Transport Direct
Travel planning just got easier with Transport Direct
The online journey planner, Transport Direct has developed some free journey planning tools which enable people to receive route and timetable information for travel by car and public transport for the whole of Great Britain.
Transport Direct's free tools allow external websites to give directions to a preset destination via ‘page landing' functionality. Visitors can then enter the postcode they're travelling from into a journey search box, click a ‘Go' button, and Transport Direct journey options then appear in a new browser window.
You can implement Transport Direct's 'intelligent links' on your council's website. These are coded with the preset destination and are easily created using a pair of geographical co-ordinates (an X and Y) and a name. The co-ordinates allow Transport Direct to locate the destination, and the name governs how it shows in Transport Direct. To make it even easier Transport Direct has created an Excel spreadsheet where you can create the code for multiple locations.
Download the intelligent link excel spreadsheet (.xls, 1.8MB)
See 'live' examples on the following websites:
An alternative way of doing this would be via a journey search box, which would allow the user to enter their origin or destination in a search box, and then get directions to/from the preset location.
The Gatwick Airport website shows an example of the search box.
A technical guide, available as a PDF, tells you how you can customise your search box - both in terms of how it looks (eg to fit your company branding) and how it works (e. to specify an arrival time if you're giving directions to an event). You can find out more on the Transport Direct website.
The London Borough of Brent provide some technical information on URLs for Maps and Journey Planners on their eGovernment Register website.
Transport Direct has over 200 websites already using 'page landing' functionality so why not make it easier for your 'customers' to find the places they want to visit by giving them all the information they need to plan their journey such as routes, maps, live travel and ticket prices.
Further information, including technical expertise, is available from Miles Jackson in the Transport Direct team. Contact Miles at Miles.jackson@dft.gsi.gov.uk or on 020 7944 5842.
Transport Direct also has a number of free promotional materials should you wish to promote Transport Direct more widely.
