How long until train times are automatically surfaced to your UI?

Being able to query train times via phone without having to speak to an operator is one of the most exciting functions I use regularly. It might not be flash but it delivers significant utility. However I’m still irritated that I have to locate the app, run it, wait for it to think, then select a station and then select a train and so on. Given that my device knows I’m heading into London (from my calendar, and from inferring via past actions) it would be nice if correct train times were displayed in the background or faintly, waiting for me to bring them into focus. How long before we have a user interface and ecosystem capable of supporting this? What I’m referring to definitely isn’t ‘app centric’. It’s ‘service centric’ — so iOS won’t handle this too well until a significant iteration. I could imagine BBX and Android being able to handle it alongside Windows Phone 8 or 9?
Photo

Posted via email from MIR Live

About Ewan

Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.
  • Mike42

    Have you used the Siri location reminder feature? I don’t see why Siri couldn’t surface a timetable or app based on location.

  • Anonymous

    The ‘Rail Planner Live’ Android app (the Thales one) has a nice widget which shows live departures or arrivals for your set station (optional destination, which it will reverse based on your location). It’s one of the better widgets i’ve seen actually – it just shows very useful information clearly, with late trains showing in red etc.

    Unfortunately, this isn’t the most open of areas to innovation due to the data being locked-down by national rail, so calender or history-based cleverness will only appear if one of the licencees decides that it will.

    On a side-note, I have a feeling that the Android Google Maps/navigation app if applying some sort of history-based heuristics to destination selection – it always shows me work/home first in the morning/evening, but shows others things in the middle of the day or at weekends. I like!

Switch to our mobile site