Gordon Brown’s aim with aid mobile apps

Rating: My Rail Lite iPhone app didn’t die for nothing

There’s hope for the author of My Rail Lite, a free iPhone app which skimmed data from the UK’s National Rail Enquiries online database. A report in the Daily Telegraph says that UK premier, Gordon Brown, plans to give wider access to train, tube and bus service to mobile phone users.

The original My Rail Lite ban happened back in January [2009] while by June 2009, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) announced it was investigating complaints that Rail Enquiries’ actions were a breach of fair competition legislation.

The decision to get My Rail Lite banned from the Apple App Store looked particularly suspicious when Rail Enquiries’ parent, the Association of Train Operating Companies, launched a similar app for £4.99.

GoMo News couldn’t track down My Rail Lite’s author – which appears to be Mobiletipstricks.com for a reaction.

This appears to be a classic case of Net stalwarts insisting that all information should be free versus commercial companies insisting that the data held in databases is their IPR.

A similar dispute happened to comparison travel sites when Ryanair insisted that software houses should hold a licence to publish its data. Which is effectively what National Rail Enquiries did.

If Gordon Brown suceeds with this travel data liberalisation, then perhaps we will see an explosion of live travel information mobile apps.

Tony is based in Surrey and is a veteran journalist he writes on the UK market…. contact him here mailto:tony@mobileinsight.co.uk