London Bus Hunter (LBH) is not your typical bus ETA app. LBH unlocks enthusiast-centric features in the palm of your hands.
Background
Why did I build the app?
As an avid bus enthusiast I love knowing which bus type will be aiding me in my journeys. The official TfL website was basic enough for me to use for retriving ETA times and bus stops (local or by route, per direction). But gave no information on the vehicle registration, fleet code, or operator.
I came across another website which provided the enthusiast centric features I was looking for, but it lacked some functionality that the average user would need. It also not very optimized for mobile, which made it tedious to use when leisurely travelling out and about.
For a long time I had to use the TfL website and the enthusiast tool. Instead of constantly switching tabs in my browser and struggling to navigate desktop-focused websites, I decided to marry the two.
Technologies
App
Back in my university days, Java was my main tool. This made native Android app development much easier to learn. In early 2020 I discovered Flutter, an easy to learn framework for Android and iOS development!
So I took time to learn the framework and release a newer, fresher version of the app. Easier to maintain and potential for more platform availability
API
The back-end was initially written in PHP. This eventually got too difficult to maintain so I migrated to Java using Spring. This conventiently lined up with the Java code I had for the Android app.
The Java application hosts a REST API to handle all communication to the TfL API feed.
Features
Rare Vehicles
LBH will show you which vehicles are rare or new to a route. You can sort these results by Fleet Code, Operator Name, Route Name, or ETA.
Route and Vehicle History
LBH stores up to 3 months worth of historical bus workings in it’s database (Sorting functionality coming later). Historical vehicle usage data is not provided by TfL. All data is recorded by LBH.
Gallery
Contact
Please contact us by emailing londonbushunter@gmail.com