iPhone app: London Bus
For people living in London, public transport is compulsory!
In other words, you cannot do anything without it. To find the best route, you can use TFL website but when you are on the go, or in the street, you want something that tells you how to get from wherever you are to your home, especially when it is 4 am and your only idea in mind is: “I want my bed!”.
And here comes London Bus and its different options:
Plan
You define where you want to go from (you can use “Locate Me”, Find a station or use your favorite) and where you want to go, when you want to leave and how, here you can choose between all the available transport in London.
Basically, it provides you with the same options as TFL except that this time you have everything in your pocket!
Once you have launched the search, your journey plans displays the several routes suggested, with departure time, when you will arrive and how long it takes. It displays as well the different option to go from here to there.
History
On top of that, you have a history. So it is easy to retrieve a journey you did a month ago without the need to fill in all the fields again.
Routes
Routes lets you select any bus route in London. Once selected, you will see all the bus stops on this route. And the option, I really enjoy, is the “Track Me” option that tells you exactly at which bus stop you are! I just love it.
The only thing I tried but did not really work is when I am on the bus, I never managed to have it updating my position quickly enough…
The other interesting bit of the routes is that you are able to see the timetables of the bus, use a bus stop as your “Plan
From” or “Plan To”, adding it to your “Favourites”.
Favourites
You can define favourite bus stops, the one you are using the most often. It is only taking bus stops which is logical as the app is called “London Bus”.
I reckon that being able to save Tube stations as your favourites would have been a nice feature.
Locate
You can locate yourself. Once located, the app will give you all the bus stops around you. Once you have selected the one you want, you can:
Check where the bus stop is on google map, use it to plan your journey, define it as a favourite, check the timetable or having the route details.
Using google map is great, especially when you are in a place you’ve never been. With this option, you can head directly towards the correct bus stop, saving you all the walking from bus stop to bus stop, in order to find the stop “M”…
What to improve?
I would be happy to see the Track Me, tracking me when I am in the bus, that would be cool, but it is not the main purpose of the app I reckon.
Or being able to add a tube station as a favourite.
App details
- App Name: London Bus
- Version tested: 1.2.1
- Its author: Malcolm Barclay
- Its price: £0.59
- Update rate: the author is releasing updates on regular basis, which is a good thing considering you are paying for the app.
If you have this app, either you love it or hate it, share you experience!