[Victor]

It may be whichever version you had last open.

Yes the URL v IP thing is annoying, there is a problem where after a certain number of queries / amount of tiem there is an error message and from that point on, it uses the IP instead of the URL. A new browser session seems to re-set it.

[bk]

So it looks like the journey planner is slowly improving.

1) It looks like the IP address ugliness is now gone.
2) It looks like you can now link to it, e.g.:

http://journeyplanner.transportforir...estination=any

However the link is pretty horrific. They should really try and use a url shortener service. For instance the above link can be shortened as so:

http://bit.ly/Obx6Y0

Also it would be better if when you do a search, the page reloads with the above url in the url bar so that you can directly copy it or bookmark it, rather then have to copy it out of a separate pop-up window.

I note that this seems to be the same company who developed the London Journey planner, though having now tried it, I don't think the London journey planner is very good either. But it does have one advantage, when you do a search, it puts the linkable url in the url bar.

Also it would be great if they could drop the nta/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2 part, which is ugly and entirely unnecessary as it could easily be hidden with some DNS redirecting.

As a side note, I think it is a pity that the NTA used transportforireland.ie as their website. It is a very long URL. I think they should just have used transport.ie instead.

Yes transport.ie is currently being used by the Department of Transport. But that could have been moved to departmentoftransport.ie or similar as it would be far less used then this site anyway. Then we could have had the following, a nice short url:

plan.transport.ie

[Victor]

Originally Posted by bk

So it looks like the journey planner is slowly improving.

1) It looks like the IP address ugliness is now gone.
2) It looks like you can now link to it, e.g.:

http://journeyplanner.transportforir...estination=any

However the link is pretty horrific. They should really try and use a url shortener service. For instance the above link can be shortened as so:

http://bit.ly/Obx6Y0

There are only so many short links to go around and people can be sceptical about using them. They aren't necessarily useful for de-bugging.

Also it would be better if when you do a search, the page reloads with the above url in the url bar so that you can directly copy it or bookmark it, rather then have to copy it out of a separate pop-up window.

But Google, Bing and OPenStreetMap don't do this.

As a side note, I think it is a pity that the NTA used transportforireland.ie as their website. It is a very long URL.

But ...

Originally Posted by Victor

www.a-b.ie is also working.

[bk]

Originally Posted by Victor

There are only so many short links to go around and people can be sceptical about using them. They aren't necessarily useful for de-bugging.

Not true, you can simply use a hash algorithm. For instance you can do it with google:

http://goo.gl/maps/kAv8N

Similarly it would be brilliant if you could have:

plan.transport.ie/kAv8N
and
a-b.ie/kAv8N

Originally Posted by Victor

But Google, Bing and OPenStreetMap don't do this.

I agree and I believe they have this wrong. Their approach breaks the link-ability of the web. However note Google does have the option of the URL shortener.

hittheroad.ie however do it brilliantly.

As to a-b.ie, yes it exists, but then it redirects in a pretty ugly way to the big long nasty ugly looking url.

Also I think it would have been overall better branding, they could then have had the likes of:

plan.transport.ie
leap.transport.ie
taxi.transport.ie
cycling.transport.ie

etc.

Much easier to remember and put on advertising on the side of a bus, etc.

I know that they can put a-b.ie on instead, but then that doesn't build a consistent brand with the other parts of the site.

We instead have the typical unintegrated Irish approach of leacard.ie, a-b.ie, etc.

[Victor]

There is an upgrade ongoing over the weekend.

The look of the page has changed and some features prioritised or de-prioritised.

The mapping has also changed somewhat - some changes won't happen until Monday.

[Lapin]

Originally Posted by Victor

There is an upgrade ongoing over the weekend.

Any idea if this will include fares ?

[Victor]

I've not heard of that. I suspect not.

Most of the operators (BÉ and IÉ, I'm looking at you especially) don't know their own fares, never mind expecting the NTA to rationalise it into something usable by the public.

[Stevek101]

Great news from the NTA.

we are working with google to establish the NJP on their Google Transit system,as soon as it is available we'll let u know

https://twitter.com/LeapCard/status/260746806303006720

A lot of people have been calling for this for quite a while.

[Victor]

It seems most of the changes are largely cosmetic, some layout changes, new icons and new maps. Taxi off by default, but taxi will be returned if no public transport journey can be found. Updates to routes / timetables are implemented from time to time.

The intention is that it will look like the attached PDF when fares data is added.