[x-posted to uk.transport.buses]

On Sep 4, 7:13*pm, Paul G wrote:
Finally live on the web! *Woohoo!

Nice easy to use interface too.

Not sure how well it works on mobile phones yet.
http://countdown.tfl.gov.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14779558

I can already think of ways that it can be improved, but I'm just bloody
grateful for it finally being available.

Woohoo indeed - this is really great stuff!

Despite the Countdown element of the URL, they seem to call it "Live
bus departures" on the webpages themselves - I'm sure we'll continue
to call it Countdown nonetheless.

Seems to work pretty well - the pages for individual bus stops can of
course be bookmarked, and there's also a cookie-based 'My Stops'
option for stops one regularly consults.

AFAICS the mobile version isn't currently accessible from the TfL
mobile front page (at http://m.tfl.gov.uk), presumably because it's
still in the testing phase...

....*however*, it can be accessed by going straight to the following
address - http://m.countdown.tfl.gov.uk - which has a nice, clean,
text-based interface for mobiles (mapping is available but optional).

(Mildly) Interesting that the mapping isn't Google Maps based, unlike
the new-ish dynamic Bus Maps on the TfL website [1] - indeed at
present there's no link from said Bus Maps facility to this new
Countdown service, again presumably because the latter is still in a
testing phase.

Could have made use of this today - I had a long-ish wait for a bus,
though I did pop to the shop whilst waiting and could perhaps have
missed one whilst I was in there. (Though if I'd been awake I could
have also realised that another route would have taken me around the
corner from where I wanted to be, but I wasn't really thinking at the
time.)

Fantastic.

-----
[1] http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/