Users who text the ID code of their bus stop – displayed on the stop’s signage – to 87287 will be sent service updates straight to their phone.
Smartphone users will be able to access local service details for the next 30 minutes from the Transport for London travel tools webpage.
TfL is also rolling out 2,000 new Countdown signs at bus stops which offer improved visibility for visually impaired passengers.
Director of Digital London, Kulveer Ranger, said “Over 6 million bus journeys are made every day in London and this fantastic application of bus data will now enable people, wherever they are, whatever they are doing, to at their fingertips have the power to know exactly when their bus will reach any one of the capital’s 19,500 bus stops they want to use, at any time of day or night.
“This technological step forward will revolutionise the way people use London’s buses and will banish the need for them to ever wait at a bus stop again.”
TfL will release service data to external developers later this year, a move it says will allow them to design travel applications for smart phone users.
