TfL suspends data feed due to overwhelming demand

Dawinderpal Sahota, Computing, Monday 5 July 2010 at 10:33:00

Application developer demand causes TfL to temporarily close doors to its
data

Transport
for London (TfL) has had to temporarily suspend its London Underground
Departure Board data feed due to an overwhelming demand by application
developers.

In June, TfL made new information about London's tube, bus and river services
available
for public use. It has allowed web developers to use the data to create
products such as mobile phone apps to help commuters for commercial gain without
having to obtain TfL's permission first.

Since the feed went live a fortnight ago, it has received 10 million hits a
week, according to the organisation. TfL said it is ?encouraged? by the demand
for data forcing it to temporarily shut down the feed, claiming that its
popularity demonstrates there is a great appetite by developers for accurate and
timely information that can help passengers with their daily travel.

?We are really encouraged that the feed to our Tube departure information is
so popular and TfL is doing everything to restore it as soon as possible but
this may take some time,? said Steve Townsend, director of information
management for London Underground.

?We?re sorry for the temporary disruption to this API Beta feed and we will
provide an update as soon as we have further information.?

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2265913/tfl-suspends-feed-due