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About TransWandsworth

TransWandsworth is a web site providing transport information for the London borough of Wandsworth. It was built and is maintained by me, Benedict Hazel.

As well as information, several interactive features are available for journey planning and accessing live travel information.

Current Site Version: 4.01

TransWandsworth has been tested on, and works with, Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.

The site has been confirmed to not function properly on Internet Explorer 7 and older, and Konqueror.

Awards

In February 2007, TransWandsworth was awarded the TSAwards Gold Award, achieving 10/10 for content, functionality, graphics, and usefulness to the general public.

Site History

The site was first conceptualised in April 2004 as the Local Transport Finder, providing bus, Tube, and National Rail information for the neighbourhood in which I live in Wandsworth. It went live on 2nd January 2005, being named TransWandsworth very much at last minute. In March 2006, the site was scaled up to provide information about the entire borough of Wandsworth. Later that year in June, version 2.0 was released, which involved a complete rewrite of the site into valid XHTML from rather invalid HTML!

January 2007 saw the launch of version 3.0 with "Something emerges from the mist!" branding. This update offered an updated, more "mellow" colour scheme compared to the bright colours used in versions 1 and 2. It also offered new sections for the new Other Transport Services and Out & About sections.

In June 2008, I began to plan for version 4, which was scheduled for release in July 2009 (!). Version 4 would consist of an entirely new design after 5 years of the theme used in versions 1-3. Additionally, due to some difficulties and length of time required in editing some parts of the site, several low-demand or high maintenance features would be removed, and careful measures would be taken to ensure all files related to styles and site scripting could be easily edited without causing any issues elsewhere on the site. Also, site data, such as bus route information, would be moved from raw HTML text to central databases allowing for considerably easier update to the data and presentation of it on the site.

On 31st January 2010, version 4 was released, offering an entirely new design and simpler navigation system for end-users. It was also based on an entirely different technology base from previous versions of the site, based on the Microsoft Web Platform. Pages are written in ASP.NET and data is stored in Microsoft SQL databases. Third party web sites and applications can also integrate features from TransWandsworth with the twAPI, which comprises a set of XML web services.

So, where from here? If the current timeframe is kept up, TransWandsworth 5 is due in July 2011!