I saw this brief story in the Niddledale Herald, I figured this would be interesting news to my network of Yorkshire based followers on Twitter.
When’s the next 36 bus?
Waiting for buses isn’t something anyone particularly enjoys, TransDev the company that runs the Harrogate & District 36 Bus route has a very good service that has improved drastically over the last decade.
Those who know Yorkshire, understand it’s actually better to get the 36 Bus than the poor train line that runs from York to Leeds, the train line goes through Harrogate and its connecting districts.
The development of this app is very useful for a number of people who regularly take the 36 for morning commutes into Leeds or Harrogate. You can now see exactly when your bus is due at your nearest stop.
The app was developed by software company TVS Media.
Transdev, Marketing and Communications Manager Paul Hodgson had this to say on the iPhone apps development, quoted from the Nidderdale Herald.
“In a high tech age, where IT is part of most people’s live, we are proud to have been the first to give passengers such useful information straight to their iphone”
I couldn’t agree with Paul more, it is great to see transport companies like TransDev taking the initiative to develop iPhone apps, as a proud iPhone owner and Mac fan boy myself, I couldn’t be happier that if I need to catch the 36 Bus route I now don’t have to sit around waiting for it.
It is FREE to download
You can download your FREE version from the App Store. Well, everyone loves the word FREE don’t they, so it should be I don’t think they could justify charging a fee for using this app. It certainly doesn’t match the higher quality of other outstanding travel apps such as the ‘National Rail‘ app.
How it all works, a short review
The App takes quite a long too load even on a Wifi connect, this could potentially be a problem on 3G or 3GS connections. I’ve yet to try it out and about. The App simply locates where you are and lets you know when the next 36 Bus will arrive at your nearest stop.
The App shows your nearest stops and the times the bus will arrive. The times of arrival are provide by the YourNextBus service. You can view sample fares to see your cost or view the map to find your stop. I tried the direction option, this didn’t seem to work overly well. Perhaps they’ll correct this in the next update.
Overall, not a bad little app. I’m interested to know what TransDev paid to develop this.
