TfL suspends open data feed

The organisation has said that after it relaxed terms and conditions surrounding the publicly available information of London's tube, bus and river services on 15 June, it received 10m hits a week, which overloaded its gateway system. Under the new conditions, web developers are able to use departure time data to create commercial mobile phone apps for commuters without having to obtain TfL's permission beforehand. Although TfL has said it is "encouraged" by the interest in the data, the organisation added that it had no other option but to temporarily close down the feed to cope with demand. "We are really encouraged that the feed to our tube departure information is so popular and TfL is doing everything to restore it as soon as possible, but this may take some time," said Steve Townsend, director of information management for London Underground, one of the services within TfL. "We're sorry for the temporary disruption to this API Beta feed and we will provide an update as soon as we have further information."