13 ms·

Live Map of the London Underground

508 points by LourensT 1y ago

unkulunkulu 1y ago
Oh no they will hit each other, someone call 911!
- ww520 1y ago
  It's 999.
  - usr1106 1y ago
    Is it? In EU 112 is legally mandated. Did they roll back after Brexit? Either way the numbers are mostly legacy. On mobiles emergency calls are a special protocol, no number is really transmitted to the network. If the phone application recognizes a certain number it will initiate an emergency call. And quite often several numbers do it. 000, 112, 911, 999. (Admittedly it's many years I last tested it.)
    - ascorbic 1y ago
      It's always been 999 in the UK. 112 works on phones too, but that wasn't because of the EU: it's part of the GSM standard.
      - usr1106 1y ago
        Both are official https://www.gov.uk/guidance/999-and-112-the-uks-national-emergency-numbers https://www.gov.uk/guidance/999-and-112-the-uks-national-eme... 112 was made official by EU in 1991 when GSM did not exit yet: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_number)#EU_legislation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_num...
jaffa2 1y ago
Very neat. I like it.
imarkphillips 1y ago
Very cool. Especially as it a real map not a 'network diagram' who is so confusing.
- Bengalilol 1y ago
  The map API used is somehow very good. I just discovered https://www.maptiler.com/company/ https://www.maptiler.com/company/
blitzar 1y ago
> Data -> TfL live tube data > *You will regret using this data. You will regret using this API.* > It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently > It has a load-balancer that regularly returns data that is older than the data returned in the previous request. Won't someone think of the Ai overlords who will take care of all this for us in the future. A bit of consistency goes a long way.
- urbandw311er 1y ago
  Actually I think AI would have far less trouble joining the disparate data than traditional compute techniques.
chris_overseas 1y ago
Looks great but I'm watching this while sitting on a tube right now. What I assumed was my train was lagging by quite a bit and then disappeared!
- ralferoo 1y ago
  This sounds like the start of a science fiction story where you find yourself transported to a parallel world...
  - bookofjoe 1y ago
    Yes, give us a holler when [if?] you return...
    - velocity3230 1y ago
      RIP
n4r9 1y ago
It's cool to see how fast the trains go on different lines. But... where's the Elizabeth line? You get the tooltip when you hover over it, but the polyline is missing.
- bodyfour 1y ago
  Waterloo&City seems to be missing too
  - pledg 1y ago
    If you hover over the line to the right of Blackfriars it says Waterloo and City, incorrectly.
  - throwaway519 1y ago
    It's not a tube, it's an overground line. As evidenced by this Network Southeast livery.. on a tube train that's an overground train that goes entirely underground https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MhUDyX4DKXQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MhUDyX4DKXQ
    - fredoralive 1y ago
      The Waterloo and City was transferred to London Underground in 1994, as part of the privatisation (or not in this case) of British Rail. As the only way to get trains on and off the line involves craning them out of the depot[1], they did retain their Network South East livery for about a decade after formally becoming an Underground line though, until repainted at an off line overhaul. [1] There used to be a lift that could take a carriage at a time to surface tracks, but the Eurostar extension at Waterloo did for that.
  - Symbiote 1y ago
    I think it's present on the map, but is transparent or invisible in some way. You can find it if you hover north-east of Waterloo.
- megapolitics 1y ago
  It’s probably excluded because TFL don’t classify it as an Underground line. Similarly, hovering over the DLR will produce a tooltip but the line is excluded.
teleforce 1y ago
One of the best game I ever played is the text based souvenir game shopping game on Windows 3. I can't recall the name of the game now since it's more than 30 years ago, but it's about shopping souvenirs using London Underground Tube. You have a semi realistic time constraints like train schedules, your flight schedules and of course list of souvenirs items to shop. This is totally offline since there is no Internet available at the time but it's very engaging nonetheless. My proposal for the modern version of the game is to use real-time train schedules (with delays, ticket discounts, etc) that are available publicly on the Internet for many metropolitan cities in the world for examples Tokyo, London and Berlin. Imagine you can have a real-world realistic in-app in-game items purchases feature that you personally can buy in the game and delivered to you or anyone you fancy of giving souvenirs except that you only virtually went there.
- djxfade 1y ago
  Sounds kinda like Backpacker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_(video_game_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_(video_game_series)
marliechiller 1y ago
Maybe a slight bug: the overlay doesnt appear to be locked to the map - when I scroll around, the overlay moves. Currently the northern lines' southern terminal is hovering over Kingston rather than Morden!
ratatoskrt 1y ago
> It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently It doesn't, at least not for most lines. TfL's data is notoriously inconsistent, with multiple backends used for different purposes. For most lines, the dot matrix indicators are fed by the signalling system and timetables (more modern signaling systems are timetable-aware). Meanwhile, the online API relies on estimates from TfL's TrackerNet.
cryptoboy2283 1y ago
No Elizabeth Line?
- BillinghamJ 1y ago
  Although it has a core section that does run underground through tube-like tunnels, it isn't classified as a tube line :) So isn't part of the "London Underground"
iLoveOncall 1y ago
From tracking the tube I'm in right now it seems to have around a minute of lag, that's pretty good to know when to leave your house, etc.
pjsg 1y ago
I note that the times for future stations are in UTC and not BST. Also, when you zoom in to only a couple of stations, the trains seem to vanish occasionally -- maybe when part of the train reaches the edge of the display. I also find it jarring that the trains appear above the buildings rather than get hidden by the buildings. I'd like to see the trains running along the surface... All of these suggestions are much easier to make than to implement! Good job on this and pretty cool.
gala8y 1y ago
Cf. "A real-time 3D digital map of Tokyo's public transport system", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37829061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37829061, Oct 2023
- hooch 1y ago
  Quite exceptional
ainiriand 1y ago
This is one of the coolest things I've seen the whole morning.
ed_db 1y ago
Very cool, although it seems to be missing both the Waterloo & City line and the Hammersmith & City line.
- Quarrel 1y ago
  Hammersmith & City + Lizzy Line missing, makes Farringdon look like a backwater rather than London's best connected station.
- Carstairs 1y ago
  It also has the met line extension in Watford that never got built.
jipl104 1y ago
What basemap provider are you using? built with Deck.gl it seems. Very cool!
mike_hearn 1y ago
Sadly it seems to have broken, at least for me. I get: > dist.min.js:11 deck: LineString coordinates are malformed and no trains appear :(
Geenkaas 1y ago
I once saw a rendering of parts of the underground showing the stations and the tracks in 3D (hand-drawn but in scale), what stood out to me is how much of the entire system is composed of stations and how little for the actual tubes connecting those areas, certainly in the busier areas. I was hoping to see the stations rendered as well as I never could find those images back. This looks very nice in any case, reminds me of marinetraffic.
- lucianbr 1y ago
  http://stations.albertguillaumes.cat/ http://stations.albertguillaumes.cat/
  - hk__2 1y ago
    Don’t miss the Châtelet one in Paris!
  - gadders 1y ago
    "ChatGPT - please make Waterloo station into a Doom WAD."
pledg 1y ago
Its a bit confusing as it only shows a single line for places that have multiple lines running on the same track
- Quarrel 1y ago
  Yeah, no Lizzy line, for me at least.
  - sebzim4500 1y ago
    The line is there, it's just hard to see. There are no trains on it though, as far as I can see.
  - bookofjoe 1y ago
    https://x.com/elizabethln_bot?lang=en https://x.com/elizabethln_bot?lang=en https://tfl.gov.uk/ https://tfl.gov.uk/
- ralferoo 1y ago
  The trains themselves have different colours though, so it's not too bad. Personally, I think the stations themselves are a bit too dark and hide any train that's at the station once the trail disappear. But overall, I think this visualisation is beautiful.
- TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
  Trains in opposite directions overlap, which makes it very hard to see what's going on. Also, trains disappear when they stop. Which is - uh - strange. It's more pretty than practical. Trains marked with dots, arrows, or boxes would be far easier to read.
casenmgreen 1y ago
See also : https://minitokyo3d.com https://minitokyo3d.com I find the 3D trains (and planes) easier to see. Also, I love the webcams scattered around the city, and especially those which have sound.
- softgrow 1y ago
  It is better, has underground, overground and is womble free. Also has planes and current weather effect (raining).
i_like_robots 1y ago
I've seen visualisations similar to this before, but this one is by far the most beautiful and I could watch it all day. I echo the sentiments on the TfL API, I've built the same Tube Tracker app over and over for more than 10 years[1] as my go-to for learning new tools[2] or testing changes to frameworks[3] and I'm not sure it's ever improved. A chap called Chris Applegate wrote extensively about his battles more than a decade ago[4], did they ever add the stations between Latimer Road and Goldhawk Road on the Hammersmith & City/Circle line? [1]: https://www.matthinchliffe.dev/2014/03/05/building-robust-web-apps-with-react-part-1 https://www.matthinchliffe.dev/2014/03/05/building-robust-we... [2]: https://svelte-tube-tracker.vercel.app/ https://svelte-tube-tracker.vercel.app/ [3]: https://github.com/i-like-robots/react-through-time/pulls https://github.com/i-like-robots/react-through-time/pulls [4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150620042340/http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/2012/03/06/why-it-took-me-five-months-to-write-whensmytube/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150620042340/http://www.qwghlm...
- iamcalledrob 1y ago
  Agreed, this is absolutely beautiful. The detailing of things like how trains "overlap" each other is incredible
- charkubi 1y ago
  I also implemented this 16 years ago[1] while researching a lot of new technology all at once, it was tricky but very satisfying to get it working. [1]: https://github.com/charleskubicek/wheres-my-tube https://github.com/charleskubicek/wheres-my-tube
- nullwriter 1y ago
  its incredible the sentiment on TfL API without realising your country even has an API for your public transport. Thats a huge leap in itself, let alone an actively maintained one
- ge96 1y ago
  Also this one https://minitokyo3d.com/ https://minitokyo3d.com/
_joel 1y ago
Jago Hazzard will be happy (well worth subscribing on youtube btw if you like trains)
the_mitsuhiko 1y ago
The Austrian version of this is particularly cool because it has all forms of public transport on it: https://anachb.vor.at/ https://anachb.vor.at/ (click Kartenoptionen -> Live map -> alle einblenden).
- wwarek 1y ago
  And even API available (for some forms of public transport): https://www.wienerlinien.at/ogd_realtime/doku/ogd/wienerlinien-echtzeitdaten-dokumentation.pdf https://www.wienerlinien.at/ogd_realtime/doku/ogd/wienerlini...
- archagon 1y ago
  I noticed Yandex maps for St. Petersburg has this as well. Always wanted it in the US.
- Althuns 1y ago
  I just spent a bit of time in Wien and was blown away by the ease of use of their transit system and its integration into Google Maps. For someone from the US, it's like a different world.
Weetile 1y ago
'Elizabeth line line'?
anotheryou 1y ago
the tube is so deep, would be fun if that was reflected here.
lol768 1y ago
https://ben-james.notion.site/tube-data https://ben-james.notion.site/tube-data > You will regret using this data. You will regret using this API. > It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently. > It describes train status in free text that varies between stations. “Approaching Barnet”, “Near Waterloo”, “Heading to Bank”, “Departing Southgate”, “Leaving Hampstead”, etc. I'm not sure what you expected from an organisation still offering nothing but SMS-based MFA to its "customers" and one that got massively disrupted by a 17 year old in a cyber incident which seemed to paralyse the entire organisation a few months ago...
- MrsPeaches 1y ago
  Was this big one recently that took out the Zip cards?
  - tim333 1y ago
    Seems to be: "TfL’s efforts to deal with the cyber attack have resulted in a growing shutdown of its own systems, meaning that new zip cards used by children and teenagers cannot be obtained" "17-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences in relation to the attack. The teenager, who was arrested in Walsall ..." https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-cyber-attack-person-data-hacked-oyster-contactless-passengers-sadiq-khan-b1181688.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-cyber-attack-pers...
- Symbiote 1y ago
  It's also the organization that rolled out the second large stored-credit contactless payment system in the world (after Hong Kong), and was the first to introduce bank card contactless payments.
  - HPsquared 1y ago
    For some reason I'm thinking of the classic "Speed cooking" videos: https://youtu.be/8TVpQiCIqp4 https://youtu.be/8TVpQiCIqp4
  - 1y ago
gorbachev 1y ago
It doesn't list the final destination of the trains, which is quite important on lines like the District line.
FlyingSnake 1y ago
There is a similar real time map for Berlin VBB network. It shows the realtime locations of S-Bahns, U-Bahns, Buses, ferries etc. Pretty cool and handy. (You'll have to select the Livekarte option under Livekarte & Multi -Mobilität) https://www.vbb.de/fahrinfo/ https://www.vbb.de/fahrinfo/
gloosx 1y ago
This is frankly very cool and hypnotising to look at. I'd love to see more real-life data maps; anything else like this for London? Imagine layering this, 3D buildings, live weather, street lighting, traffic, and even live business data from Google visualised as crowds on the streets. I could stare at that for hours.
dachris 1y ago
There's this board game we played as kids - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard_(board_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard_(board_game) where you move around the London public transport system chasing Mr. X (everyone always wanted to play Mr. X) - it was really funny
- bbx 1y ago
  I still play that game! Fairly popular in France, but nobody seems to know it in England weirdly enough. The newer board is a bit less readable than the 90's version. I also play it on my phone, although the AI isn't that good.
  - hk__2 1y ago
    I’m French and this is the first time I hear about it.
    - usr1106 1y ago
      It was fairly popular in Germany in the late 80s / early 90s.
- willvarfar 1y ago
  Grown ups play Mornington Crescent.
- crabmusket 1y ago
  I loved that! Thanks for reminding me of it.
wwdx 1y ago
Repping for London UK - a rare feat these days. Well done Ben!
modernerd 1y ago
Tube Creature is also cool (the source of the tube paths for this map). Particularly like the "Tube Tongues" metric — the second-most commonly spoken language after English by residents near each tube station, it paints a real picture of a diverse London: https://misc.oomap.co.uk/tubecreature.com/#/tongues/current/same https://misc.oomap.co.uk/tubecreature.com/#/tongues/current/...
grishka 1y ago
Last time I ran into something similar, I researched whether I could get real-time subway train location data for my city, St Petersburg. It turned out that such data unfortunately doesn't exist as far as I can tell. I did find an official open API for the ground transport though.
talkingtab 1y ago
FYI, the Amersham train just left.
angrydingo 1y ago
sick
class700 1y ago
There's also OpenTrainTimes for mainline UK trains. E.g. https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/wat#T_WATRLMN https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/wat#T_WATRLMN for London Waterloo
InDubioProRubio 1y ago
Could you compute the heat-addition by the sub and the rail to the underground just by thermal radiation of the devices and passengers from this map?
m3kw9 1y ago
Why is it live?
_kush 1y ago
I love how it makes life seem slow paced. If this was a wallpaper I would stare at it all day
- zabzonk 1y ago
  Well, only because tube trains are a bit slow?
rossamurphy 1y ago
Could you open source it ? Would love to contribute.
IIAOPSW 1y ago
Incidental to this, I'm now convinced that the tube map is overrated and a quasi-geographical map would suit London better. And by "quasi" I mean slightly expanded or contracted in certain spots for clarity but basically correct. But the district labels are a bit too in the way right now, and in any case it would be nice to see the stations.
LourensT 1y ago
Developer donation link (map tile gets expensive!): https://ko-fi.com/benbyfax https://ko-fi.com/benbyfax
figmert 1y ago
This is very cool, but it is so sad to look at. South of the river has barely any connections far as the underground is concerned. The trains aren't much better.
ge96 1y ago
wonder if it would be worth putting arrow heads on the train direction
comte7092 1y ago
Shout out to Trimet in Portland, Oregon. I think their map is pretty great: https://trimet.org/home/ https://trimet.org/home/
hei-lima 1y ago
Great job! But what really caught my attention was that map — the 3D structures are perfect, and I was able to see my own building. Does anyone know which one it is?
- __jonas 1y ago
  This one it seems: https://www.maptiler.com/maps/#style=streets-v2&mode=2d&lang=auto&position=15.6/51.508662/-0.097205/0.00/60.0 https://www.maptiler.com/maps/#style=streets-v2&mode=2d&lang... It looks like it uses OpenStreetMaps data.
Kwpolska 1y ago
For most big cities and conurbations in Poland: https://czynaczas.pl/ https://czynaczas.pl/ (city picker in the top left, defaults to Warsaw, and shows many modes of transport).
kayo_20211030 1y ago
Nice. Pretty impressive in the standard view. But zoom and pan are broken. A revert to default view would be helpful.

508 points by LourensT 1y ago

unkulunkulu 1y ago

Oh no they will hit each other, someone call 911!

ww520 1y ago
It's 999.
- usr1106 1y ago
  Is it? In EU 112 is legally mandated. Did they roll back after Brexit? Either way the numbers are mostly legacy. On mobiles emergency calls are a special protocol, no number is really transmitted to the network. If the phone application recognizes a certain number it will initiate an emergency call. And quite often several numbers do it. 000, 112, 911, 999. (Admittedly it's many years I last tested it.)
  - ascorbic 1y ago
    It's always been 999 in the UK. 112 works on phones too, but that wasn't because of the EU: it's part of the GSM standard.
    - usr1106 1y ago
      Both are official https://www.gov.uk/guidance/999-and-112-the-uks-national-emergency-numbers https://www.gov.uk/guidance/999-and-112-the-uks-national-eme... 112 was made official by EU in 1991 when GSM did not exit yet: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_number)#EU_legislation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_num...

jaffa2 1y ago

Very neat. I like it.

imarkphillips 1y ago

Very cool. Especially as it a real map not a 'network diagram' who is so confusing.

Bengalilol 1y ago
The map API used is somehow very good. I just discovered https://www.maptiler.com/company/ https://www.maptiler.com/company/

blitzar 1y ago

> Data -> TfL live tube data > *You will regret using this data. You will regret using this API.* > It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently > It has a load-balancer that regularly returns data that is older than the data returned in the previous request. Won't someone think of the Ai overlords who will take care of all this for us in the future. A bit of consistency goes a long way.

urbandw311er 1y ago
Actually I think AI would have far less trouble joining the disparate data than traditional compute techniques.

chris_overseas 1y ago

Looks great but I'm watching this while sitting on a tube right now. What I assumed was my train was lagging by quite a bit and then disappeared!

ralferoo 1y ago
This sounds like the start of a science fiction story where you find yourself transported to a parallel world...
- bookofjoe 1y ago
  Yes, give us a holler when [if?] you return...
  - velocity3230 1y ago
    RIP

n4r9 1y ago

It's cool to see how fast the trains go on different lines. But... where's the Elizabeth line? You get the tooltip when you hover over it, but the polyline is missing.

bodyfour 1y ago
Waterloo&City seems to be missing too
- pledg 1y ago
  If you hover over the line to the right of Blackfriars it says Waterloo and City, incorrectly.
- throwaway519 1y ago
  It's not a tube, it's an overground line. As evidenced by this Network Southeast livery.. on a tube train that's an overground train that goes entirely underground https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MhUDyX4DKXQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MhUDyX4DKXQ
  - fredoralive 1y ago
    The Waterloo and City was transferred to London Underground in 1994, as part of the privatisation (or not in this case) of British Rail. As the only way to get trains on and off the line involves craning them out of the depot[1], they did retain their Network South East livery for about a decade after formally becoming an Underground line though, until repainted at an off line overhaul. [1] There used to be a lift that could take a carriage at a time to surface tracks, but the Eurostar extension at Waterloo did for that.
- Symbiote 1y ago
  I think it's present on the map, but is transparent or invisible in some way. You can find it if you hover north-east of Waterloo.
megapolitics 1y ago
It’s probably excluded because TFL don’t classify it as an Underground line. Similarly, hovering over the DLR will produce a tooltip but the line is excluded.

teleforce 1y ago

One of the best game I ever played is the text based souvenir game shopping game on Windows 3. I can't recall the name of the game now since it's more than 30 years ago, but it's about shopping souvenirs using London Underground Tube. You have a semi realistic time constraints like train schedules, your flight schedules and of course list of souvenirs items to shop. This is totally offline since there is no Internet available at the time but it's very engaging nonetheless. My proposal for the modern version of the game is to use real-time train schedules (with delays, ticket discounts, etc) that are available publicly on the Internet for many metropolitan cities in the world for examples Tokyo, London and Berlin. Imagine you can have a real-world realistic in-app in-game items purchases feature that you personally can buy in the game and delivered to you or anyone you fancy of giving souvenirs except that you only virtually went there.

djxfade 1y ago
Sounds kinda like Backpacker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_(video_game_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_(video_game_series)

marliechiller 1y ago

Maybe a slight bug: the overlay doesnt appear to be locked to the map - when I scroll around, the overlay moves. Currently the northern lines' southern terminal is hovering over Kingston rather than Morden!

ratatoskrt 1y ago

> It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently It doesn't, at least not for most lines. TfL's data is notoriously inconsistent, with multiple backends used for different purposes. For most lines, the dot matrix indicators are fed by the signalling system and timetables (more modern signaling systems are timetable-aware). Meanwhile, the online API relies on estimates from TfL's TrackerNet.

cryptoboy2283 1y ago

No Elizabeth Line?

BillinghamJ 1y ago
Although it has a core section that does run underground through tube-like tunnels, it isn't classified as a tube line :) So isn't part of the "London Underground"

iLoveOncall 1y ago

From tracking the tube I'm in right now it seems to have around a minute of lag, that's pretty good to know when to leave your house, etc.

pjsg 1y ago

I note that the times for future stations are in UTC and not BST. Also, when you zoom in to only a couple of stations, the trains seem to vanish occasionally -- maybe when part of the train reaches the edge of the display. I also find it jarring that the trains appear above the buildings rather than get hidden by the buildings. I'd like to see the trains running along the surface... All of these suggestions are much easier to make than to implement! Good job on this and pretty cool.

gala8y 1y ago

Cf. "A real-time 3D digital map of Tokyo's public transport system", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37829061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37829061, Oct 2023

hooch 1y ago
Quite exceptional

ainiriand 1y ago

This is one of the coolest things I've seen the whole morning.

ed_db 1y ago

Very cool, although it seems to be missing both the Waterloo & City line and the Hammersmith & City line.

Quarrel 1y ago
Hammersmith & City + Lizzy Line missing, makes Farringdon look like a backwater rather than London's best connected station.
Carstairs 1y ago
It also has the met line extension in Watford that never got built.

jipl104 1y ago

What basemap provider are you using? built with Deck.gl it seems. Very cool!

mike_hearn 1y ago

Sadly it seems to have broken, at least for me. I get: > dist.min.js:11 deck: LineString coordinates are malformed and no trains appear :(

Geenkaas 1y ago

I once saw a rendering of parts of the underground showing the stations and the tracks in 3D (hand-drawn but in scale), what stood out to me is how much of the entire system is composed of stations and how little for the actual tubes connecting those areas, certainly in the busier areas. I was hoping to see the stations rendered as well as I never could find those images back. This looks very nice in any case, reminds me of marinetraffic.

lucianbr 1y ago
http://stations.albertguillaumes.cat/ http://stations.albertguillaumes.cat/
- hk__2 1y ago
  Don’t miss the Châtelet one in Paris!
- gadders 1y ago
  "ChatGPT - please make Waterloo station into a Doom WAD."

pledg 1y ago

Its a bit confusing as it only shows a single line for places that have multiple lines running on the same track

Quarrel 1y ago
Yeah, no Lizzy line, for me at least.
- sebzim4500 1y ago
  The line is there, it's just hard to see. There are no trains on it though, as far as I can see.
- bookofjoe 1y ago
  https://x.com/elizabethln_bot?lang=en https://x.com/elizabethln_bot?lang=en https://tfl.gov.uk/ https://tfl.gov.uk/
ralferoo 1y ago
The trains themselves have different colours though, so it's not too bad. Personally, I think the stations themselves are a bit too dark and hide any train that's at the station once the trail disappear. But overall, I think this visualisation is beautiful.
TheOtherHobbes 1y ago
Trains in opposite directions overlap, which makes it very hard to see what's going on. Also, trains disappear when they stop. Which is - uh - strange. It's more pretty than practical. Trains marked with dots, arrows, or boxes would be far easier to read.

casenmgreen 1y ago

See also : https://minitokyo3d.com https://minitokyo3d.com I find the 3D trains (and planes) easier to see. Also, I love the webcams scattered around the city, and especially those which have sound.

softgrow 1y ago
It is better, has underground, overground and is womble free. Also has planes and current weather effect (raining).

i_like_robots 1y ago

I've seen visualisations similar to this before, but this one is by far the most beautiful and I could watch it all day. I echo the sentiments on the TfL API, I've built the same Tube Tracker app over and over for more than 10 years[1] as my go-to for learning new tools[2] or testing changes to frameworks[3] and I'm not sure it's ever improved. A chap called Chris Applegate wrote extensively about his battles more than a decade ago[4], did they ever add the stations between Latimer Road and Goldhawk Road on the Hammersmith & City/Circle line? [1]: https://www.matthinchliffe.dev/2014/03/05/building-robust-web-apps-with-react-part-1 https://www.matthinchliffe.dev/2014/03/05/building-robust-we... [2]: https://svelte-tube-tracker.vercel.app/ https://svelte-tube-tracker.vercel.app/ [3]: https://github.com/i-like-robots/react-through-time/pulls https://github.com/i-like-robots/react-through-time/pulls [4]: https://web.archive.org/web/20150620042340/http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/2012/03/06/why-it-took-me-five-months-to-write-whensmytube/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150620042340/http://www.qwghlm...

iamcalledrob 1y ago
Agreed, this is absolutely beautiful. The detailing of things like how trains "overlap" each other is incredible
charkubi 1y ago
I also implemented this 16 years ago[1] while researching a lot of new technology all at once, it was tricky but very satisfying to get it working. [1]: https://github.com/charleskubicek/wheres-my-tube https://github.com/charleskubicek/wheres-my-tube
nullwriter 1y ago
its incredible the sentiment on TfL API without realising your country even has an API for your public transport. Thats a huge leap in itself, let alone an actively maintained one
ge96 1y ago
Also this one https://minitokyo3d.com/ https://minitokyo3d.com/

_joel 1y ago

Jago Hazzard will be happy (well worth subscribing on youtube btw if you like trains)

the_mitsuhiko 1y ago

The Austrian version of this is particularly cool because it has all forms of public transport on it: https://anachb.vor.at/ https://anachb.vor.at/ (click Kartenoptionen -> Live map -> alle einblenden).

wwarek 1y ago
And even API available (for some forms of public transport): https://www.wienerlinien.at/ogd_realtime/doku/ogd/wienerlinien-echtzeitdaten-dokumentation.pdf https://www.wienerlinien.at/ogd_realtime/doku/ogd/wienerlini...
archagon 1y ago
I noticed Yandex maps for St. Petersburg has this as well. Always wanted it in the US.
Althuns 1y ago
I just spent a bit of time in Wien and was blown away by the ease of use of their transit system and its integration into Google Maps. For someone from the US, it's like a different world.

Weetile 1y ago

'Elizabeth line line'?

anotheryou 1y ago

the tube is so deep, would be fun if that was reflected here.

lol768 1y ago

https://ben-james.notion.site/tube-data https://ben-james.notion.site/tube-data > You will regret using this data. You will regret using this API. > It serves data from individual arrivals boards, which all spell stations differently. > It describes train status in free text that varies between stations. “Approaching Barnet”, “Near Waterloo”, “Heading to Bank”, “Departing Southgate”, “Leaving Hampstead”, etc. I'm not sure what you expected from an organisation still offering nothing but SMS-based MFA to its "customers" and one that got massively disrupted by a 17 year old in a cyber incident which seemed to paralyse the entire organisation a few months ago...

MrsPeaches 1y ago
Was this big one recently that took out the Zip cards?
- tim333 1y ago
  Seems to be: "TfL’s efforts to deal with the cyber attack have resulted in a growing shutdown of its own systems, meaning that new zip cards used by children and teenagers cannot be obtained" "17-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences in relation to the attack. The teenager, who was arrested in Walsall ..." https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-cyber-attack-person-data-hacked-oyster-contactless-passengers-sadiq-khan-b1181688.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-cyber-attack-pers...
Symbiote 1y ago
It's also the organization that rolled out the second large stored-credit contactless payment system in the world (after Hong Kong), and was the first to introduce bank card contactless payments.
- HPsquared 1y ago
  For some reason I'm thinking of the classic "Speed cooking" videos: https://youtu.be/8TVpQiCIqp4 https://youtu.be/8TVpQiCIqp4
- 1y ago

gorbachev 1y ago

It doesn't list the final destination of the trains, which is quite important on lines like the District line.

FlyingSnake 1y ago

There is a similar real time map for Berlin VBB network. It shows the realtime locations of S-Bahns, U-Bahns, Buses, ferries etc. Pretty cool and handy. (You'll have to select the Livekarte option under Livekarte & Multi -Mobilität) https://www.vbb.de/fahrinfo/ https://www.vbb.de/fahrinfo/

gloosx 1y ago

This is frankly very cool and hypnotising to look at. I'd love to see more real-life data maps; anything else like this for London? Imagine layering this, 3D buildings, live weather, street lighting, traffic, and even live business data from Google visualised as crowds on the streets. I could stare at that for hours.

dachris 1y ago

There's this board game we played as kids - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard_(board_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard_(board_game) where you move around the London public transport system chasing Mr. X (everyone always wanted to play Mr. X) - it was really funny

bbx 1y ago
I still play that game! Fairly popular in France, but nobody seems to know it in England weirdly enough. The newer board is a bit less readable than the 90's version. I also play it on my phone, although the AI isn't that good.
- hk__2 1y ago
  I’m French and this is the first time I hear about it.
  - usr1106 1y ago
    It was fairly popular in Germany in the late 80s / early 90s.
willvarfar 1y ago
Grown ups play Mornington Crescent.
crabmusket 1y ago
I loved that! Thanks for reminding me of it.

wwdx 1y ago

Repping for London UK - a rare feat these days. Well done Ben!

modernerd 1y ago

Tube Creature is also cool (the source of the tube paths for this map). Particularly like the "Tube Tongues" metric — the second-most commonly spoken language after English by residents near each tube station, it paints a real picture of a diverse London: https://misc.oomap.co.uk/tubecreature.com/#/tongues/current/same https://misc.oomap.co.uk/tubecreature.com/#/tongues/current/...

grishka 1y ago

Last time I ran into something similar, I researched whether I could get real-time subway train location data for my city, St Petersburg. It turned out that such data unfortunately doesn't exist as far as I can tell. I did find an official open API for the ground transport though.

talkingtab 1y ago

FYI, the Amersham train just left.

angrydingo 1y ago

sick

class700 1y ago

There's also OpenTrainTimes for mainline UK trains. E.g. https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/wat#T_WATRLMN https://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/wat#T_WATRLMN for London Waterloo

InDubioProRubio 1y ago

Could you compute the heat-addition by the sub and the rail to the underground just by thermal radiation of the devices and passengers from this map?

m3kw9 1y ago

Why is it live?

_kush 1y ago

I love how it makes life seem slow paced. If this was a wallpaper I would stare at it all day

zabzonk 1y ago
Well, only because tube trains are a bit slow?

rossamurphy 1y ago

Could you open source it ? Would love to contribute.

IIAOPSW 1y ago

Incidental to this, I'm now convinced that the tube map is overrated and a quasi-geographical map would suit London better. And by "quasi" I mean slightly expanded or contracted in certain spots for clarity but basically correct. But the district labels are a bit too in the way right now, and in any case it would be nice to see the stations.

LourensT 1y ago

Developer donation link (map tile gets expensive!): https://ko-fi.com/benbyfax https://ko-fi.com/benbyfax

figmert 1y ago

This is very cool, but it is so sad to look at. South of the river has barely any connections far as the underground is concerned. The trains aren't much better.

ge96 1y ago

wonder if it would be worth putting arrow heads on the train direction

comte7092 1y ago

Shout out to Trimet in Portland, Oregon. I think their map is pretty great: https://trimet.org/home/ https://trimet.org/home/

hei-lima 1y ago

Great job! But what really caught my attention was that map — the 3D structures are perfect, and I was able to see my own building. Does anyone know which one it is?

__jonas 1y ago
This one it seems: https://www.maptiler.com/maps/#style=streets-v2&mode=2d&lang=auto&position=15.6/51.508662/-0.097205/0.00/60.0 https://www.maptiler.com/maps/#style=streets-v2&mode=2d&lang... It looks like it uses OpenStreetMaps data.

Kwpolska 1y ago

For most big cities and conurbations in Poland: https://czynaczas.pl/ https://czynaczas.pl/ (city picker in the top left, defaults to Warsaw, and shows many modes of transport).

kayo_20211030 1y ago

Nice. Pretty impressive in the standard view. But zoom and pan are broken. A revert to default view would be helpful.