From Land's End to John O'Groats: Google Maps adds UK-wide public transport data
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Google has massively expanded the amount of public transport information available for its Maps app in the UK.
The internet giant says they have used publicly available information to add “millions of departure for trains tubes, trams, buses and ferries,” all of which add up to more than “17,000 different routes across the UK”.
"It's a frightening amount of data," David Tattersall, Google's public transport product manager, told the BBC. "It's every single train, bus, tram and ferry right down to the small request stops as well as the major National Express coaches."
The new update covers public transport across England, Scotland and Wales, and includes departure times from National Express and Traveline as well as local operators such as Centro in the Midlands and Merseytravel in the North West.
Traveline, a government-funded partnership between local authorities and transport operators, has offered publicly searchable timetables for years, but only began offering its raw data to other companies three years ago.
Julie Williams, the CEO of Traveline, praised the update, saying: “Not only does this create a great new tool journey planning tool for customers, but it also sends a strong message to other countries across Europe and the world about what can be achieved by Open Data through partnership and a shared vision for a better way of travelling.”
Google is not the first internet company to provide UK-wide transport information, with Nokia’s Here maps offering some of Traveline’s data as well as live train information (compared to Google’s reliance on timetables).
Microsoft’s Bing also offers limited information on UK operators (and is in talks with Traveline to add more) while Apple does not offer any information for public transport.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments