We are aware from all the comments on the Datastore blog that there is a lot of frustration in the developer community regarding the restoration of the TfL Trackernet feed. We hope that the recent release by TfL of bus and tube timetables and schedules along with the release of their live message boards and live traffic disruptions gives you some assurance regarding TfL’s ongoing commitment to the release of their data.

When Trackernet went live initially there was an understandable huge spike in usage which accounted for almost 10 million hits in a two-week period. This put tremendous pressure on the Trackernet system so much so that Trackernet was unavailable for a nine hour period. Clearly this impacted directly on TfL’s core business as well as the travelling public and is obviously something that needs to be avoided in the future.

There is also a cost associated for TfL to cope with this kind of pressure and current discussions are focused on finding a way to deal with both cost and pressure. These discussions involve a number of stakeholders and it is taking time to find a resolution. However we are hopeful that we will get a resolution within the next 8 weeks and access to Trackernet can be restored in a sustainable way for the longer term.

As soon as we know here in the London Datastore we will Tweet and post. Thanks for your patience.