Transport For London (TFL)

Transport for London (TFL) is the local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, providing real-time data feeds for buses, tubes, trains, and other public transportation services.

Power end-to-end data operations for your Transport For London (TFL) API with Nexla. Our bi-directional Transport For London (TFL) connector is purpose-built for Transport For London (TFL), making it simple to ingest data, sync it across systems, and deliver it anywhere — all with no coding required. Nexla turns API-sourced data into ready-to-use, reusable data products and makes it easy to send data to Transport For London (TFL) or any other destination. With comprehensive monitoring, lineage tracking, and access controls, Nexla keeps your Transport For London (TFL) workflows fast, secure, and fully governed.

Features

Type: API

SourceDestination

• Seamless API Integration: Connect to any endpoint as source or destination without coding, with automatic data product creation
• Visual Composition & Chaining: Build complex integrations using visual templates, chain API calls, and compose workflows with data validation and filtering
• API Proxy: Expose curated slices of your data securely with a secure and customizable API proxy that validates and transforms data on the fly
• Request optimization with intelligent batching, retry, and caching to minimize API calls and costs

Prerequisites

Before creating a TFL credential, you need to register for an Application Key on the TFL API Portal. TFL uses API key authentication for all API requests, with the Application Key sent as a URL parameter (app_key).

To obtain your TFL Application Key, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the TFL API Portal in your web browser.

2. Click Sign in or Register to create a new account or sign in to your existing account.

3. If you're creating a new account, complete the registration process by providing your email address and creating a password.

4. After signing in, navigate to My Account or Applications in the API Portal.

5. Click Create Application or Register Application to create a new application for API access.

6. Configure your application settings:

   • Enter a name for the application (e.g., "Nexla Integration")
   • Enter an application description (optional)
   • Review and accept the terms of service

7. Click Create or Register to create the application.

8. After the application is created, you will be provided with your Application Key. Copy the Application Key immediately, as it may not be accessible again after you navigate away from the page.

9. Store the Application Key securely, as you will need it to configure your Nexla credential. The Application Key is sensitive information and should be kept confidential.

The Application Key is sent as the app_key URL parameter for all API requests to the TFL API. The key authenticates your requests and grants access to TFL data feeds based on your application's subscription. Without an API key, access is limited to 50 requests per minute. If your Application Key is compromised, you should immediately revoke it in the TFL API Portal and generate a new one. For detailed information about API registration, authentication, and available endpoints, refer to the TFL API Portal and TFL API documentation.

Authenticate

Credentials required

Authorization using an application key (can be obtained after registration on https://api-portal.tfl.gov.uk/signin).

Field	Required	Secret	Description
Application Key	Yes	Yes	Application Key that identifies your application/subscription on Transport For London website

Create a credential in Nexla

1. After selecting the data source/destination type, click the Add Credential tile to open the Add New Credential overlay.

New Credential Overlay – Transport For London (TFL)

2. Enter a name for the credential in the Credential Name field and a short, meaningful description in the Credential Description field.

3. TFL uses API key authentication for all API requests. Enter your TFL Application Key in the Application Key field. This is the Application Key you obtained from the TFL API Portal in Prerequisites. The Application Key is sent as the app_key URL parameter for all API requests to the TFL API and must be kept confidential.

   Your TFL Application Key can be found in the TFL API Portal (https://api-portal.tfl.gov.uk/) under My Account > Applications. The Application Key is generated when you create an application.

   The Application Key is sent as the app_key URL parameter for all API requests to the TFL API. Without an API key, access is limited to 50 requests per minute. The key authenticates your requests and grants access to TFL data feeds based on your application's subscription.

   If your Application Key is compromised, you should immediately revoke it in the TFL API Portal and generate a new one. The Application Key provides access to TFL data feeds and should be treated as sensitive information. Keep your Application Key secure and do not share it publicly.

   For detailed information about API registration, authentication, and available endpoints, see the TFL API Portal and TFL API documentation.

4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the overlay. The newly added credential will now appear in a tile on the Authenticate screen during data source/destination creation.

Use as a data source

To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Select the Transport for London (TFL) connector tile, then select the credential that will be used to connect to the TFL API, and click Next; or, create a new TFL credential for use in this flow.

Endpoint templates

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common TFL endpoints. Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below.

Get air quality feed

This endpoint template retrieves air quality data feed from the Transport for London API. Use this template when you need to access real-time air quality information for London for analysis, reporting, or integration purposes.

• This endpoint automatically retrieves air quality data from the TFL API. No additional configuration is required beyond selecting this endpoint template.

This endpoint returns real-time air quality data feed from the Transport for London API, including air quality indices, pollutant levels, and other air quality metrics. The endpoint returns current air quality information for London.

For detailed information about air quality data, API response structures, and available air quality metrics, see the TFL API Portal documentation.

Gets the list of available StopPoint modes

This endpoint template retrieves a list of available StopPoint modes from the Transport for London API. Use this template when you need to access information about available transportation modes (e.g., bus, tube, train) for analysis, reporting, or integration purposes.

• This endpoint automatically retrieves all available StopPoint modes from the TFL API. No additional configuration is required beyond selecting this endpoint template.

This endpoint returns a list of available StopPoint modes from the Transport for London API, including mode IDs, names, and other mode metadata. Use this endpoint to discover available transportation modes for use with other endpoints.

For detailed information about StopPoint modes, API response structures, and available mode data, see the TFL API Portal documentation.

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu to retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched. Sample data will be displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right, allowing you to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

Manual configuration

TFL data sources can also be manually configured to ingest data from any valid TFL API endpoint, including endpoints not covered by the pre-built templates, chained API calls, or custom query parameters. Select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen, and follow the instructions in Connect to Any API to configure the API method, endpoint URL, date/time and lookup macros, path to data, metadata, and request headers.

The TFL API typically uses the GET method for retrieving data. The endpoint URL should include the API base URL (https://api.tfl.gov.uk/) plus the resource path, for example https://api.tfl.gov.uk/AirQuality or https://api.tfl.gov.uk/StopPoint/Meta/Modes. The Application Key from your credential is automatically appended as the app_key query parameter. For the Response Data Path, use $ to extract the entire response object, $[*] to extract all items from a response array, or $.{field}[*] to extract items from a specific field array, depending on the endpoint.

Once all of the relevant settings have been configured, click the Next button to proceed with the rest of the data flow configuration, or click Save to save the data source configuration for later use.