Tube Map App Lets You Watch Trains Live As They Travel Through The London Underground

Ever want to see where exactly the train that you’re waiting for is? Well now you can — well, if you live in London anyway. The new “Tube Map Live” app provides a live, real-time view of the London Underground, and all of its trains — perhaps an appealing distraction while waiting for your train? Or maybe just for those that like trains and public transportation systems a lot.

Oh, and the basic version of the app is completely free — for both the iPhone and the iPad. So no need to make a decision about whether it’s worth buying or not. 🙂 For a free app, it really looks pretty nice. I recommend checking it out.

Image Credit: © Tube Map Live

TreeHugger has some more details:

Transport for London provides open live data of where all its trains are at any time. This has allowed smartphone app makers to build really cool apps that give you a live view of the whole transit network, one of these being Tube Map Live, a free app for both iPhone and iPad (the same people also make Tube Tracker, a more full-featured app, but it costs £1.99).

If you want to plan trips and track specific trains, Tube Map Live isn’t for you. But if you simply want to play around with a live map of the London Underground and once in a while look up where a train is, this is perfect.

On a somewhat related note, for those of you that live in London but prefer to ride your bike rather than take the train, well you’re apparently not even close to being alone, a recent report from Transport for London found that cyclists now account for over 24% of the vehicles on the roads of London during the morning rush hour. That’s quite impressive — while taking the train is certainly better than driving, cycling is likely a good bit better in most regards. 🙂 And it provides a number of great health benefits, as well.