5 ms·

I have always used traintimes.org.uk because of the excellent approach the developer took regarding urls: If I want to know the next trains from Leeds to York I

by bcraven 12y ago

I have always used traintimes.org.uk because of the excellent approach the developer took regarding urls: If I want to know the next trains from Leeds to York I can simply go to the address "traintimes.org.uk/Leeds/York". The homepage suggests the data is obtained "by screenscraping the information on the official [National Rail Enquiries] site", perhaps bypassing the Darwin Database?

phpnode 12y ago
thanks for the link, that's certainly better than thetrainline.com which has been frustrating for years. Btw you should stay in York, a bit nicer than Leeds.
kzar 12y ago
Cool, that looks really useful. The number of times I've had to fumble on thetrainline with patchy reception! Do you know any websites that figure out the cheapest combination of tickets to get you to your destination? (Sometimes buying several tickets for legs of your journey is cheaper than buying one ticket for it.)
- joshvm 12y ago
  http://www.redspottedhanky.com/ http://www.redspottedhanky.com/ is supposed to be quite good for that, though I've never used it. Never use The Train Line. They charge a booking fee. Just your local train operator, they all use exactly the same system, same database, etc but you won't pay £1 to buy the ticket.
  - kzar 12y ago
    Oh I didn't use them to book, only to check which train I needed to catch.
    - joshvm 12y ago
      In that case I just use National Rail, the website is well optimised for mobile.
- ColinWright 12y ago
  I wrote my own, and my expenditure on trains has fallen from around ukp9000 pa to around ukp5000 pa. It's actively user hostile, occasionally inaccurate, slow, and cranky. A bit like me. But I'm currently on a journey for which I padi ukp18.00 instead of ukp27.40. It's worth it for me. Email me for details. I will be slow to reply, but I will reply.
- rahimnathwani 12y ago
  Do you know any websites that figure out the cheapest combination of tickets to get you to your destination? There's an app for that: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tickety-split/id513845919?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tickety-split/id513845919?mt... Mobile web version: http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/tool.php http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/tool.php Guide: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets
  - ColinWright 12y ago
    Don't they all just work on published walk-up fares? My system also uses advances fares and relevant return and/or single journeys. I've never found an app or web site that uses the full range of options available. Probably because (as I've discovered) it's hard.
    - zimpenfish 12y ago
      Private Eye often have bon mots about how even the ticket offices don't offer people the cheapest ticket because they can't figure it out. But when you have to deal with things like (eg, I'm hope I'm remembering this right from someone I know) "EUS-CDF being more expensive than EUS-SOT + SOT-CDF even though both halves are the same train as the EUS-CDF journey", you can see how no-one has a bloody clue.
    - rahimnathwani 12y ago
      Don't they all just work on published walk-up fares? I must confess I've never used the app. I just read about it in the MSE email newsletter. I grew up in London, and didn't often have reason to take a long distance train. I have a vague childhood memory of discovering that London and England weren't synonymous.
healsjnr1 12y ago
About 5 years ago I worked for the guys [1] that provide the journey planning api behind NRE, the train line and most other UK rail journey planners. We built a public api that as far as I know is still running. It was pretty usable and the pricing was reasonable. There was always a sticking point about NRE letting us expose the real time data though - hopefully this has now been resolved. [1] http://www.silverrailtech.com/journeyplanner http://www.silverrailtech.com/journeyplanner

by bcraven 12y ago

phpnode 12y ago

thanks for the link, that's certainly better than thetrainline.com which has been frustrating for years. Btw you should stay in York, a bit nicer than Leeds.

kzar 12y ago

Cool, that looks really useful. The number of times I've had to fumble on thetrainline with patchy reception! Do you know any websites that figure out the cheapest combination of tickets to get you to your destination? (Sometimes buying several tickets for legs of your journey is cheaper than buying one ticket for it.)

joshvm 12y ago
http://www.redspottedhanky.com/ http://www.redspottedhanky.com/ is supposed to be quite good for that, though I've never used it. Never use The Train Line. They charge a booking fee. Just your local train operator, they all use exactly the same system, same database, etc but you won't pay £1 to buy the ticket.
- kzar 12y ago
  Oh I didn't use them to book, only to check which train I needed to catch.
  - joshvm 12y ago
    In that case I just use National Rail, the website is well optimised for mobile.
ColinWright 12y ago
I wrote my own, and my expenditure on trains has fallen from around ukp9000 pa to around ukp5000 pa. It's actively user hostile, occasionally inaccurate, slow, and cranky. A bit like me. But I'm currently on a journey for which I padi ukp18.00 instead of ukp27.40. It's worth it for me. Email me for details. I will be slow to reply, but I will reply.
rahimnathwani 12y ago
Do you know any websites that figure out the cheapest combination of tickets to get you to your destination? There's an app for that: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tickety-split/id513845919?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tickety-split/id513845919?mt... Mobile web version: http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/tool.php http://splitticket.moneysavingexpert.com/tool.php Guide: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets
- ColinWright 12y ago
  Don't they all just work on published walk-up fares? My system also uses advances fares and relevant return and/or single journeys. I've never found an app or web site that uses the full range of options available. Probably because (as I've discovered) it's hard.
  - zimpenfish 12y ago
    Private Eye often have bon mots about how even the ticket offices don't offer people the cheapest ticket because they can't figure it out. But when you have to deal with things like (eg, I'm hope I'm remembering this right from someone I know) "EUS-CDF being more expensive than EUS-SOT + SOT-CDF even though both halves are the same train as the EUS-CDF journey", you can see how no-one has a bloody clue.
  - rahimnathwani 12y ago
    Don't they all just work on published walk-up fares? I must confess I've never used the app. I just read about it in the MSE email newsletter. I grew up in London, and didn't often have reason to take a long distance train. I have a vague childhood memory of discovering that London and England weren't synonymous.

healsjnr1 12y ago

About 5 years ago I worked for the guys [1] that provide the journey planning api behind NRE, the train line and most other UK rail journey planners. We built a public api that as far as I know is still running. It was pretty usable and the pricing was reasonable. There was always a sticking point about NRE letting us expose the real time data though - hopefully this has now been resolved. [1] http://www.silverrailtech.com/journeyplanner http://www.silverrailtech.com/journeyplanner