Transport For London (TfL) is making its data freely available to web and mobile application developers, in a move that leaves Britain’s overground trains trailing.
Developers can now access data about Underground trains, London buses and river services, and TfL is lifting a restriction barring commercialisation of services carrying the data.
The datasets are available here via the Greater London Authority’s London Datastore. TfL says (release): “(We) hope the move will encourage developers to put together a wider range of high quality services and applications.”
Available data is so far limited. But it’s still a philosophical world away from National Rail Enquiries, which last year used legal notices to force down several third-party services carrying free timetable information, in advance of releasing its own £5.99 £4.99 National Rail app.
The Office of Rail Regulation investigated the Association of Train Operating Companies, which operates National Rail Enquiries, but ruled that it did not break the Competition Act and allowed it to go on formally licensing access to its Darwin travel database, as long as it produced a code of conduct around the practice.
Under the code, developers must prove to National Rail Enquiries that their services will benefit consumers, provide detailed specs and show that they are “a reputable company” – leaving out many potential hackers.
National Rail Enquiries says it “adopts a case-by-case approach to charging for access to their systems” and reckons “this approach is designed to encourage innovation and allow smaller developers to enter the market, it is also designed to encourage promotion of rail travel”.
But it couldn’t be more wrong. The Association of Train Operating Companies is operating a closed system which means only National Rail Enquiries and large entities like Thetrainline can provide timetable data to rail users. It’s in train customers’ interests to know how late their train will be, but ATOC is making it less likely.
Its code doesn’t even feign transparency regarding licence costs – instead charging on an unseen sliding scale: “Charges will be set reflecting the usefulness of the application to the public, level of innovation, costs and returns arising to the applicant from the application, timescales for development, impact on NRE and impact on TOCs. The charges will also reflect the lifetime cost of the application to NRE.”