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AKL Live for Windows

The desktop version of AKL Live: live Auckland buses, trains and ferries, a journey planner, and detailed maps, for Windows.

See it in screenshots →

The Buses screen: the 27H both ways, with live scenes, countdowns and a real photo of the bus that's coming
Directions from Hillsborough to Auckland Airport The step-by-step view
Directions: every bus, train and ferry, planned on your PC Step by step, with live delays, reminders and calendar
The train network drawn along the real tracks, with live trains The City Rail Link with a selected train's next stops
Trains: the whole network in AT's colours, live Through the CRL, with a train's next stops
Every bus in Auckland on one map A selected bus with its route and model
Live: 600+ buses on one map Follow any bus and see which model it is
Every bus model with real photos The Fleet dex
Fleet: every model, with real photos Fleet dex: collect the models at your stop
Every route running today Waitematā station's departures
Routes: all 210, and where they go Stops: live departures from any stop or station
The Pōhutukawa theme in light mode Settings with the six colour themes
Six Auckland colour themes, light or dark Settings

More on the screenshots page.

Install

  1. Download AKL-Live-Setup-*.exe from Releases → latest and run it. It installs for your account (no admin needed), adds AKL Live to the Start menu and the desktop, and shows up in Settings → Apps for uninstalling. Running a newer installer updates it in place and keeps your settings.
  2. The first time it opens, it asks for an Auckland Transport API key. They're free: sign up at dev-portal.at.govt.nz, subscribe to AT's GTFS and real-time APIs, and paste your primary key in. AKL Live checks it with AT and keeps it on your computer. Directions and the maps work before you add one.

Windows may warn that the installer isn't signed: choose More info → Run anyway.

What's in it

  • Directions (Ctrl+D). Plan any trip across Auckland by bus, train and ferry, like the AT app's journey planner, but running on this computer.
    • From and To take saved places (Home, Work), recent places, any stop or station, or any address or landmark. You can also right-click the map or pick a point on it.
    • Leave now, depart at, or arrive by, today or tomorrow. Options for how far you'll walk, how fast, how many changes, and bus, train or ferry.
    • Options are tagged Fastest, Least walking and Fewest changes. Each one shows its legs, when to leave, the first ride's live delay and how many stops away it is, and any alerts along the way.
    • The step-by-step view has turn-by-turn walking directions and every stop with its time. For each ride it shows live delays (with the timetabled time crossed out), which bus it is (model, operator, fleet number, how full), and where it is now. The map draws the whole journey along the real route, and tracks your bus live.
    • Remind me to leave sends a Windows alert a minute before you need to head out. Copy directions puts the trip on the clipboard, and Add to calendar saves it as an event with a nudge before it's time to go.
  • Stops. Search any stop, station or wharf by name or number, or click one on the map.
    • Live departures on every route (a station shows all its platforms), with delays, stops away, the model and how full each one is.
    • Approaching buses on the map, alerts at that stop, favourites, stops near home or anywhere you right-click, and "add to Buses".
  • Buses. A hello for the time of day ("Mōrena", "Ahiahi mārie") and a line on how things look ("Sweet as, the 27H is on time"), then the 27H at Aldersgate Road, both ways, each with a live scene: the bus drives in as it counts down, under Auckland's real sky and weather.
    • Next bus in detail, "leave in 3 min" (or which bus you can still catch), the next five buses, and the rest of today's timetable.
    • A live route map, the weather for the next six hours, and alerts affecting your route or stops at the top.
  • Trains. Auckland's whole rail network in AT's line colours (East West, South City, Onehunga West, and Te Huia to Hamilton), drawn along the real tracks from AT's timetable.
    • Lines that share rails run side by side, in the order they really sit. Where lines use different platforms (the CRL and the western line at Maungawhau), each keeps to its own, and a bar joins the station's platforms.
    • Every train sits where its GPS puts it, snapped onto its line. It points the way it's heading, with a dot when it's running late.
    • Click a train for its next stops, or a station for departures from every platform. Satellite and Map show the same over aerial photos or streets.
  • Live. Every bus in Auckland on one map (about 1,200 at rush hour), plus trains and ferries if you like.
    • Search by route, fleet number or model. Showing a route draws its path each way and its stops.
    • Click a vehicle for its destination, delay, speed, load and model, the rest of its route with its next stops and times, and Follow it.
  • Routes. Every bus, train and ferry route running today, searchable; click one to see it and its buses on the live map.
  • Fleet. Every bus model on the road, with a real photo of each and how many are out, and a page per model with its specs, fleet numbers and a live map. Photos come from the AT Metro Wiki (CC BY-SA) or Wikimedia Commons, credited on each.
  • Fleet dex. Collect the bus models: each one counts once it pulls up at one of your stops. From "Rookie spotter" to "Depot legend".
  • Alerts. Every current and upcoming disruption: detours, moved stops, no service. Yours come first, with a badge in the sidebar.
  • Maps, in detail.
    • Satellite photos (Esri, or LINZ's 7.5 cm aerials with a free key) with roads, street names, suburbs and places drawn over them, or OpenFreeMap's street map with hillshading.
    • All 5,800 stops appear as you zoom in; click one for its departures.
  • Search everything (Ctrl+K): places and addresses (for directions), stops (for departures), routes (on the live map), fleet numbers, bus models, screens and actions.
  • Desktop extras.
    • A tray icon with the countdown, and Windows alerts before your bus.
    • An always-on-top desk board (Ctrl+M), and taskbar right-click shortcuts.
    • Six colour themes, each after something Auckland (Waitematā, Pōhutukawa, Kawakawa, Kōwhai, Rangitoto, Tūī), light or dark following Windows, and Kiwi mode's te reo greetings and local slang.
    • Windows 11 Mica, start with Windows, close to the tray.
    • Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+1–9, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+R, F11.

How it's built

Electron around plain web pages in src/ (no framework, no bundler).

  • The journey planner is our own: src/js/gtfs-worker.js runs in a Web Worker.
    • It reads AT's full timetable (gtfs.zip, about 29 MB). The desktop app fetches it and checks for a new one every six hours.
    • It compiles one service day (about 15,000 trips and 450,000 stop times) into typed arrays. That takes about 2 seconds, and the result is cached in IndexedDB, so it's instant after the first time each day. Tomorrow is compiled when you first ask for it.
    • Routing is RAPTOR (round-based public transit routing) with walking transfers of up to 450 m between stops. A search takes around 10 ms, and it's rerun a few times to find several departures.
    • Live delays, vehicle positions and cancellations come from AT's realtime feeds.
  • Maps are MapLibre GL (src/vendor, v5, BSD-3), using these sources:
    • Esri World Imagery or LINZ aerials.
    • OpenFreeMap vector tiles for streets, labels and buildings (© OpenStreetMap contributors).
    • AWS / Mapzen elevation tiles, for hill shading.
  • Places and walking: Photon for address search, and FOSSGIS OSRM for walking directions (both OpenStreetMap data).
  • Alerts come from AT's servicealerts feed.

src/js/data/ is generated from the Android repo: the train network (stations, platforms and lines, in AT's GTFS colours), the 27H's stops and the fleet list. Re-run this after changing them there:

python tools/import_android.py

python tools/make_icon.py redraws the icons. python tools/dev_server.py serves src/ for trying things in a browser, and proxies the timetable download. For live data there, add your key in Settings, or put it in src/js/keys.js (gitignored) as window.AKL_KEYS = { at: "…" }.

Building

GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/build.yml) builds the installer on windows-latest on every push to main, with electron-builder (NSIS), and publishes it to the latest release. No API key is built in. Locally, with Node 22: npm install, then npm start to run it or npm run dist for the installer.