TFI Live - potential new Transport Planner App

loyatemu

I went for a bus a couple of weeks ago - wasn't showing as live or cancelled and wasn't on the map or on BusTimes. 10 minutes after it was due I gave up and started walking home, of course it passed me at the end of the road.

So it seems the possibilities are

• Marked "Live" - is running
• Marked "Live" - is not running
• Not marked "Live" - is not running
• Not marked "Live" - is running
• Marked Cancelled - is cancelled

IDK if anyone has experienced a bus marked "Cancelled" that then showed up, but that would complete the set for this useless system.

halfpastneverr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120740260#Comment_120740260

Great app, cheers, handier than using bustimes.

Astounding the difference in quality and ease of use for this Vs the official TFI app.

Hippodrome Song Owl

A planned outage this morning from 10-12.30. What a stupid time to choose.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771959#Comment_120771959

They've been doing outages around that time for a good few years now, it's only evident now that the app sends out the notification each time

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120772627#Comment_120772627

Well, it was evident to me as I was standing at the bus stop wondering whether there would be any way to get to Celbridge today, since the C4 appears to be barely operational at the moment.

I get the bus at that time nearly every day - never saw an outage at that time previously.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120772698#Comment_120772698

It's not every day, mind you. Usually every couple of weeks I get the notification through the app.

harringtonp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120766347#Comment_120766347

Try http://yourstop.info

I'd be very surprised if a bus showing on the map or trip diagram doesn't show. Of course a scheduled bus without live tracking showing up is a different story

john boye

TFI live seems to be specifying cancelled departures now.

trellheim

I wish they'd fix the start page to just be the map , its with extreme reluctance I use it.

halfpastneverr

Any idea why TFI's data feed to other apps hasn't been working all day? transit app says real time not available from provider & on bustimes live Dublin bus vehicles are displaying but with no route numbers, so you're sorta guessing which bus is yours. I refuse to use the god awful TFI Live app!

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120800866#Comment_120800866

Just to point out, it's specifically DBs data feed, GAI and BE seem to be tracking fine on bustimes and transit. Was like this yesterday as well.

p_haugh

So it seems citymapper is back to showing realtime info rather than just scheduled, and has the bus locations showing for routes as well!

VG31

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120912169#Comment_120912169

I downloaded that app (was looking for an alternative for the TFI app which I've yet to find) and while the UI is nice, there is a considerable lag in the bus location updating. The bus location is often 5-10 minutes behind where it is in the TFI app. I also found saving stops to be awkward and difficult to access.

I'm still using the TFI app as even with its bad UI it still has the most reliable information, which isn't saying much.

Hopefully the real time in Google Maps is fixed soon. The live bus location is something I've seen in other cities such as Stockholm so it should be possible here too.

Ronald Binge Redux

The old TFI planner had glaring errors around rail in Northern Ireland, and the new app is no exception.

It appears that trains from Derry only run at 1838 and 1938 daily. Try searching Derry to Bellarena stations and the options are pure comical.

Ronald Binge Redux

Deleted

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120781827#Comment_120781827

I just hope they don't: a favourite stop is what I want 95% of the time.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919324#Comment_120919324

I can see how that might be preferred if you use just the same two stops every day. However I find it pretty useless given the large number of different stops I can use. I can use 6 different stops from where I live depending on where I'm going and the route I take.

Personally I think the best landing page would be something like the Citymapper app.

Map of your current location on the top half. From to search boxes in the middle and then your favourite stops at the lower half. Best of both worlds.

Transit app is also an interesting concept, showing you the map on the top half and then on the lower half the actual real time departures of all the stops close to you. Much better then a list of simple favourites, which you then have to click on to see the times like on the TFI app.

The TFI app is so old fashioned, too many buttons presses and tabs. Scrolling down like you do on the Citymapper and Tranist app is much easier to use and shows more useful information faster.

Jayuu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919580#Comment_120919580

I have 6 stops favourited and there is space for at least three to four more on my average size phone screen if I wanted them so I'm not sure this argument holds. Perhaps a customisable option on what landing page you chose might be a better choice.

Ronald Binge Redux

Another bizarre cock-up by TFI - for some reason it is appending Ballynagard and Culmore, parts of Derry City, to random Northern Ireland bus destinations such as Limavady, some sixteen miles away.

Some clowns, some circus.

Sad Professor

Anytime there's a significant incident resulting in cancellations or major delays with Irish rail this and the Irish rail app continue to report everything is fine, trains on schedule etc, often for hours afterwards. This happened following the storm this weekend and also after one of the fatalities on the northern line last month. It seems the only way to be sure that the trains are actually running is to check their Twitter account. I am really starting to wonder what the point of these apps are if they can't be trusted to tell you when there's major problem.

p_haugh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006131#Comment_121006131

I believe it's due to the Irish Rail realtime being calculated based on what station the train is at or what signalling block it's passing, which more often than not falls back to showing scheduled times. It's quite the hodgepodge of a system that evidently falls apart whenever there's significant delays.

Hopefully with Irish rail beginning to roll-out the ETCS system and their general overhaul of the signalling system as a whole, they can manage to have proper realtime in place for the trains!

loco_scolo

A few questions:

- Google Maps still hasn't been updated to show real time info? What's the story? Seems basic.

- TFI Live app - is this the only app to get proper real time info? I'm in Dublin and use trains, bus and Luas

- Can we start a coordinated effort to email NTA / local councillors about the appalling app, until they do something....

p_haugh

Citymapper and Transit also show realtime data (Transit for the whole island). Now, they all use the same GTFS data provided by the NTA, but Transit seems to handle that data a lot better than citymapper does.

There is some stuff that they can't display, like cancelled buses. Seems the NTA don't provide that as part of their public GTFS data, which is unfortunate.

Hippodrome Song Owl

TFI app is down. Nightmare. How did we ever survive just standing waiting on buses! Bad as it is, that little green bus icon moving on the map gives great comfort in knowing that there is a real life bus out there somewhere, even if the estimated times are a fantasy.

VG31

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121054658#Comment_121054658

Real time has been missing for months now in Google Maps. It can't be that hard to update. It would be great to have a viable alternative to the TFI app. I was in Stockholm a few months ago and you could see the live bus location in Google Maps so the same should be possible here.

I've downloaded a few other apps but none of them have as up to date tracking as the TFI app. They can have considerable lag which isn't much use.

LXFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121056948#Comment_121056948

As I posted on another thread - Google Maps for some reason didn’t switch to the new data feed in April - the schedules on google maps are now out of date.

VG31

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121057676#Comment_121057676

Yes I know that. I'm just surprised they still haven't updated it.

loco_scolo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121136664#Comment_121136664

Can't find it on my Play store. Fingers and toes crossed it's launched soon!!!

Hotblack Desiato

You're talking to a robot.

Economics101

Had occasion to use TFI app to-day: showing "no information available" or some such message whan requested for bus times.

On checking, I see that the TFI App has got really poor reviews, such as this one:

https://extra.ie/2023/07/23/news/irish-news/tfi-app-cost

Seems TFI paid some consultants over €4m for this. NTA/TFI seem to know nothing about actually making public transport work. How did we ever do without them is the past?