Back in June 2010, I attended
Science Hackday in London. The TfL API with open
data had just been announced and I thought it’d be fun to build a live tube map
based on the available information of arrival times at future stops.
(hard at work, look at the tiny computer, tiny phone!).
This was the result, a page showing all the trains on the network in
approximately real time, using “a bit of maths and magic” as I put it.
I liked how occasionally trains would break away and
zoom off based upon some miscalculation of where they should be.
It proved quite popular, with coverage from the BBC
and the Guardian
to the Daily Mail.
In fact, it proved so popular that they had to take down the API
for a few months
due to demand (not from me! My site made few calls to generate the data, one per line every couple of minutes).
I added a Skyfall version after the film’s release, a schematic map version later on
(after I had time to work out all the co-ordinates!), and separately a map that
did the same for buses and any London bus route.
I have kept this running ever since, through API changes, bus route changes,
server moves, and anything else that’s come up. TfL have never minded
the site, as far as I am aware.
But then on 7th January 2025, I received two emails out of the blue; a vaguely personal one from someone at TfL telling me to
remove the schematic Tube map, and my hosting provider received a very impersonal one from the “Trademark Enforcement
team”. (That second one says “We informed the registrant of our complaint, but
were unable to resolve this issue.” but presumably they can’t mean the first
email sent about an hour earlier? This is the first I’ve ever heard from them.)
This is of course perfectly within their right so to do, though
I would have hoped for a different approach.
Sure, I could have made some changes and kept the maps up, although as above
they have been fine with it for many years. But I believe it is possible
to both “protect” your trademark (or whatever you think this is) and not treat
people like this. And rewarding this heavy-handed approach (by continuing to
provide a useful addition to their service with no contact bar this) to me feels wrong.
The internet isn’t what it was 15 years ago, and I can’t be bothered dealing
with large organisations removing any semblance of joy from it. I’m sure they
won’t care, but I am just too tired.
So sorry, the maps are all gone.
Feel free to contact TfL if you found these maps useful, or fun. Or if you
work for some bit of TfL upset at what some other bit of TfL has done, do let
them know.
My traintimes.org.uk is still there.
PS If you want live bus information and maps, there’s bustimes.org.
