What

I created an iOS Shortcut that shows an alert with the current status of a tube line in London. It makes use of London’s TFL API, so in order to set it up, you should register to get an app_id and an app_key.

How to install

  1. Register for free in tfl website.
  2. Once you sign in, go to Products > 500 Requests per min > add name for subscription and subscribe. This will be the app_id.
  3. Go to Profile. In Subscriptions you should see the details. Use “primary key” as your app_key.
  4. Download the shortcut from my GitHub repo.
  5. The first time you open the shortcut, you’ll be asked to provide the name of the tube line, the app_id and the app_key.
  6. Test to check if the request works correctly, you should see the current line status.

All set!

Next step is probably setting up a trigger whenever you want to get notified about this, before commuting or as morning/evening routine notification.

Some praise to TFL API

I must say I am impressed in how well documented and structured this API is. I was able to get straight to the point, no loops or wandering around, tests can be done from whithin the website itself, and they also have Postman links… I wish Barcelona’s TMB was as good, but I guess incidencies are not reported through it, so it is not useful for this case scenario 🤷‍♀️. I tried to find if RENFE has an API as well and got to a weird data API with info about train stations. Yet updated train status is nowhere to be seen.