We are pleased to announce that Tube journeys in Journey Planner are now based on live data, and should therefore better reflect the live situation on the network.
Where live data is not available (for example, when planning journeys in the future), Journey Planner will fall back on timetable data.
This is available to users of Journey Planner on the TfL website, TfL Go and also in the Unified API.
When making a Journey request to the Unified API, you will receive Leg objects similar to the following:
{
"$type": "Tfl.Api.Presentation.Entities.JourneyPlanner.Leg, Tfl.Api.Presentation.Entities",
"duration": 16,
"instruction": {
"$type": "Tfl.Api.Presentation.Entities.Instruction, Tfl.Api.Presentation.Entities",
"summary": "Metropolitan line to Amersham",
"detailed": "Metropolitan line towards Amersham",
"steps": []
},
"obstacles": [],
"departureTime": "2023-07-05T14:39:00",
"arrivalTime": "2023-07-05T14:55:00",
"departurePoint": {},
"arrivalPoint": {},
"path": {},
"routeOptions": [],
"mode": {},
"disruptions": [],
"plannedWorks": [],
"isDisrupted": true,
"hasFixedLocations": true,
"scheduledDepartureTime": "2023-07-05T14:38:00",
"scheduledArrivalTime": "2023-07-05T14:54:00"
}
In this case, departureTime and arrivalTime are the live times whereas scheduledDepartureTime and scheduledArrivalTime are the scheduled times. Based on this information, you can see that this train is running one minute late.
Where live data is not available, departureTime will be equal to scheduledDepartureTime, and arrivalTime will be equal to scheduledArrivalTime.
In summary, Journey Planner uses live data for the following modes of transport:
- Bus
- Tube
- National Rail
- Elizabeth line
- London Overground
If you have any feedback, please reply and let us know. 