Dublin Bus mobile app being retired

coylemj · 09-05-2023 10:48AM #1

We wish to advise customers that on Tuesday 16 May our apps will be removed from both Apple and Android platforms and from Tuesday 23 May our apps will no longer return real time bus information.

The National Transport Authority have launched a new TFI Live app which allows you to access real time departure and journey planning information across the Transport for Ireland network.

The TFI Live app will be the only app for up-to-date reliable information, and we are pleased to be supporting one public transport app.

https://www.dublinbus.ie/News-Centre/General-News/Dublin-Bus-Apps/

The TFI Live app doesn't provide the DB timetables in the same format as the DB app so I'm not happy with this development. In the DB app, you can see all of the departures for the day in one table, TFI Live only shows one departure at a time.

bk · 09-05-2023 11:25AM

Also the Dublin Bus app shows the fare for a particular journey (though wrong amount), which the TFI Live app doesn't.

LXFlyer · 09-05-2023 01:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058295786/dublin-bus-mobile-app-being-retired

You can still see all of the Dublin Bus timetables at this page:

https://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Your-Journey1/Timetables/

Just bookmark that page or add it to your Home screen on your phone and you can continue to see them all directly.

LXFlyer · 09-05-2023 01:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120573902#Comment_120573902

That’s another retgrograde step unfortunately.

odyssey06 · 09-05-2023 02:29PM

The TFI app search is very poor on initial use ... you should be able to select whether you are searching for a route. If I search for H1, H2, H3 route stops I get a flood of nonsense results.

Citrus_8 · 09-05-2023 06:33PM

TFI app isn't worth to be in my device. It doesn't pass my minimum requirements and basic expectations.

halfpastneverr · 09-05-2023 10:44PM

The TFI Live app is somehow worse than the previous TFI app, nothing is user-friendly, simple, or intuitive. The DB app has a lot wrong with it, (the map function has been broken for years!) but it is simple to view timetables and search for stops and doesn't throw out ridiculous search results like the TFI Live does.

I've been bookmarking my routes on bustimes.org and using it more and more, so will just use it 100% when DB app goes away.TFI app is a frustrating waste of time, like most of their innovations and improvements.

Hurrache · 09-05-2023 10:47PM

The TFI app is also pretty brutal in giving you a full set of journeys and connections, it always leaves out things.

The previous iteration when it was Journey Planner was much better.

mikeybhoy · 10-05-2023 12:14PM

Wrong thread

bucketybuck · 10-05-2023 12:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120574321#Comment_120574321

Timetables are not live or real time information. A theoretical timetable does not tell me if the bus is actually coming or not.

Citrus_8 · 10-05-2023 12:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120578827#Comment_120578827

Your comment was exactly about the timetables and you got a response about the timetables ;)

LXFlyer · 10-05-2023 12:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120578827#Comment_120578827

I was replying to someone else who viewed the timetables through the app and wanted to continue to see the timetables, and hence I provided a link to do so.

coylemj · 10-05-2023 04:57PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120578827#Comment_120578827

I think most people know the difference betwen realtime information and a timetable.

If I plan on meeting some friends in town next Tuesday at 7 p.m., the timetable will tell me which bus I should aim to get. That's the purpose of a timetable.

bucketybuck · 10-05-2023 04:59PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120578851#Comment_120578851

It wasn't my comment.

POBox19 · 10-05-2023 05:07PM

There are other Apps besides TFI and Dublin Bus. Such as Next Bus, Ireland/Dublin Bus Realtime and Moovit which presumably continue to operate.

p_haugh · 10-05-2023 05:24PM

Along with citymapper and plain old Google maps. But from what I can see however, they have yet to adopt the new GTFS API.

bk · 10-05-2023 09:45PM

While the new app is pretty dreadful, the big win is really the new realtime GTFS API and the extra data it provides becoming available on Google Maps and all the other apps. Bustimes.org being a great example of this.

Maybe third times a charm for a proper decent TFI app?

Hurrache · 11-05-2023 10:22AM

But if the same info that the app itself uses is being supplied via its API, everything that accesses it are also going to have the same incomplete or incorrect data.

GLaDOS · 11-05-2023 12:54PM

Trying to add my saved stops to the new TFI app in advance of this. Search doesn't seem to work half the time, and when it does, it's touch and go whether the real time displays. Feels like a beta test.

Edit: my fault, make sure you pick the "list" option when searching, "map" (the default) doesn't seem to work.

LXFlyer · 11-05-2023 01:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120582829#Comment_120582829

The map takes a while (far too long) to switch to your location.

bk · 11-05-2023 04:14PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120582160#Comment_120582160

The issues most people seem to have are with the app itself, rather than the data. Poor user interface, poor functionality, app crashing, slow to load, etc.

While the API data certainly isn’t perfect, it seems to be mostly pretty decent and improving with time. I find Citymapper, Google Maps and Bustimes.org to all work very well with the same data.

Hurrache · 12-05-2023 10:02AM

The app is terrible alright, the but data it presents is an issue. When both were live for a period the new app always omitted journeys and connections that I knew existed that the original app returned, and it still omits some. In fact you can refresh a journey within seconds and you can get a variance on the results each time.

bk · 12-05-2023 10:56AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120586467#Comment_120586467

That sounds more like an issue with the app, then the data, sounds like an issue with how the app interprets the data. Have you tried the same journey on Google Maps, Citymapper, etc.? If those apps don’t show the same issue, then it isn’t the data.

Hurrache · 12-05-2023 01:46PM

Just done a comparison between TFI and Google, and bizarrely out of all trips returned there's only 1 in common, and even at that the time is out by several minutes but I'll put that down to maybe 1 using RTI and the other not.

coylemj · 12-05-2023 01:47PM

I see several people mentioning Google Maps. When I click on a local bus stop, it shows a list of buses and how many minutes before they are due but they're all flagged as 'Scheduled' which suggests the data is based on the timetable. Is it possible to get realtime arrival data for buses in Google Maps?

p_haugh · 12-05-2023 03:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120587338#Comment_120587338

From what I can tell, Google maps and citymapper have yet to implement the new updated GTFS realtime api.

Both currently only show scheduled times, whereas a couple of months ago they would both show actual real-time data

dfx- · 22-05-2023 03:00PM

Back into the unknown we go! All in the name of having a TFI branded app.

Esel · 22-05-2023 03:56PM

TFI Live app is brutal and unusable, imo.

NextBus Dublin app seems OK as a replacement for Dublin Bus app.

trellheim · 22-05-2023 04:05PM

whatever idiots in NTA are pushing this need to take a long look at themselves and wonder why they are cutting off good working apps because it aint progress. The replacement app is just plain cat and seems to have been designed by a hermit from 1991

All most people want to do is "stops near me" . Is there a map button ? No you have to press "departures" which give you a choice of a map or a list (said list useless at any scale).

favourites should be a button at the top and so should timetables .

bk · 22-05-2023 07:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120627492#Comment_120627492

I mean the DB app was definitely something out of the past, for instance it still hadn't been updated to work with wide screen iPhones which have been out for 6 years now! GPS didn't work on it for almost two years and there was the time they didn't pay for the Google Maps licensing! Oh and the fares wrong. It was clear that the DB app wasn't really being maintained constantly and properly. Pretty bad for any app to look like that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the new TFI app, it is terrible, but the DB app wasn't the answer either, it was really poor too.

And it wasn't done in the name of branding. An app just for DB, isn't much good with an integrated transport system, when we are trying to encourage people to transfer between DB, GA, Dart and Luas. One app that covers them all certainly makes sense, it just needs to be executed on FAR BETTER.

Murph_D · 23-05-2023 08:49AM

I have to say I don't have the same negative experience with TFI Live, using on an iPhone. It loads quickly and while it took me a while to figure out how to save things to 'favourites' (duh, the star at the top right of the screen), it seems to work fine. Search and timetables and journeys seems to work fine for me. Mind you, my needs are simple - usually a single bus journey into town from close to the terminus, with no transfers.

Just to put it out there that maybe this app is not necessarily as bad as some people are saying? I used the DB app too and to be honest I don't see much of a difference.

Dublin Bus mobile app being retired

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