Open Data Train Timetable Websites

[Statto]

Found timetables 2 quite good, but hate the lack of Freight times

 

[jamieintercity]

I find timetables 2 very useful but the calendar is quite annoying (hope they can fix it) and the lack of showing what train is formed of (class 170 or class 158 etc)

Forgot to mention is any word of showing freight and charter trains on the websites?

 

[lyndhurst25]

Now that all the Working Timetables (passenger and freight) are publicly available for download from Network Rail's website, does that increase the chance of freight times coming back to these sites soon?

 

[Temple Meads]

Now that all the Working Timetables (passenger and freight) are publicly available for download from Network Rail's website, does that increase the chance of freight times coming back to these sites soon?

I hope so.

It's been far too long

 

[Rhydgaled]

I find timetables 2 very useful but the calendar is quite annoying (hope they can fix it) and the lack of showing what train is formed of (class 170 or class 158 etc)

Have any of the websites actually got a mention of what stock is diagramed on a service yet (as opposed to what the service is timed for, which isn't the same thing), or even live reports of which unit is running it on a given day?

 

[Skimble19]

Now that would be extremely useful at times but I bet it won't happen anytime soon.

 

[The Planner]

Unless there is an ability to interogate TOPS then i doubt it. There arent many people within the industry that have access to it.

 

[Poggs]

Unless there is an ability to interogate TOPS then i doubt it. There arent many people within the industry that have access to it.

There isn't any 'open' access to GEMINI.

I suppose a periodic dump of GEMINI data in to another platform which can be interrogated instead would be possible - I haven't had the time to think about what that might entail.

What's the general use case for diagrammed stock types? Is there one? Or is it a 'nice to have'?

 

[The Planner]

Purely spotter based I would have thought, unless you were looking for a particular loco or unit what use does it have ?

 

[Poggs]

Purely spotter based I would have thought, unless you were looking for a particular loco or unit what use does it have ?

The only use I can think of is knowing what class of train it is, possibly to work out if it has toilets - or how many carriages.

Then again, what if the data isn't kept up-to-date in real-time? Is no data better than inaccurate data?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

As someone who wouldn't know the difference between one class and another, I do still have a very real need to know . . . .

When I take my bike on East Coast trains, I need to know which end of the platform to be standing at when boarding at an intermediate station. It can even come as a surprise to dispatch staff to find that an electric set has been substituted for a booked HST or vice versa, and if that happens, then running along 200 meters of platform full of passengers with a bike can be quite hazardous.
But to be helpful, then the information would have to reflect the actual running set, and not just the 'booked' set. It would be enough if the information was available to platform staff (via radio to the Station Management Office), but I've known that information to come back to them with the class of the 'booked' set, and not the running set.
A similar need to know applies to sets running in reverse formation. I've known that information to be communicated to a station if the Guard has notified the station by phone while en route, and not otherwise communicated by any on-line systems being used by Station staff. (FGW seem to be more effective at identifying reverse formation HSTs than EC, in my experience, but whether that is because they use another layer of procedures and comms., or they use available data more effectively, I couldn't tell)

Hope that helps.

 

[DAH]

http://headcodes.info/

Apparently I missed putting this one in the poll. Seems very similar to OTT.

Adam

EDIT: WOW! It converts into PDF so you can print train schedules!

Just so you know, there is a couple of errors/problems with the PDF downloads, but version 3 is being worked on with more functionality/interact-ability and repaired PDF functions

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The only use I can think of is knowing what class of train it is, possibly to work out if it has toilets - or how many carriages.

Then again, what if the data isn't kept up-to-date in real-time? Is no data better than inaccurate data?

Information about a service being run with a different class of train or fewer carriages than usual could be extremely useful because that can warn you if there'll be fewer seats available. For busy rush hour trains, you could decide based on that information to retime your journey to take a different train.

 

[yorkie]

I don't care what number the loco or coaches are or anything like that, but as DaveNewcastle says, I am very interested in what type of train it is. Which way round the train is would be nice to have too - but less important.

 

[Poggs]

Just so you know, there is a couple of errors/problems with the PDF downloads, but version 3 is being worked on with more functionality/interact-ability and repaired PDF functions

There's also this - http://headcodes.info/search.php?stn=<h1>Vulnerable to injection</h1>&sd=120813&st=a - really big problem with the site

 

[Rhydgaled]

The only use I can think of is knowing what class of train it is, possibly to work out if it has toilets - or how many carriages.

Then again, what if the data isn't kept up-to-date in real-time? Is no data better than inaccurate data?

As others have said, it can be useful to know of short-formed trains and trains in reverse formation.

In addition, one of my reasons for wanting such a feature is to see whether a service is diagramed to be run by appropriate stock, for example if there's a choice it would be more comfortable to make a long journey on a regional express unit than a class 150. For really long journeys it would also be useful to be able to pick a service equiped with a buffet car for an evening meal. Also, if the number of the actual unit running each service was made available it would be possible (provided you can look at records over the past week or so) for campainers to work out the diagrams and hence find any units with exccessivly long layover periods which could be used to improve the service, or to prove that a service improvment is not possible and use that to fight for additional rolling stock.

 

[Poggs]

As others have said, it can be useful to know of short-formed trains and trains in reverse formation.

I am not sure if GEMINI holds information about which way 'around' a train is facing, but I will ask some questions.

I don't mean to sound bolshy about the unit-information situation - GEMINI isn't run by Network Rail, but by another company, so there will need to be a different approach to getting access to the data.

Consider me "on the case", at least experimentally

 

[jamieintercity]

There are 4 main websites (or there seem to be) that we use on here to access open data train times. I don't know much about them, but I was wondering which one is best. Which do you think is best? What do you use most often? My opinions are shown below. Please comment.

Adam

Timetables 2
http://rail.staging.swlines.co.uk/
Pros

• Shows all extra trains and empty stock movements
• Always uses detailed mode
• Shows entire day's worth of trains on one page
• Can be used for any day
• Shows what trains are formed from/go on to form (e.g. formed from 2W86 from London Liverpool Street)

Cons

• Dates infinite so not clear where data exists
• No calendar
• Very complicated to use
• No info on type of stock used
• Horrendously difficult user interface

they changed this website to realtraintimes.info and the site is horrendous.

But its not that bad, its just getting the date and time for a certain day and even gives you the real time for a train passing a certain station in the day

 

[Tom]

they changed this website to realtraintimes.info and the site is horrendous.

But its not that bad, its just getting the date and time for a certain day and even gives you the real time for a train passing a certain station in the day

How strange. All I did was remove two text boxes and compress the rows a little bit...

 

[jamieintercity]

How strange. All I did was remove two text boxes and compress the rows a little bit...

Much better, i take it your in charge of the website. A big improvement since i last used it over the weekend

 

[Tom]

I take it by that you're using Internet Explorer and found the two issues which no other browser on the market anywhere has a problem with (would have appreciated an email to point it out - contact details are on the site!)

 

[jamieintercity]

I take it by that you're using Internet Explorer and found the two issues which no other browser on the market anywhere has a problem with (would have appreciated an email to point it out - contact details are on the site!)

yes i did, the boxes where the location, date and time etc were at the top left of page, i had to go back to the previous page and by refreshing the page, the layout changed to the orginal version. when did the site get updated?

 

[Tom]

Which bit? www.realtimetrains.co.uk launched about a fortnight ago, the IE fixing bug about 14 minutes ago

 

[jamieintercity]

Which bit? www.realtimetrains.co.uk launched about a fortnight ago, the IE fixing bug about 14 minutes ago

kept using rail.staging.swlines.co.uk for the past few weeks, www.realtimetrains.co.uk replaced it when accessing from google. Only noticed the new website today.

 

[Tom]

Oh, in that case, I started redirecting the beta site at around 3am this morning.

 

[greatkingrat]

I think the new site is great - when there are delays it will be interesting to look back at the root cause and see how the knock-on effects delay other trains.

One suggestion - displaying late trains in a different colour would make them stand out more, maybe use red for late trains, and then use a different colour for the VAR/STP services?

 

[Tom]

One suggestion - displaying late trains in a different colour would make them stand out more, maybe use red for late trains, and then use a different colour for the VAR/STP services?

On the basic view, they're already colour coded to that degree. Working out a new colour scheme for the advanced view at the moment

(example http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/basic/?location=bcu&time=1600&date=22/10/2012)

 

[The Planner]

Where is it picking up locations from that are never going to be used for timing and calculating WTT times that don't exist ? I'm looking at a Northampton - New St train and it is showing locations such at International South and International North Jn.

 

[Tom]

Same place as the old site on rail.staging.swlines.co.uk, it uses mileage.railmiles.org to extrapolate intermediate locations in order to provide more data to work with if I want to in the future

 

[greatkingrat]

I think the difference is that the old site distinguished between actual passing times and estimated passing times, while the new site doesn't.

Maybe have "pass 1634" for a WTT time, and "est 1634" for an estimated time?