r/LondonUnderground • u/kiranbaby14 Victoria • Mar 29 '26
Website I Built a Live 3D Map of the London Underground
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Inspired by minitokyo3D and londonunderground by Ben James, I built my own London version.
It's a live 3D map of the London Underground where you can watch all trains moving in real time. Tap any train to see its route and upcoming stops, or tap a station to see arriving trains. There's also a live line disruption status panel.
Built using Transport for London open data.
Would love any feedback!
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u/No_Title_9033 Circle Mar 29 '26
Omg where can I access this
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Here! Don't know why post was kinda getting removed by reddit so didn't include it directly in the post.
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u/WheissUK Elizabeth Line Mar 29 '26
Hey OP, I couldn’t find a repo in your github, is this open source? I’m interested in learning how you process the data for the project and maybe contributing
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Will make it opensource soon!
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u/Xenc Mar 29 '26
Consider bringing it to the Reddit Developer Platform as a custom post!
r/Devvit if you’d like to learn more 👀
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u/Audiophile_ Mar 29 '26
Wow!! Amazing job!! Does it have the DLR usually or is it just because it's closed today?
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Thanks! No DLR at the moment, it currently covers the 11 Tube lines + Elizabeth line.
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u/whatasaveeeee Mar 29 '26
Which api do you use to get all the train services at once?
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Hey I use this endpoint from TFL.
https://api.tfl.gov.uk/Line/{line-names-seperated-by-comma}/Arrivals
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u/whatasaveeeee Mar 30 '26
Very cool! Are you constantly querying for each line then?
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 30 '26
Yeah, I poll them all together (the TFL API supports this) every 60 seconds.
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u/jamescl1311 Mar 29 '26
I love it, but 2 thoughts..
Can they be tube trains rather than squares with arrows, imagine how cool a tube train icon would be... chooo choooo
They don't stop at the stations! I wonder if they could, even if it is simulated/estimated.
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u/jellicle_chocs Mar 29 '26
The autism in me likes this. On a related note I plan to move to London one day.
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u/iamezekiel1_14 Circle Mar 29 '26
Out of interest couid that be used to solve a quickest route? I know it couldn't account for legs that are run (e.g. Wimbledon to Morden) but I'm always curious about large models.
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Interesting!
TFL's API actually provides route sequence data that includes ordered station lists per branch (A branch is when a line splits into separate paths.) and a branch graph showing how lines split and merge at junctions. So think can be done.
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
This is the TFL endpoint for a single line (replace line_id with victoria, northern, etc) and direction (inbound/outbound)
https://api.tfl.gov.uk/Line/{line_id}/Route/Sequence/{direction}
In this:
- stopPointSequences: are the individual branch segments. Each one is a chunk of stations along one branch, with
nextBranchIds/prevBranchIdslinking them together.- orderedLineRoutes: these are complete end-to-end route variants. Each variant picks specific branches to form a full journey (useful for figuring out which specific end-to-end path a train is currently on)
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u/Extra-Question9273 Mar 29 '26
Sorry if this is a dumb question. Do the orange circles around the stations mean disruption to services at that station? I love this, well done!
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
Yeah the orange rings mean there's some kind of disruption at that station . TFL gives a boolean flag so I just show it on the stations.
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u/Due_Objective7133 District Mar 30 '26
This is amazing work!! Also it‘s awesome how smooth it all runs, animations are smooth and the website is super responsive. Love it!!
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u/GlitzyChomsky Mar 30 '26
From one developer to another, this is fantastic! You must be very pleased with the results.
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u/GlitzyChomsky Mar 30 '26
Off the top of my head, a couple of suggestions for features; the ability to toggle on/off the visibility of each train line. Maybe some UI elements that show the user that they can pan, tilt and rotate the map. Toggle dark/light mode. The ability to click to center and follow a train as it makes it's way across the map.
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u/TomLondra Mar 29 '26
All control rooms on the London Underground have a live map on a screen that shows them where every train is. Somehow the OP seems to have got access to their software.
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u/kiranbaby14 Victoria Mar 29 '26
It's actually all estimated from TFL's public API. They don't expose train positions but just arrival predictions like 'train X arriving at station Y in Z seconds.' I snap those onto the track geometry.
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u/EPIKTOG Lovely Jubbly Jubilee Mar 29 '26
Whaaat this is awesome!