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JayMac
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« on: April 15, 2012, 11:02:07 » |
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From the guardian: How a student used open data to beat national rail enquiries at its own gameOpening up rail data has helped Ian Shortman create a new way of negotiating Britain's train systemHow useful is open government data really? How much can you use to build things that make a difference to people's lives? It turns out that some of the most useful is the least dramatic. Recently, the Association of Train Operating Companies opened up its own data vaults to the world. It effectively means that National Rail Enquiries - which requires a licence to use its data - no longer has a monopoly on rail enquiries. Something which Bristol chemistry undergrad Ian Shortman took advantage of to create trains.im - an open source train timetable service. Why bother? Shortman says it's easy to improve on the official site. "There are a few things that I found really annoying about the railway system.
^ Not knowing the platform beforehand, especially when trying to make a quick connection
^ When getting off before the train terminates, it can be hard to know which train is yours (i.e. it's final destination) on departure boards
^ Not knowing your actual route"
So, he took the CIF-formatted data to create a site where you can map out your journey, using OpenStreetMap and where you can easily access a list of all trains between two stations in a day, see routeing and expected intermediate times for entire train journeys and a map of the route. "The interface is simple, not cluttered, and works the same on desktops as mobile applications. With National Rail Enquiries' iPhone app costing ^5, I think this public data should be easily accessible for free." http://trains.im/ |
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"A clear conscience laughs at a false accusation."
"Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot."
"Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity."
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Kernow Otter
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« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2012, 11:19:40 » |
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That's rather good. Added to my bookmarks bar in place of the NRE‡ link !
Well done that man.
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IndustryInsider
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« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2012, 11:57:36 » |
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It's useful for those that don't have access to the internal railway systems to have details of passing times and headcodes. Good work by both sites - especially the second one.
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To view my GWML▸ Electrification cab video 'before and after' video comparison, as well as other videos of the new layout at Reading and 'before and after' comparisons of the Cotswold Line Redoubling scheme, see: http://www.dailymotion.com/user/IndustryInsider/ |
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JayMac
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« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2012, 12:10:12 » |
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I've met Ian Shortman, the developer of trains.im. Very intelligent young chap who's also the webmaster for Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways. |
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"A clear conscience laughs at a false accusation."
"Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot."
"Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity."
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EBrown
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« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2012, 12:58:24 » |
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I think both Ian and Thomas are pretty intelligent!
Both websites are very good!
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Temple Meads
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« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2012, 14:08:46 » |
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Both sites are top work.
Open Train Times has proven particularly useful to me, pity it doesn't show freight any more though.
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Passenger and Enthusiast
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Rhydgaled
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« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2012, 14:45:09 » |
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Why do all three sites have a very similar look to them? Is there some condition of using the data that it must look like that? Also, is the bus data used by traveline available? I'd like to see somebody make a site that works a bit like the east coast journey planner (the one I normally use for looking up timetable information, because I find it so much eaiser than NRE‡), but has bus services in it too. I note that, even though it doesn't know about FGW▸ (Fishguard & Goodwick), Cardigan is apparently a valid location (but because it doesn't do buses, it can't show any services from Cardigan).
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----------------------------
Don't DOO▸ it, keep the guard (but it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if the driver unlocked the doors on arrival at calling points).
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EBrown
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« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2012, 15:01:45 » |
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Why do all three sites have a very similar look to them? Is there some condition of using the data that it must look like that? Also, is the bus data used by traveline available? I'd like to see somebody make a site that works a bit like the east coast journey planner (the one I normally use for looking up timetable information, because I find it so much eaiser than NRE‡), but has bus services in it too. I note that, even though it doesn't know about FGW▸ (Fishguard & Goodwick), Cardigan is apparently a valid location (but because it doesn't do buses, it can't show any services from Cardigan).
They both look like word press themes have been used on their sites. Wordpress makes it quite easy to create reasonable looking webpages; unfortunately, that means traditional web design/coding is dying out. |
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JayMac
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« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2012, 15:12:32 » |
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Also, Ian Shortman and Thomas Cairns likely know each other. On trains.im Ian acknowledges use of a piece of open source software written by Tom Cairns.
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"A clear conscience laughs at a false accusation."
"Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot."
"Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity."
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EBrown
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« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2012, 15:44:42 » |
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Also, Ian Shortman and Thomas Cairns likely know each other. On trains.im Ian acknowledges use of a piece of open source software written by Tom Cairns.
That would be the C++ (PHP & SQL) program Tom wrote to parse Network Rail's and ATOCs» CIF data feed. Tom is also behind railmiles.org |
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anthony215
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« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2012, 16:53:02 » |
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Good I have added both sites to my favourites list.
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Richard Fairhurst
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« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2012, 21:47:11 » |
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Tom has posted here, I believe, though not for several years!
The parsing stuff is seriously impressive. These aren't trivial data formats.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2012, 23:20:33 » |
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Also, Ian Shortman and Thomas Cairns likely know each other. On trains.im Ian acknowledges use of a piece of open source software written by Tom Cairns.
That would be the C++ (PHP & SQL) program Tom wrote to parse Network Rail's and ATOCs» CIF data feed. Tom is also behind railmiles.org Clever chap, used to be 'swlines' on this forum, not sure if he still monitors it mind you! Bumped into him a few times at uni... |
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EBrown
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« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2012, 23:31:27 » |
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Also, Ian Shortman and Thomas Cairns likely know each other. On trains.im Ian acknowledges use of a piece of open source software written by Tom Cairns.
That would be the C++ (PHP & SQL) program Tom wrote to parse Network Rail's and ATOCs» CIF data feed. Tom is also behind railmiles.org Clever chap, used to be 'swlines' on this forum, not sure if he still monitors it mind you! Bumped into him a few times at uni... Last active on the forum in August 08. |
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