station and then provide you with departure times from that station.
If I try to use it now I get this message:-
"We rergfret that this service has been discontinued as our license to distribute real-time train information from national Rail Enquiries for live departure boards has not been renewed. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your interest and support."
Similarly there was a Mac app and dashboard widget called "TubeTracker". It didn't do the nearest station bit but had all the live info. That too stopped working.
If you're above ground at a station which doesn't have a departure board - the departures functionality is brilliant. Try and cram on the current tube or wait for the next safe in the knowledge that next tube is just two stations away. OK - it's a real niche - but hey 59p - fantastic value.
In theory the Departures tab shows exactly when the next train is (what it shows on the screens at the stations), not the timetable. In my experience on the circle line over the last few weeks, it's always completely wrong and doesn't work for random stations (Notting Hill Gate has never worked, yet is listed)... This is a problem for TFL to sort out.
I'm perpetually late to get my train every morning, so knowing whether it's worth running is really useful - if it's accurate!
You can see the same information here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/departureboards/
...Metro supports a large variety of phones.
Metro - http://chotto.free.fr/tatami/Metro/
I've been using this on a number of my phones, for years.
It doesn't have the GPS mapping, but it's very handy to have when planning routes on public transport.
It covers both tube, train & (night) bus routes, their schedules, details of each station/stop & it's not just limited to London - it covers cities all over the world. All for the mighty price of £0.00
I live almost 200 miles from dat London and try and visit as little as possible. But when I do come down, look at a tube map, work out the route, buy a ticket and travel.
I do not see the need of spending £100's on an iPhone and then buying this app to when you can work out a journey for nothing. What's the next pointless must have app for the Apple sycophants? Something that tells users when to breathe, use the toilet or go to bed?
Because if you make semi-regular trips and have trains turn up every hour, a timetable and trip planner would come in useful. At the very least, to save you waiting nearly an hour for a train you just missed.
But then again, if the timetables are such a random mess as they are here in Oz, you do the same thing you do every other time. Turn up, cross your fingers and hope for the best...
The difference is that National Rail is privatised and want to squeeze as much profit as they can from their data, whereas TfL are a public body and open their data as s public service. In any case, the app author licences the Tube map from TfL so they do get some revenue from the app. So everyone's happy.
@ Kumaryu
You sound like a very exciting person to be around. If you love Tokyo so much, why not take your un-networked Palm Pilot, and go live back in 90's Tokyo.
@ Elsie
People tend not to buy an entire phone with 18 month contract on the usefulness of a single 59p application. I think, although I could be wrong here, most would already have an iPhone for doing iPhone type things on, and this would just be a useful addition.
On the subject of doing it yourself with a map, sure, if you're travelling in 200 miles and know exactly where you're coming in and going to, terrific. But if you are travelling round various points in the city, or if there are unexpected delays, or you just want to make life easier for yourself and not look like an American tourist stood there staring at your map, then this app may be useful.
I don't think the value proposition was "this app alone justifies the purchase price of the phone". The article makes it clear that features like current tube line status and finding your nearest tube station make the app worth 59p. Your £100s is a straw man that makes it look like you've got some sort of chip on your shoulder.
Re: "iPhone download in 'ruddy useful' shock" — there's quite a few of useful ones. That your publication's barrel scraping policy on slow news days has led to you mainly covering laughable novelty apps has probably confused you.
Somehow I doubt anyone's buying an iPhone specifically for apps such as this: many people use them to talk to people who are currently at another location, or send messages both short and long, read information provided by other people on this global computer network thingy, maintain a diary of their appointments and even listen to their favourite music.
What a Tube map can't tell you is how long your journey will take and what the fastest route is (often this latter measure is counter-intuitive, particularly for journeys where the Circle Line is indicated), nor can it integrate route information for stations outside of the London Underground system which still fall within the Greater London area. Being able to obtain this information while standing outside a station is certainly worth 59p of my money, but then again I don't seen the need to live 200 miles away from London.
Let me paraphrase you here "I don't live in London and barely go there so I am completely unqualified to make any comment on the usefulness or not of this app". There, better? People also do not buy an iPhone just to use this app, ffs. They can use this app if they already have an iPhone and it could be useful to them if they do.
Btw, I don't use the tube enough myself to bother with this app, but National Rail Enquiries is invaluable as my partner works out of town. If I need to meet them at the train station or let them know if their train is delayed at all (which is easier for me to do from London using my iPhone that it is for them to do at their work), then I can.
I agree with Kumaryu, I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. I too work in London/Tokyo... when I'm in London, I see WHOLE stations closed because of 'Elevator Malfunction'.... are you kidding me? And whole stations closed because of lack of staff, or whatever the reason of the day is, or the whole network shutting down due to strikes.... in my opinion London Underground is a joke; that a clity of such prestige and size as London has such a flaky transport system is a disgrace.
... at all these people trying to justify the use of this application. If you live in London and use the tube why do you need an Iphone and this application to tell you what line to use when you're using the tube a lot of the time? As has Mr Harvey has pointed out, every diary has a tube map and there are maps on every platform, so again, why have an Iphone and this?!
Apple / Iphone sycophants love to use this kind of app to justify their (vastly overpriced IMO) purchase. Still, I bet these are the same people that use sat-nav systems to help guide them to their parents house, work or the supermarket they visit every week ... just in case they've moved in the space-time continum suince their last visit. ;)
Maybe I don't get the point, but I've not wasted money on something that common sense tells me I don't need.
Wow, it must be grim oop north to worry about spending 59pence. Maybe you can speak to Brighthouse and get in on credit?
Yes all the information is available in other places but I check which tube lines are working as i'm leaving a building.
Same principle with sat nav, I can check for disruptions whilst i'm at home but its easier and more convenient if I get traffic updates whilst driving.
I'm with you there.
I lived in London for 15 years, and "Best" is a term I would hesitate to attach to London Underground (for those who have not been exposed to the subtleties of the English language, this is called an "understatement". In this case a massive one). Before anyone rolls out the obvious excuses of overpopulation - go to Hong Kong, Built by the same people, but very obviously out of beta. Oh, and it has air conditioning instead of relying on the trains moving to ventilate (spot the obvious flaw). But investment there has more or less kept up with use, and nobody there will strike because a colleague was sacked for being drunk on the job.
Going to Switzerland - just to name another country - is thus somewhat of a culture shock. Sure, peak hours introduce delays, but they actually apologise for being 5 minutes late! And it's done by a real human! And it's affordable! And (etc).
This also means that both the Swiss and the people in HK have no need to hide the existence of a refund system for being 15 minutes late like London Underground has been doing consistently more than a decade. Sure, the forms are still available, but I dare you find ANY information about the Customer Charter Refund - or get a member of staff to talk about it without an obvious fear in their eyes that their managers will hear it. It would be VERY cool if that app allowed you to log delays for later CC reclaim.
Anyway, the app is very useful. I can recommend it.
Why not "and also Android applications"? For example, there's an almost-identical London Underground app available on Android right now for 99p, plus a tube line status app that's free - you could have done a comparison of features between the iPhone and Android versions.
It does amuse me that there have been mobile apps (and reviews) available for years on WinMo, etc, and the Reg only finally jumps on the bandwagon when the iPhone turns up.
I made my first visit to London 2 months ago for a conference and I bought this app on the way down. It came in very useful even day to day but it saved our bacon on the final day of the conference when the line we were trying to use was "delayed for 2 or 3 minutes". When that became 5 I quickly replanned using a different route and we got to the conference on time. It later transpired that 2 or 3 minute delay was well over an hour. So job well done and all thanks to this app.
Some of you really seem to be missing the point in your rush to denounce anything iPhone.
As a daily commuter, the departures board functionality is totally invaluable. Our station (and indeed many stations) do not have departure boards or departure announcements, so this app is the only way of knowing when the next train is due. For a service that only runs every 15 minutes (in rush hour, less off-peak) it is essential.
Cool, thanks for the tip. And to everyone whining 'I could do this on my Palm/Newton/etc ten years ago' - yes, maybe, but that doesn't mean that everyone NOW will rush out and buy an Apple Newton instead of an iPhone.
The National Rail app is also handy; it would be nice if the two services were combined, or even a full public transport / cycling / walking / driving planning app like Transport Direct. (www.transportdirect.info - possibly the most useful website in the history of Britain)
A roundup review of UK TV guide apps would be useful, as it's hard to find the perfect one. My current favourite is TVGuide.
Maybe a review of Twitter clients too. *ducks*
i'll give you perfect example why apps like this are useful
yesterday i was traveling in to London, my overground train was taking me to St Pancress. I wanted to go to Regent St, and so checked the Tube map on the London Tube app on my iPhone.
This map allowed me to work out that when I reached St Pancress, I should take the Victoria Line.
As you say, I could have worked this out for myself once I reach St Pancress and made my way to the Underground station, but what I was also able to do was check the status of the Underground lines and I discovered that the Victoria line was suspended all day due to engineering works.
So i checked the map again and re-planned my route to use the Picadilly and Central lines instead - having confirmed that both of those were working with a good service.
Every diary I had as a boy contained a tube map too, and thanks to this app my new diary (iCal sync'd to my iPhone) does too.
Also, if you need GPS to tell you which station you're currently in then there's something wrong. If you need it to tell you where the nearest is while walking down a random street, or at the end of a night out, then it's very useful.
TFL Journey Planner does Tube, Bus, Overground Train, Walking and Cycling, you can also get free email or text alerts for daily travel.
Suits me fine, and of course you can always call them or get off your arse and look at the Tube map that is on most trains in and around London...
Any excuse to have a go at the iPhone eh? The article didn't claim that this was a world first. It didn't say that it was a major innovation in mapping software. The app you are refering to I believe is called MetrO - also available on iPhone. It's ok. Doesn't really cut it as a mapping app. Nowhere near as good as this though. The only other WinMo app that I know of is Tube. Which is shit.
I use the free version of this Tube app almost every day. Good stuff.
My (slightly biased) suggestion for another app to review is 'My Contacts Everywhere' - an app that stores your contacts on a central server and enables you to later retrieve them from any other iPhone or online (http://www.mycontactseverywhere.com). This helps deal with that sinking feeling should you iPhone run out of battery or you forget your phone and can't remember anyone's number!
Fair comment from Elsie I think – don’t really get the point of this app! It’s only useful to people in and around the south-east who really, really care about things like this. For the rest of us, you do the usual check on the website for the estimated maximum journey time, add half an hour as we know the website lies, then go to the station and wait the 2 minutes for the next train, which magically transforms into 5 minutes. This is assuming the line is running on that particular day, and the staff have decided they are coming to work rather than taking an unanticipated “wildcat” strike.
My daily commute is 24 minutes according to TFL… It took 15 this morning, but can take 45 or more, and that is with no reported delays on the lines, just because the train stops at every place for an extra couple of minutes, and maybe stops outside a few stations for a minute or two, or they need to “even out the times between trains”. I dislike being late for work, but it’s a sign of general acceptance that I can rock up an hour late and mutter about tube problems and the boss just grins at my misfortune and doesn’t say anything!!
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I didn't bash the iPhone, all i said is that something similar has been available for windows mobile for sometime.
However thanks to the dearth of articles on the reg (and other places) reviewing winmo software (the most recent one they did had the 3 letter name of the publishing company wrong) there is the general perception that there is very little decent software for windows mobile.
Of course the appstore makes it easy, both customers looking for software and lazy hack journos trying to find something to write about without waiting for a press release to be emailed to them.
And I highly doubt you've ever used tube so i'll take your "it's shit" comment with a large pinch of salt
i used to have an app on WinMo which identified which carriage to get into to have the shortest walk to the exit when you got off the train.
This seemed pretty useful: rather than finding you have to walk the length of the train to get out, you can walk to the right place while you're having to wait for a train. Add this function too!
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