![\"The](\"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Section-1-scaled.png\")
<\/a>Not just another API wrapper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The easy version of this would have been to call TfL’s API, dump the results on screen, and move on. That’s what a lot of other apps do. But if you’ve used London Bus Pal for buses, you know that’s not how I work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent weeks testing different API combinations to find what actually gives you the fastest, most reliable results. The out-of-the-box approach was too slow \u2014 it could take several seconds to load arrivals for a single station. That’s not good enough when you’re walking into a station and need to know *right now*<\/em> whether to speed up or relax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The version in the app today loads significantly faster than the obvious approach, and I’m quietly proud of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What surprised me most was how different each mode turned out to be. You’d think “show me when the next one arrives” would be the same problem everywhere. It really isn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The end-of-line problem.<\/em><\/strong> Think about standing at Morden station. Do you really care that a tube is *arriving*<\/em> at Morden every 3 minutes? You already know that \u2014 you can see them sitting at the platform. What you actually want to know is when the next one *departs*<\/em>. LBP detects when you’re at the end of a line and switches to showing departure times instead. It’s a small thing, but it makes the information actually useful. (Trams have this same problem at their termini \u2014 that’s on my list to fix next.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Multiple platforms, one direction.<\/em><\/strong> The Tube throws up some interesting display challenges. At Elephant & Castle, the Bakerloo line has two platforms serving northbound trains \u2014 platform 3 and platform 4. LBP groups these together so you can see at a glance which platform to head for. But the Northern line at the same station has separate platforms for northbound and southbound \u2014 so the app separates those into their own groups. It all happens automatically based on how each station actually works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Elephant & Castle, there are two northbound platforms for the Bakerloo line (and yes, apparently the tube at platform 4 had a destination of Lambeth North?!!?!) and only one northbound platform for the Northern line. I tried making it as intuitive as possible.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n National Rail is a different world.<\/em><\/strong> We use rail differently to the Tube. You’re not just looking for “the next one” \u2014 the way you use a major terminus is completely different to a suburban station. If you’re at Waterloo, you need to find your platform from a wall of departures. If you’re at Norbiton, you probably already know which platform you need and just want to see what’s coming; at East Croydon, you need to make a decision about a platform too. So LBP lets you choose \u2014 view departures in a flat list or grouped by platform, depending on what’s actually useful where you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trams. <\/em><\/strong>London’s tram network is small but it has a loyal group of commuters around Croydon who deserve a proper experience rather than an afterthought. It works fairly well, but there are small issues to still resolve. The end-of-line departure issue I mentioned above hasn’t been solved for tram termini yet, and I’m still refining how the data is presented. But it’s there, it works, and it’s getting better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could have stopped at buses. The app was doing well, the users were happy, and adding six new transport modes is a ridiculous amount of work for one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I use London’s transport every day, and I kept switching between apps depending on whether I was catching a bus, a train or the Tube. That felt wrong. One city, one transport network \u2014 why not one app?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal with the Transport Edition is simple: open LBP, see what’s near you, and get where you’re going. Whether that’s a bus, a tram, or the 07:42 to Clapham Junction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On any of the predictions screens, you can temporarily filter out specific modes or routes; but if you just never take the tube, you can permanently turn it off if it’s just making noise for you. Just go to the settings screen and turn off what you don’t need (just go to transport modes). You will never by bothered by that transport mode again. Imagine turning off buses and using London Bus Pal for all transport modes except buses!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Here’s the thing \u2014 I live in London and I use multiple modes to get around, but I don’t know every corner of the network. I don’t regularly go north of Paddington on the Bakerloo line, so I genuinely don’t know how someone in Stonebridge Park would like to see their Overground and Underground trains. One widget? Two separate widgets? Both options?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As someone who has lived in different parts of the city, served by different modes, I’m all too aware of how each area has its own quirks. The only way I can get this right is by hearing from the people who actually use these stations every day. Buses have had years of feedback and polish \u2014 the newer modes need that same input to catch up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have opinions about how your local transport should be displayed, I want to hear them. Just send me an email – hello@buspal.app – I read every single message. Tell me what works, what doesn’t, and what would make your commute even a little bit easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’ve been using London Bus Pal for buses, give the other modes a try. And if you’ve never used it before \u2014 there’s never been a better time to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download London Bus Pal for Android<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Download London Bus <\/a>Pal<\/a> for iOS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Live arrival times for Tube, tram, National Rail, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line \u2014 all in one app. I spent weeks customising each mode so the information actually makes sense wherever you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,4],"tags":[8,52,50,15,49,51,48,53],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-london-bus-pal","tag-bus","tag-dlr","tag-elizabeth-line","tag-london-bus-pal","tag-overground","tag-rail","tag-tram","tag-tube"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions\/606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buspal.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Every mode has its quirks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhy bother?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Never use the tube (or tram or bus or train or Elizabeth Line or Overground)?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>I need your help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Get the best London transport app now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n