100andthirty
Member
Is anyone else having problems with this app? On my Samsung A70 (Android 9) it opens and immediately crashes. It was fine on my old phone, but that was the pre December 13 2019 version.
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National Rail Enquiries App
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RailUK Forums
On my iPhone I’ve noticed that in recent days as it launches it very briefly announces “app is performing a database migration” - for half a second or so. Never happened before, now it’s every time even if I close and immediately reopen it without using anything else in between. Not sure why that should suddenly be necessary
(You may have deduced mobile phones are something akin to wizardry to me and I don’t know very much about how stuff works on them)
(You may have deduced mobile phones are something akin to wizardry to me and I don’t know very much about how stuff works on them)
KieronQuinn
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From the point of view of a developer (Android apps are literally my day job), the app is terrible.
It looks like something from 2010, it doesn't fit the screen properly (up until they were forced to target a newer Android version late last year, it had a black bar of shame as it didn't even support the tall aspect ratio of modern phones), the interface is pretty awful and nobody seems to have bothered to QA the latest build because it crashes when trying to start a "foreground service" (sorry, jargon because there's not really a way to explain it simply) as Android 9 requires the developers to add ONE LINE to one file to make it work again. I've also been told by iOS users that the version on that platform is just as bad and has similar aspect ratio issues.
In your case you're probably having the foreground service issue, and the update you mentioned is probably the first one after the November deadline when Google started enforcing the developers "target" Android 9, meaning they had to comply with the security and code requirements for that version.
You may find it starts working again if you clear its data (Settings > Apps > National Rail > Storage > Clear data), or if you uninstall and reinstall it. Adding a widget to your home screen of it certainly seems to break it for one, and probably other stuff will do too. The only true fix is to wait for them to fix it, and hope that maybe, just maybe, there's a complete overhaul of the app in the works.
It looks like something from 2010, it doesn't fit the screen properly (up until they were forced to target a newer Android version late last year, it had a black bar of shame as it didn't even support the tall aspect ratio of modern phones), the interface is pretty awful and nobody seems to have bothered to QA the latest build because it crashes when trying to start a "foreground service" (sorry, jargon because there's not really a way to explain it simply) as Android 9 requires the developers to add ONE LINE to one file to make it work again. I've also been told by iOS users that the version on that platform is just as bad and has similar aspect ratio issues.
In your case you're probably having the foreground service issue, and the update you mentioned is probably the first one after the November deadline when Google started enforcing the developers "target" Android 9, meaning they had to comply with the security and code requirements for that version.
You may find it starts working again if you clear its data (Settings > Apps > National Rail > Storage > Clear data), or if you uninstall and reinstall it. Adding a widget to your home screen of it certainly seems to break it for one, and probably other stuff will do too. The only true fix is to wait for them to fix it, and hope that maybe, just maybe, there's a complete overhaul of the app in the works.
The thing that really, really irritates me about it (Android v9) is that when you're looking at journey planner results, and press back to return to the options screen (there's no in-app button to do that, so you have to use the phone's back button) often it will just exit the app, and you have to re-open it to re-plan a journey from scratch.
For that reason alone, the NRE app is my last resort. I prefer the "Commuter Train Check" app when I'm travelling right now and tend to use fastjp, and Trainsplit for actual journey planning. They're just better.
For that reason alone, the NRE app is my last resort. I prefer the "Commuter Train Check" app when I'm travelling right now and tend to use fastjp, and Trainsplit for actual journey planning. They're just better.
Revaulx
Member
I have an iPhone and have never had any problems aspect ratio or stability-wise.
That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better though. It’s fine for single journeys but hopeless if there are changes involved.
That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better though. It’s fine for single journeys but hopeless if there are changes involved.
Are there any decent iOS apps out there that just concentrate on stations, platforms & train times?
I have no interest in buying tickets (as I have a season ticket) - I just want a simple, clean, well-designed lightweight app that simply gives me platforms & train times.
When I had a Windows Phone (years ago) I loved using one called UK Trains (I think it was) and that was fantastic for what I wanted it to do.
I have no interest in buying tickets (as I have a season ticket) - I just want a simple, clean, well-designed lightweight app that simply gives me platforms & train times.
When I had a Windows Phone (years ago) I loved using one called UK Trains (I think it was) and that was fantastic for what I wanted it to do.
duffield
Established Member
Yes, the website is OK (but I only find it usable in 'landscape mode' and have to zoom quite bit).
KieronQuinn
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Personally I just use http://realtime.nationalrail.co.uk/...D1-14D4-4CB9-83B1-A84CC3AEDF83&crs=man&H=6000 in a browser (replace "man" with your required station CRS) for quick departures. Anything more I dump the from/to into Trainline but don't actually buy a ticket
mirodo
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- 643
I’ve just discovered Railboard which is pretty good.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/railboard-national-rail/id1278747705
Screenshot:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/railboard-national-rail/id1278747705
Screenshot:
100andthirty
Member
Thanks for the insight. My phone does have a taller screen, so this might be the problem - also with the Yahoo mail app!
The website is also appalling. Horrible interface, and prone to text boxes etc jumping around as the page loads, particularly on mobile devices so I end up clicking on some stupid advert.
I use brtimes instead. Simple, quick, uncluttered and just works. A shame it doesn't do multi-leg journeys though.
The jumping during loading is to do with ads - just block'em and it behaves far better.
Every time I hit my back button when viewing the details of a journey I've looked up, it exits the app.
This is on Android 9 running on a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phone. The way to avoid this undocumented software feature is to click on another tab, such as live departure boards and then go back to the journey planner and hit the back button again.
It's a shame they don't wish to show this app some love. They aren't alone in this respect, when it comes to app developers but they are rather more high profile then some of the other apps I use. I wonder how accessible friendly it is. I find in poor light I struggle to read the train times as the text is so smal
I'll try that.
I also hate the way the website doesn't let you easily compare different journey options in 2 tabs, because it copies the journey details over from the first tab into the second, and changes the first tab details when you change those in the second.
So makes it difficult to compare prices and times between Attleborough and Birmingham vs Diss and Birmingham, for example.
For iOS, ByTrain https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bytrain-uk-train-times/id1143534497 is almost identical to the UK Trains Times / National Rail apps but updated for the modern day.
Railboard gets my vote too. It also supports dark mode on the iPhone so you have a black background if that’s what you prefer.
The last update to the NR app made it unusable as the text colour in the search station box was Almost the same as the background. I suspect this was due to a complete lack of effort to support the os dark mode.
Somebody said earlier that the be app was fine with the iPhone screen, mine certainly isn’t as there’s a large chunk of unused space above and below the app. It potentially has some good features like the notification stuff but it just looks like they couldn’t be arsed to make it look right.
londonmidland
Established Member
To me it looks like the iOS version has not been adapted for phones with screens bigger than 4 inches.
So to clarify the app hasn’t been updated to support larger screen sizes and resolutions. The first phone to have a larger screen than 4 inches was the iPhone 6, which came out in 2014
That makes it six years and counting that National Rail have done nothing to support higher resolutions.
So to clarify the app hasn’t been updated to support larger screen sizes and resolutions. The first phone to have a larger screen than 4 inches was the iPhone 6, which came out in 2014
That makes it six years and counting that National Rail have done nothing to support higher resolutions.
CambrianCoast
Member
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- 26 Jun 2012
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- 113
Seems even worse on Android. It’s embarrassing. The website isn’t much better with all those ads!
The website is unusable, imo, on Android.
The app is just about acceptable but only because I block ads at a network level, so I get the app 'unpoluted' so to speak. Without that, if I turn the blocking off, it's a pretty terrible experience.
CambrianCoast
Member
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- 26 Jun 2012
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- 113
Thankfully, most of the TOCs apps I use seem pretty decent so has allowed me to get rid of the NRE app!
I paid for it to not have the ads. This was some years ago now.
Now I get terms and conditions to accept for ads even though I don't get any ads.
Both of these are iOS only. I'm not surprised. Either it's just my own personal experience or app developers have a bias towards iOS.
Any rail apps out there that are Android only?
mirodo
Member
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- 7 Nov 2011
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Android development is generally considered to be more difficult and time consuming, due to the need to cater for a wider range of devices - operating system versions, screen size, etc.
lkpridgeon
Verified Rep - FastJP
For Android I use Train Track (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.danieltonks.traintrack). Not had any issues with it as of yet.
I thought that might be the reason. I liked Android traditionally as it wasn't as locked down as Apple's iOS.
However in recent times Google has started to lock it down more, so some of the apps I used previously no longer work due to Google deciding those apps shouldn't be allowed to do stuff. Some of the apps weren't doing anything harmful in my opinion.
100andthirty
Member
Thanks to everyone who has replied. I am currently using On Rails for real time and the Train Line/Avanti/London NorthWestern for planning (not necessarily for buying!)
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