TFL Journey Planner

[90sWereBetter]

Has anyone else on these forums used the Journey Planner and ended up getting unusual and illogical routes suggested? It's just that it seems to be on the increase, at least in my experience.

Cases(s) in point: I wanted to see how long a typical journey on the 178 bus between Lewisham and Woolwich would take, so I put in the necessary information (including the via point of Kidbrooke), and the results suggested I get the 178 to Kidbrooke, get off, walk to the next bus stop, and get ANOTHER 178 onwards to my destination. Just...why? :roll:

Another case of it was just a few minutes ago, where I wanted to see how long a bus journey between Liverpool Street and London Bridge would take. Put in the necessary info, deselected everything apart from the bus, and the results I got suggested that walking was the only option. Bearing in mind this journey in question was set at 7am on a Saturday morning (as I'm doing another London trip this Saturday), buses would surely be running?

 

[yorkie]

Has anyone else on these forums used the Journey Planner and ended up getting unusual and illogical routes suggested? It's just that it seems to be on the increase, at least in my experience.

Cases(s) in point: I wanted to see how long a typical journey on the 178 bus between Lewisham and Woolwich would take, so I put in the necessary information (including the via point of Kidbrooke), and the results suggested I get the 178 to Kidbrooke, get off, walk to the next bus stop, and get ANOTHER 178 onwards to my destination. Just...why? :roll:

If you didn't put a via point, surely that would give you what you want?

Another case of it was just a few minutes ago, where I wanted to see how long a bus journey between Liverpool Street and London Bridge would take. Put in the necessary info, deselected everything apart from the bus, and the results I got suggested that walking was the only option. Bearing in mind this journey in question was set at 7am on a Saturday morning (as I'm doing another London trip this Saturday), buses would surely be running?

Works for me. I have attached a screenshot.

 

[90sWereBetter]

I put the via point in as there were other bus routes between the two places which would be quicker than the 178. Just trying to filter the results a little. I just don't understand the logic of that result though, surely you'd stay on the 178 for the entire journey.

 

[yorkie]

When you say "Woolwich" exactly where in Woolwich? There are numerous options that appear.

And when you say "via Kidbrooke", where exactly did you specify?

The journey planner appears to be working correctly to me.

 

[Mojo]

I, too, am unable to replicate this; see screenshot.

I suspect, but do not know, that if you put in a via point, it will take you on the bus to the nearest stop to that point, have you get off to go to the via point, and then have you get back on the bus from the same stop.

 

[CatfordCat]

I can't replicate the Liverpool Street - London Bridge one - what I can possibly think of is that if you set a departure time when only the night buses are running and you'd just missed one (which doesn't sound like 0700) and 'quick' walking pace, then it might have given you a walking option that's quicker than waiting for the next bus.

I've just tried the Lewisham - Woolwich (I selected Beresford Square on the basis that's a central point, not necessarily the 178 terminus) via Kidbrooke and got some even more illogical journeys, 178 to Kidbrooke, then 178 in the opposite direction, then 178 to Woolwich Arsenal Station then 161 to Beresford Square.

I know the route around Kidbrooke has been amended recently, and wonder if the data has got some lumps in it?

My first thought was that if you add a via point, it assumes you do want to get off there, but I've tried Lewisham to Bromley via Grove Park and got offered a 261 all the way.

The TfL planner can suffer at times from there being too many choices, and it will occasionally suggests something faintly illogical, but that will get you from A to B sooner than waiting for the next logical journey.

But since the direct (via Kidbrooke that is) journey on the 178 is about half an hour at this time of evening, I don't understand what I was offered at all.

The SE Traveline (which is based on the same technology as the TFL journey planner) does have a 'feedback' button so if you do get offered a ludicrous journey, you can at least bring it to the attention of 'the management' fairly easily, and they will attempt to establish which particular bit of nonsense has generated it and resolve it.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I couldn't replicate the 178 suggestion either.

I did wonder...the 178 used to take a complicated loop routing around what was then known as the (rather notorious) Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke (which has now been demolished and replaced by something the property developers are calling "Kidbrooke Village": I could just about believe that, at certain times, when the intervals between buses were particularly short, that it might have been quicker to leave one bus, and then walk to another nearby stop, to catch the previous bus, which had already been around the estate loop....

However, the, the summary map of the 178 route on the TfL website suggests that it no longer diverts from the main road in Kidbrooke, so this theory presumably is completely wrong.

I can't explain the suggestion made by the journey planner, then....

 

[Mojo]

The SE Traveline (which is based on the same technology as the TFL journey planner) does have a 'feedback' button so if you do get offered a ludicrous journey, you can at least bring it to the attention of 'the management' fairly easily, and they will attempt to establish which particular bit of nonsense has generated it and resolve it.

As the TfL (not TFL) website and Journey planner is being completely re-done (http://beta.tfl.gov.uk) then I would suggest that they would only be looking at changes to published schedules rather than making any more in-depth changes.

 

[bicbasher]

There are some differences in the beta and current Journey Planner.

Using Forest Hill to Charing Cross as an example and ticking Rail, London Overground and Tube, the old planner suggests Southern and Southeastern changing at London Bridge and the ELL, Jubilee and Northern or Bakerloo, where as the beta edition suggests the latter only.

 

[Be3G]

I can confirm (having used the TfL journey planner probably thousands of times over the years) that setting a via point does just mean you want the journey to go via that point; it doesn't assume you want to get off and on again there.

I can also confirm that the journey planner does indeed do some strange things at times. For example, planning a journey at 14:17 today from Glyn Road (a bus stop) to Loughton station via Chingford station, it suggests departing at 14:23 to catch a bus, then train, then bus, then tube, arriving at 15:52. If you subsequently remove all of the available modes except for the bus, it then figures out the sensible option: 14:23, two buses, arriving at 15:10.