The past few days I’ve been testing and playing around with the iPhone app BUStop London from telent Technology Services. This nifty little travel app provides you with real-time information on buses and nearby bus stops in – you guessed it – London. The app itself is powered by and takes its vast amounts of information from TfL’s award-winning Countdown System, which delivers bus information in real-time for every bus stop and bus route in London. For those of you who like numbers, that’s a staggering 19,000 bus stops and 700 routes. Not only is it claimed to be the largest and most technically complex real-time passenger information system of its kind in the world but more importantly, in 2009 telent – the developer of the app – was awarded the contract by TfL to develop the Countdown software to deliver web and mobile content. That means they know what they are doing when it comes to BUStop London.
The app itself is very responsive and user-friendly. Upon launching the app a tidy menu screen welcomes you, giving you the options to search, view stops near you, select past favourites and go through you history (or records). I have been to London a few times but I’m not too familiar with the bus routes or where my bus stops are located. This is where the app really comes in handy, as I could simply select where I was, look at the routes and pick my closest bus stop. Another neat little feature is the alert function, which kept me informed about how long it would take the next bus to get to my stop. This of course also works a charm when you’re on the bus and you want to know how far away you are from your destination. BUStop London also has a great little social media tie-in, so letting friends and family know when you arrive is literally only a tap away.
The only quibble would have to be the app’s profile description, which is slightly outdated and still refers to the Olympics. Although this obviously doesn’t impact the functionality of the app, I wouldn’t be surprised if it could put off potential users. If you live in London or are planning a trip there, why don’t you give this app a go. There are two version available of BUStop London, a free version with fairly non-intrusive adverts and a paid/pro version, which had its adverts removed. See the links below for further details.
Useful Links for BUStop London:
