Hi, first off I want to say thank you for the website, it's extremely useful! Once the Cornish Mainline from Lisleard to Penzance is resignalled, will it be added to the site? Once again, thank you!
Hi Peter! Fantastic app you have made! A question from a continental chap, would your work have been simpler if Britain had had trainnumbers as we have on the continent?
Hi@@JISJ1964 - thank you :) And yes, absolutely - a nationally unique identifier would have helped massively! Historically, we've used the train class and destination letter (the 2A in 2A34) to indicate the calling pattern and route the train will take, and replacing that with a number such as "12040" will both help everyone on the IT side, and hinder signallers who won't know that "12040" and "55419" are both Euston - Birmingham - Wolverhampton services which have a 9Gxx reporting number.
Hi Peter. Thanks for your work, I had no idea the track plans were hand drawn. I use it a lot. Great for tracking the delivery movements of the class 777s. Also great for observing their overnight tests on Merseyrail, as they're movements don't show up on schedules on sites like RTT. Really appreciate your work. P.S. My Jack Russell says hello to.
Thank you :) I'm surprised I was actually able to get access to real-time data from Network Rail back in 2011, and even more surprised that I (and a number of other people) were able to make it open so that *anyone* could sign up and use it
I'm a train dispatcher and this is the webpage that lives on our computers in the mess rooms so that we can see what's going on. We literally couldn't operate the station without it!
Just a guide to passenger trains: 1 = fast train 2 = slow train (many station stops) 3 = priority empty stock 5= empty stock Letter normally destination or return ( eg N = Northampton) Last two numbers normally just running number So 2N24 = slow train to or from Northampton - probably 24th of the day.
Interesting as the CL385 test train we are running tonight starts as 5T19AV and then changes to 3T20AV when the test runs actually start, so when it is moving into position it isn't listed as priority :) I did wonder what the code meant, thank you!
I guess then that the T in 3T20AV means Test maybe? as none of the ends of the runs have a T - Edinburgh, Dunbar and next week Stirling but with the same 5T or 3T
I’m a driver for GWR based out of Reading, and our platform staff use Open Train Times maps to see what services they need to despatch, I use it to find my train and which platform it’s on. It’s a brilliant site, and very useful. Well done Peter 👍👍👍
I’m a drone pilot on the Network Rail Air Ops framework and I’ve needed to record video of passing trains for clients before. This website has been a godsend instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs and wondering when the next train will pass! Great work Peter!
Oliver Brelsford Yeah, I find that very good too, possibly more user friendly after their refresh a couple of months ago. Though, when a train is diverted with both websites you need to make a few inferences (e.g. Liverpool Street to Hertford East will travel via Seven Sisters instead of via Tottenham Hale).
RTT gets used by nearly everyone I work with because it's mobile view is a bit friendlier. OTT is handy when you're stuck at a signal in the middle of nowhere and want to see which train is going to give you delay repay :D
Great video, guys (especially Electra 🐕)! I've been using OTT almost daily since 2013. As a driver, it's invaluable. Yesterday I was able to check to see exactly where the late running train I was due to work was. This morning I could see that my train into work was routed onto a different line so I was able to change platform long before it was announced (and it isn't always announced!) I've recommended the site to many family members, friends and colleagues, plus passengers, too. In an industry that tends to be somewhat old-fashioned in its use of technology, OpenTrainTimes is a very welcome and useful tool to have available - thanks Peter for all your hard work!
Peter your website is amazing! I remember contacting you a few years ago about an error and your customer service was 5 star ... honestly at boxes/ locations that don't have CCf access.. you have saved confusion for so many rail workers
The OpenTrainTimes site is amazing to use. When i'm out and about at a Railway Station, I have it up on my phone and keep looking to see where the next train about to pass through. It also good to tell you where your train is sitting at the platform before they even announce it! good example is at London Euston, just had the whole day down there and travel on the 2046 back to Rugeley Trent Valley... at 8pm with help of OpenTrainTimes. I know where my train is sitting at London Euston about 25 minutes before it get announced and by the time it get announced, i'm already on the platform eating a burger king waiting to board it lol. But back to the video, it is a awesome interview video.
I've literary spent about an hour today looking at your old uploads, from Faygate to London Overground, from the Fanatics to Platform Zero. And then It was great just to see a new video has appeared!!! The website is great to use - I use it to train spot and keep an eye on trains I need to catch. Great interview, great video as always. :)
Open Train Times is great. I've used it for ages. Once a couple of years ago something had gone horribly wrong on the MML whilst I was stood at Leicester station. The poor platform chap was being hassled by a group of passengers asking where their trains were, what was the problem, when were things going to appear, etc and his control weren't giving him any helpful info via the radio. I fired up Open Train Times on my phone and helped him locate train positions, movements etc for the crowd around him until my train finally turned up and I headed off to Brum. I think he was going to be firing it up on his phone at that point. :-)
There's an updated version of that at tiger.worldline.global/ - but also the majority of that data (bar the train-specific custom messaging) is available through National Rail Enquiries' system, Darwin too
As a train spotter that specialists in rare and odd workings, OTT has been essential to my hobby for the best part of nearly two years now! So it's really cool to hear about how the website developed and hearing about applications in a working environment, not just for enthusiasts like myself!
I enjoyed this video. Peter has always been accessible and responsive when I've suggested the odd tweak to OTT here and there, which is all you can ask for in a website developer.
As a US traveler, I love using the trains in the UK. Who knows when we'll be able to travel there again? I'll put this app on my phone the next time I'm in your country.
I use it all the time, The maps remind me of my old job looking at TD screens. I don't travel very often even before COVID19 but any Class 50 tour or traveling out to one I generally use the maps to keep an eye on our progress. great site very helpful and easy to use. My last journey back from Birmingham had people asking about the site on my phone and I explained to them how it works.
This website is brilliant. I commute on the West Coast and you can often see what is going to happen to your train before it has happened. If we are diverted via Northampton, I can often ring my wife to say I am going to be late while the train is still on the fast line approaching Hanslope.
Great video Geoff, I've used this site for a few years now, so good to see the creator. It's my go to when travelling or just near a line watching the trains. Was really useful at places like the Abbots Ripton crossing on the ECML...remote...his site gave me pin point data for oncoming trains. Priceless....
Many thanks to Peter from the other side of the ocean. I particuarly like the track schematics; they odten make clear what can be confusing in the sectional appendices. Well done!
I just learned about the site this week during some signalling chaos when the staff at Kettering didn't trust the information on the departure boards. At least one of them was using this website instead and provided more useful information as a result.
Nice work Peter! I was working on a similar service called Departr recently. The APIs needed for this kind of application are horrible. Some of the rail APIs are still based on SOAP, while others are JSON-based and much better. Tempted to start working on that site again because I kind of miss it.
The National Rail APIs are SOAP-based, and some of us have written sample code at github.com/openraildata/ to help interface with them. SOAP is difficult if you try to construct the HTTP content yourself, but fine if you use a library to abstract you - it becomes merely an object whose methods you call. There's a project called Huxley (huxley.apphb.com/) which you can use as a proxy to convert SOAP calls to a more RESTful API, but I really hope National Rail can offer both a REST and SOAP API in the future.
G’day Geoff, thanks for a great video. I came across the website just recently. It would have been great to use it on my trips around the UK in January. I’ll certainly be using it next time I visit.
Suprised your only just getting round to making a video on this! Great to know the history of this website! Best thing about this website is when waiting for a train at euston station you can find out which platform the train will be going to and beat the rush of passengers (Pre corona) going towards the platform when it appears on the departure boards and then you feel smug about being their already since you knew the platform number haha!
I'm a driver and use this site all the time. My only gripes with it are freight headcodes not showing correctly and not showing yellow signals on the map. Other than that its great i use it everyday.
Network Rail and the freight industry agreed that, for freight to be shown, their reporting numbers needed to be scrambled so it was more difficult to identify particular services. That said, I think they need challenging again to ask whether or not this is still a valid thing to do. I would love to be able to show everything in the clear!
Hello There, interesting stuff and great concept, thank you for making this video Geoff, it was really helpful. I am glad Peter has been able to make it a success. Cheers Peter :-) p.s. keep up the good work!
@@whiterose.5684 You're wasting your time with this one. I gave up correcting folk on this *years* ago. I've even heard station staff referring to "train stations". It still grates with me but it seems to be, pretty much, acceptable nowadays.😠 Nice try, but r/whooooosh.😀
A website those of us interested in mainline charter trains find invaluable, as we will typically, but not always, get timings weeks ahead on there than from Network Rail. Not all charters are shown though, as there are some exceptions
The maps don’t seem particularly useful unless you’re a massive train nerd. Would be cool to have a google maps type interface to track your train live. Most bus company apps seem to have this functionality now. It takes public transport to the next level when you aren’t only relying on the fixed timetable and you know exactly how long you’ll be waiting for.
Raildar - raildar.co.uk/ - shows trains on a more geographical basis. The biggest issue is the lack of sufficient GPS data from trains - if that were available, it would be really easy. We can hope...!
Never thought to realize a system like this in Italy; It would be impossibile because of the protectionism of the Italian Railway Company. It would be useful indeed!
I really like this, nice clear track maps, excellent work, what is the signal that's the shape of a quarter hour clock/cheese wedge? and the signal in a square box marked LOS ?
The quarter-shaped signal is a position light - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_railway_signalling#Subsidiary_signals. The LOS is a Limit of Shunt - this can either be two red lights horizontally, or a 'STOP' board. I've drawn them all as 'stop' boards since there's not much sense in lighting them red - not all signalling systems will send the "lamp proving" data
I love Opentrains and have been using it it for a number of years now, very handy when catching the last train from Paddington back to Truro, I can look and see which platform its in before its displayed on the station information boards, so when the hordes get the go, I'm already sitting in my seat sipping my coffee :) Jeff please could you ask Peter when he is going to add Penzance to Liskard to the map
I can answer that :) The route from Liskeard to Penzance isn't controlled by any signalling system that reports train movements automatically. Until the line is resignalled, hopefully in a few years time, it'll continue to be a bit of a black hole I'm afraid
@@poggs hello Peter, thank you for responding to my question, I thought that might be the case although NR have put in a new signalling system for the wretched Hitachi 800's because it meant rail replacement services for a number of weeks a year or so ago. Anyway love your site, it's my go to website when travelling and sometimes when I just want to watch trains of an evening, especially the Night Riviera
The problem with Open Train Times is when you click on a map, you click on the train rep no say 1S25 for example which is the Euston Fort-William sleeper, it gives the incorrect train info, it says it's an empty coaching stock at Blackpool or something like that.
OpenTrainTimes is quite nice for scheduling but I prefer Traksy for the maps as there's a much greater coverage. Also, I can see Peter is rocking the Nathan W Pyle merch.
There's always going to be a balance of coverage versus detail/visual appeal. It's great that Traksy have more-or-less full coverage, but so many people have told me they really appreciate the details I put in that I decided not to change course
Great Website! What's the actual kit that the website runs on? What language is it written in? Is there a common standard for railway data, perhaps European or UIC that would allow you to do the same for other countries?
It's running in Amazon's EC2 environment on six or seven servers. Currently written in Ruby on Rails (which is what I was coding in at the time) with some infrastructure running under Java and Node.js. As standards go, there are many to choose from - SIRI is well-known but GTFS is increasingly popular although it dilutes the available data substantially. There's TransXChange and probably a number of country-specific formats. I think you'd struggle to find another European country that's released as much data in as much detail as we have here!
The website "maps journeys across the whole of the UK"? So, when did the Isle of Wight stop being a part of the UK? Is it because Island Line uses old tube trains? As far as it goes, Raildar don't include the island trains either. Feeling a little left out tbh.
More correctly, it's Great Britain. Island Line has a relatively straightforward rail network, but the signalling system doesn't have a train describer, and so doesn't report train movements to Network Rail's TRUST system. As a result, it is a black hole - I would really love to be able to show movements on the IoW, but the data's just not available yet!
Each four car unit is fully walk through, but on some of the busier Liverpool Street services they double up to form an eight car train. On the Goblin and Wat-Eus routes they run as single 4-car units.
The signalling system London Bridge was replaced in the last few years with a more modern system which has the capability to send signal aspect detail for almost all signals. Crystal Palace is currently under the control of Victoria ASC (Area Signalling Centre) and has an older interlocking and control system which isn't capable of sending signal aspect data - only route data, and only from a subset of signals. I fully expect that when Crystal Palace is eventually resignalled and/or recontrolled, we'll see full signal aspect and route indication coverage.
On the one hand it's really cool that apparently a lot of people in the business are using the site, but it also seems a little scary considering “You mustn't rely on the information shown for anything safety-related, nor should you base any critical decisions on the data without checking other sources.”
The reason you mustn't use the site for anything safety-critical is because there are numerous traversals of internal networks and the Internet between signalling systems and our site. It's simply not possible to detect whether data has been lost at some point between a train describer and your web browser. Your point of contact for anything safety-critical relating to signalling is the controlling signaller. They have a system which is SIL (Safety Integrity Level) rated, which has heartbeats to the trackside interlocking (or in older systems, levers, rods and pulleys which will fail in to a safe state if they're broken) and sends requests and checks the responses coming back to ensure what the signaller sees is accurate. Informational system such as OpenTrainTimes are great for information purposes though.
@@poggs Of course, and I don't want to downplay the value of the site or anything! I just get the feeling that if railway employees find your site super useful, it's sort of a failure on the railways' part somewhere: they really should have something of their own of similar quality and which can be relied upon.
So what is the difference between Real Time Trains and this one. I will be (as soon as we are allowed to leave Australia!) travelling to the UK with a rail pass. One or the other will be very useful
It depends what you mean by "headcode" - traditionally and strictly speaking, a headcode is a two-digit code on the front of a train, but many people in the industry understand it to be the train reporting number, or train ID. In the systems circles in which I work, the term for this is "operational train number", or OTN - because at some point, we may change from a number-alpha-number-number format description to something five or even six digits long.
I've used the site to see what platform my train will depart from Euston, before it has appeared on the main station boards, so beat the rush by being at the platform gate before anyone else.
I was quite concerned it was going to chuck it down, as I had somewhere else to go after we'd done the video. I think Geoff was imagining me turning up at my next meeting a soggy mess!
I've been using OTT for years Peter and it's a wonderful resource, especially as it's free to use - Thank you.😁👍👌 I also use RTT and I've noticed recently they've started providing the unit number above each schedule. You even get a wee picture of the unit - woohoo!! This feature can be helpful when captioning photographs - any plans for something similar on OTT? Cheers for now, Dougie.
At the moment, I think it's only LNER and Scotrail that have the unit numbers included in the data, I haven't seen it for any other operators, but hopefully that is something that can become more widespread.
Open Train Times has maps. Real Time trains has details of the type of train for some train companies. I use both websites. I believe @poggs spent a lot of time in the early days getting the Network Rail data feeds fixed and working properly.
When I'm out and about, I prefer to use the RealTime Trains website because I prefer its user interface. However, I do like looking at the Open Train Times map, and its a useful backup if rtt for some reason isnt working. So yeah, I use both RTT and OTT, but for different circumstances.
Hello! If you have any questions to ask me, please post them in this thread :)
Hi, first off I want to say thank you for the website, it's extremely useful! Once the Cornish Mainline from Lisleard to Penzance is resignalled, will it be added to the site? Once again, thank you!
Hi Peter! Fantastic app you have made! A question from a continental chap, would your work have been simpler if Britain had had trainnumbers as we have on the continent?
Fantastic App Peter you really helped me and our friends all of the trainspotters if there is a train coming even better then real time Trains. 👍
Hi@@JISJ1964 - thank you :) And yes, absolutely - a nationally unique identifier would have helped massively! Historically, we've used the train class and destination letter (the 2A in 2A34) to indicate the calling pattern and route the train will take, and replacing that with a number such as "12040" will both help everyone on the IT side, and hinder signallers who won't know that "12040" and "55419" are both Euston - Birmingham - Wolverhampton services which have a 9Gxx reporting number.
Hi Peter.
Thanks for your work, I had no idea the track plans were hand drawn.
I use it a lot. Great for tracking the delivery movements of the class 777s. Also great for observing their overnight tests on Merseyrail, as they're movements don't show up on schedules on sites like RTT.
Really appreciate your work.
P.S. My Jack Russell says hello to.
Respect to Peter. Open Train Times has become a 'must have' for not just enthusiasts but for MANY station staff and train crew too....
Thank you :) I'm surprised I was actually able to get access to real-time data from Network Rail back in 2011, and even more surprised that I (and a number of other people) were able to make it open so that *anyone* could sign up and use it
I'm a train dispatcher and this is the webpage that lives on our computers in the mess rooms so that we can see what's going on. We literally couldn't operate the station without it!
i hope you flick some money to this guy each month
Just a guide to passenger trains:
1 = fast train
2 = slow train (many station stops)
3 = priority empty stock
5= empty stock
Letter normally destination or return ( eg N = Northampton)
Last two numbers normally just running number
So 2N24 = slow train to or from Northampton - probably 24th of the day.
Interesting as the CL385 test train we are running tonight starts as 5T19AV and then changes to 3T20AV when the test runs actually start, so when it is moving into position it isn't listed as priority :) I did wonder what the code meant, thank you!
I guess then that the T in 3T20AV means Test maybe? as none of the ends of the runs have a T - Edinburgh, Dunbar and next week Stirling but with the same 5T or 3T
I’m a driver for GWR based out of Reading, and our platform staff use Open Train Times maps to see what services they need to despatch, I use it to find my train and which platform it’s on.
It’s a brilliant site, and very useful. Well done Peter 👍👍👍
I’m a drone pilot on the Network Rail Air Ops framework and I’ve needed to record video of passing trains for clients before. This website has been a godsend instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs and wondering when the next train will pass! Great work Peter!
Not forgetting good old RTT as well.
Oliver Brelsford Yeah, I find that very good too, possibly more user friendly after their refresh a couple of months ago. Though, when a train is diverted with both websites you need to make a few inferences (e.g. Liverpool Street to Hertford East will travel via Seven Sisters instead of via Tottenham Hale).
It will never be forgotten! I still use it when I'm trainspotting
@@FPs_transport_vids same, I always use it
RTT gets used by nearly everyone I work with because it's mobile view is a bit friendlier. OTT is handy when you're stuck at a signal in the middle of nowhere and want to see which train is going to give you delay repay :D
And Traksy
This was very good. A glorious nerd talking about how he made sth useful that actually works. People like him make the world go around.
"Glorious nerd" - thank you, that's high praise :D
Was indeed intended as such!
We use this a lot on GWR - I'm currently using the maps as part of the ETCS training in Heathrow Tunnels
My dad discovered open train times at the start of lockdown and now we always use it when we go trainspotting
Great video, guys (especially Electra 🐕)! I've been using OTT almost daily since 2013. As a driver, it's invaluable. Yesterday I was able to check to see exactly where the late running train I was due to work was. This morning I could see that my train into work was routed onto a different line so I was able to change platform long before it was announced (and it isn't always announced!) I've recommended the site to many family members, friends and colleagues, plus passengers, too. In an industry that tends to be somewhat old-fashioned in its use of technology, OpenTrainTimes is a very welcome and useful tool to have available - thanks Peter for all your hard work!
since lockdown i've become more interested in trains and now i love them
Looool random but thats the spirit mate👍🏽
Trains are the best man💯
@Sam Roberts i love going london with my friends, im always telling them facts that i learnt from geoff lol
Lol now you should start to know the details of trains with their cabs, engines, train numbers... etc
@Mariyah V omgg salam walaykum sis
@@TheCastleMarch yeppp
Peter your website is amazing! I remember contacting you a few years ago about an error and your customer service was 5 star ... honestly at boxes/ locations that don't have CCf access.. you have saved confusion for so many rail workers
Thanks Geoff and Peter - another really great contribution to making rail travel easy, accessible, and carefree
The OpenTrainTimes site is amazing to use. When i'm out and about at a Railway Station, I have it up on my phone and keep looking to see where the next train about to pass through. It also good to tell you where your train is sitting at the platform before they even announce it! good example is at London Euston, just had the whole day down there and travel on the 2046 back to Rugeley Trent Valley... at 8pm with help of OpenTrainTimes. I know where my train is sitting at London Euston about 25 minutes before it get announced and by the time it get announced, i'm already on the platform eating a burger king waiting to board it lol. But back to the video, it is a awesome interview video.
Hi big respect to Peter for his website I work for a TOC and I am also a train spotter I use this constantly for both work and play 👍
I've literary spent about an hour today looking at your old uploads, from Faygate to London Overground, from the Fanatics to Platform Zero. And then It was great just to see a new video has appeared!!! The website is great to use - I use it to train spot and keep an eye on trains I need to catch. Great interview, great video as always. :)
Open Train Times is great. I've used it for ages. Once a couple of years ago something had gone horribly wrong on the MML whilst I was stood at Leicester station. The poor platform chap was being hassled by a group of passengers asking where their trains were, what was the problem, when were things going to appear, etc and his control weren't giving him any helpful info via the radio. I fired up Open Train Times on my phone and helped him locate train positions, movements etc for the crowd around him until my train finally turned up and I headed off to Brum. I think he was going to be firing it up on his phone at that point. :-)
If you google "Tiger Train Times" you can also get access to the info that's displayed on the customer information screens around stations :)
There's an updated version of that at tiger.worldline.global/ - but also the majority of that data (bar the train-specific custom messaging) is available through National Rail Enquiries' system, Darwin too
As a train spotter that specialists in rare and odd workings, OTT has been essential to my hobby for the best part of nearly two years now! So it's really cool to hear about how the website developed and hearing about applications in a working environment, not just for enthusiasts like myself!
“In case any cats are watching” 😂
I enjoyed this video. Peter has always been accessible and responsive when I've suggested the odd tweak to OTT here and there, which is all you can ask for in a website developer.
As a US traveler, I love using the trains in the UK. Who knows when we'll be able to travel there again? I'll put this app on my phone the next time I'm in your country.
I use it all the time, The maps remind me of my old job looking at TD screens. I don't travel very often even before COVID19 but any Class 50 tour or traveling out to one I generally use the maps to keep an eye on our progress. great site very helpful and easy to use. My last journey back from Birmingham had people asking about the site on my phone and I explained to them how it works.
As someone from across the pond, this was really cool
This website is brilliant. I commute on the West Coast and you can often see what is going to happen to your train before it has happened. If we are diverted via Northampton, I can often ring my wife to say I am going to be late while the train is still on the fast line approaching Hanslope.
Fantastic website and a massive thanks to Peter. You're awesome
I regularly use this Open Time Trains! Nice to see where it came from!
Fascinating report, thanks Geoff and Peter.
Thanks Geoff.
Been using Peter’s website for a good few years, before Covid. It’s really very good. 👍
Thanks for sharing your passion Peter.
Great video Geoff, I've used this site for a few years now, so good to see the creator. It's my go to when travelling or just near a line watching the trains. Was really useful at places like the Abbots Ripton crossing on the ECML...remote...his site gave me pin point data for oncoming trains. Priceless....
All the train times, all of them. Cool site. Seeing the maps and the trains in action makes you feel like you're the one operating the railways
Well that asked some questions, thanks Geoff and of course Peter for the Website. 👍
Many thanks to Peter from the other side of the ocean. I particuarly like the track schematics; they odten make clear what can be confusing in the sectional appendices. Well done!
I just learned about the site this week during some signalling chaos when the staff at Kettering didn't trust the information on the departure boards. At least one of them was using this website instead and provided more useful information as a result.
Nice work Peter! I was working on a similar service called Departr recently. The APIs needed for this kind of application are horrible. Some of the rail APIs are still based on SOAP, while others are JSON-based and much better. Tempted to start working on that site again because I kind of miss it.
The National Rail APIs are SOAP-based, and some of us have written sample code at github.com/openraildata/ to help interface with them. SOAP is difficult if you try to construct the HTTP content yourself, but fine if you use a library to abstract you - it becomes merely an object whose methods you call. There's a project called Huxley (huxley.apphb.com/) which you can use as a proxy to convert SOAP calls to a more RESTful API, but I really hope National Rail can offer both a REST and SOAP API in the future.
Great video, nice to have an explanation behind how the website works
This could spell the end of the "I'm on the train, darling" call.
If you were being devious, it could open up a variety of other "trains" you could be on which are actually running late!
A Strange Planet fan! Clearly someone of impeccable taste :)
G’day Geoff, thanks for a great video. I came across the website just recently. It would have been great to use it on my trips around the UK in January. I’ll certainly be using it next time I visit.
Man I remember @poggs from #elsewhere IRC Chat like 20+ years ago. Nice to see what he's up to these days!
Wow, blast from the past! *wave*
Nice to see the new overground stock being put to good use
Suprised your only just getting round to making a video on this! Great to know the history of this website! Best thing about this website is when waiting for a train at euston station you can find out which platform the train will be going to and beat the rush of passengers (Pre corona) going towards the platform when it appears on the departure boards and then you feel smug about being their already since you knew the platform number haha!
I'm a driver and use this site all the time. My only gripes with it are freight headcodes not showing correctly and not showing yellow signals on the map. Other than that its great i use it everyday.
Network Rail and the freight industry agreed that, for freight to be shown, their reporting numbers needed to be scrambled so it was more difficult to identify particular services. That said, I think they need challenging again to ask whether or not this is still a valid thing to do. I would love to be able to show everything in the clear!
Hello There, interesting stuff and great concept, thank you for making this video Geoff, it was really helpful. I am glad Peter has been able to make it a success. Cheers Peter :-) p.s. keep up the good work!
Just hearing the announcer makes me MISS this city so much!!!
We live within earshot of the Airedale / Leeds-Carlisle line and keep a browser tab open with the map to see what's coming by
I just realised I was on your train - I was on the other end and heard you talking.
Great video though
This is good when your stuck at signals check what’s ahead and see what’s cancelled and get headcodes as 5U29
Wolverhampton train station/ railway station use Peter's website to track trains sometimes. I do now as well.
Wolverhampton railway station use it as well!
@@whiterose.5684 yeah they use open train times or Tracksy for locating trains coming into the station.
@@whiterose.5684 You're wasting your time with this one. I gave up correcting folk on this *years* ago. I've even heard station staff referring to "train stations". It still grates with me but it seems to be, pretty much, acceptable nowadays.😠 Nice try, but r/whooooosh.😀
A website those of us interested in mainline charter trains find invaluable, as we will typically, but not always, get timings weeks ahead on there than from Network Rail. Not all charters are shown though, as there are some exceptions
Great website! Easy to use and understand.
it’s amazing what a developer do, when left alone to do what they can do
The maps don’t seem particularly useful unless you’re a massive train nerd. Would be cool to have a google maps type interface to track your train live. Most bus company apps seem to have this functionality now. It takes public transport to the next level when you aren’t only relying on the fixed timetable and you know exactly how long you’ll be waiting for.
Raildar - raildar.co.uk/ - shows trains on a more geographical basis. The biggest issue is the lack of sufficient GPS data from trains - if that were available, it would be really easy. We can hope...!
Peter Hicks Cool. Yeah I imagine it’s only a matter of time.
Never thought to realize a system like this in Italy; It would be impossibile because of the protectionism of the Italian Railway Company. It would be useful indeed!
I really like this, nice clear track maps, excellent work, what is the signal that's the shape of a quarter hour clock/cheese wedge? and the signal in a square box marked LOS ?
The quarter-shaped signal is a position light - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_railway_signalling#Subsidiary_signals. The LOS is a Limit of Shunt - this can either be two red lights horizontally, or a 'STOP' board. I've drawn them all as 'stop' boards since there's not much sense in lighting them red - not all signalling systems will send the "lamp proving" data
This is a great site! I've used it to track trains through Dawlish so I can watch them go by the webcams there. Uber geeky but my daughter loves it.
Love your videos Geoff keep it up my favourite is secrets of the central line because I live near it keep it up Geoff
Excellent Story Geoff, I've downloaded and I live in Sydney.
I love Opentrains and have been using it it for a number of years now, very handy when catching the last train from Paddington back to Truro, I can look and see which platform its in before its displayed on the station information boards, so when the hordes get the go, I'm already sitting in my seat sipping my coffee :)
Jeff please could you ask Peter when he is going to add Penzance to Liskard to the map
I can answer that :) The route from Liskeard to Penzance isn't controlled by any signalling system that reports train movements automatically. Until the line is resignalled, hopefully in a few years time, it'll continue to be a bit of a black hole I'm afraid
@@poggs hello Peter, thank you for responding to my question, I thought that might be the case although NR have put in a new signalling system for the wretched Hitachi 800's because it meant rail replacement services for a number of weeks a year or so ago.
Anyway love your site, it's my go to website when travelling and sometimes when I just want to watch trains of an evening, especially the Night Riviera
I love that app, especially the maps.
The problem with Open Train Times is when you click on a map, you click on the train rep no say 1S25 for example which is the Euston Fort-William sleeper, it gives the incorrect train info, it says it's an empty coaching stock at Blackpool or something like that.
Thanks Geoff and Peter!
"OTT Is amazing!!!👍👍😊
OpenTrainTimes is quite nice for scheduling but I prefer Traksy for the maps as there's a much greater coverage.
Also, I can see Peter is rocking the Nathan W Pyle merch.
There's always going to be a balance of coverage versus detail/visual appeal. It's great that Traksy have more-or-less full coverage, but so many people have told me they really appreciate the details I put in that I decided not to change course
I wish there was a to and from search
Great Website! What's the actual kit that the website runs on? What language is it written in? Is there a common standard for railway data, perhaps European or UIC that would allow you to do the same for other countries?
It's running in Amazon's EC2 environment on six or seven servers. Currently written in Ruby on Rails (which is what I was coding in at the time) with some infrastructure running under Java and Node.js. As standards go, there are many to choose from - SIRI is well-known but GTFS is increasingly popular although it dilutes the available data substantially. There's TransXChange and probably a number of country-specific formats. I think you'd struggle to find another European country that's released as much data in as much detail as we have here!
What a top bloke, great website.
More videos of Electra please! Also the cats!
I observe that this being possesses a Strange Planet torso covering
Yes, finally another being ackowledged this in the long list of text messages under the motion picture.
This comment and subsequent reply are rather peculiar
Hi Peter, how much would it help your OTT map production to have the control system screens to design against?
I use a site called Railcam to follow trains and use their data feeds which are brilliant. Maps, data, lots of information.
Railcam is great - there's some work going on between the two of us that will hopefully lead to some big changes in the not too distant future
@@poggs Ah right that is very interesting. Anything we can look forward to?
I couldn’t find Canterbury west?
The website "maps journeys across the whole of the UK"? So, when did the Isle of Wight stop being a part of the UK? Is it because Island Line uses old tube trains? As far as it goes, Raildar don't include the island trains either. Feeling a little left out tbh.
More correctly, it's Great Britain. Island Line has a relatively straightforward rail network, but the signalling system doesn't have a train describer, and so doesn't report train movements to Network Rail's TRUST system. As a result, it is a black hole - I would really love to be able to show movements on the IoW, but the data's just not available yet!
Great music choose and shots!
Are the new Overground trains split into two segments? I thought they were supposed to be fully walk-through, like Crossrail. Also, great website!
Each four car unit is fully walk through, but on some of the busier Liverpool Street services they double up to form an eight car train. On the Goblin and Wat-Eus routes they run as single 4-car units.
Norbiton Flyer oh ok thank you! Perhaps in their next purchase they may get 6 car trains!
An amazing site!
Why do signals show (red/green) some stations (e.g. London Bridge) but no colour others (e.g. Crystal Palace)?
The signalling system London Bridge was replaced in the last few years with a more modern system which has the capability to send signal aspect detail for almost all signals. Crystal Palace is currently under the control of Victoria ASC (Area Signalling Centre) and has an older interlocking and control system which isn't capable of sending signal aspect data - only route data, and only from a subset of signals. I fully expect that when Crystal Palace is eventually resignalled and/or recontrolled, we'll see full signal aspect and route indication coverage.
@@poggs ah, ok, thanks
Another point: why don't the amber status show up on the LBG system?
Thanks for the video very handy to have!!😎🚃🚃🇬🇧
On the one hand it's really cool that apparently a lot of people in the business are using the site, but it also seems a little scary considering “You mustn't rely on the information shown for anything safety-related, nor should you base any critical decisions on the data without checking other sources.”
The reason you mustn't use the site for anything safety-critical is because there are numerous traversals of internal networks and the Internet between signalling systems and our site. It's simply not possible to detect whether data has been lost at some point between a train describer and your web browser. Your point of contact for anything safety-critical relating to signalling is the controlling signaller. They have a system which is SIL (Safety Integrity Level) rated, which has heartbeats to the trackside interlocking (or in older systems, levers, rods and pulleys which will fail in to a safe state if they're broken) and sends requests and checks the responses coming back to ensure what the signaller sees is accurate.
Informational system such as OpenTrainTimes are great for information purposes though.
@@poggs Of course, and I don't want to downplay the value of the site or anything! I just get the feeling that if railway employees find your site super useful, it's sort of a failure on the railways' part somewhere: they really should have something of their own of similar quality and which can be relied upon.
So what is the difference between Real Time Trains and this one. I will be (as soon as we are allowed to leave Australia!) travelling to the UK with a rail pass. One or the other will be very useful
The train reporting numbers look very much like the old BR headcodes. Could they possibly be related?
It depends what you mean by "headcode" - traditionally and strictly speaking, a headcode is a two-digit code on the front of a train, but many people in the industry understand it to be the train reporting number, or train ID. In the systems circles in which I work, the term for this is "operational train number", or OTN - because at some point, we may change from a number-alpha-number-number format description to something five or even six digits long.
I've used the site to see what platform my train will depart from Euston, before it has appeared on the main station boards, so beat the rush by being at the platform gate before anyone else.
12:24 button press was satisfying
I work on the railway and we use this system more than our own systems
Is that a _Strange Planet_ t-shirt?
It is indeed!
Strange Planet!
Peter: Is that thunder?
Geoff chuckles away.
What a ridiculous thing to do 😂
I was quite concerned it was going to chuck it down, as I had somewhere else to go after we'd done the video. I think Geoff was imagining me turning up at my next meeting a soggy mess!
Typical British weather 😂
@@gh1851 Typical Brit for completely forgetting to bring any form of raincoat :(
If possible and you're allowed, would it be possible for you to make a documentary about the old Glasgow subway stock before they get replaced?
The 710's are now running on the Liverpool Street line? I think you buried the lede here!
Good video but the dog was the star keep up the great work.
I've been using OTT for years Peter and it's a wonderful resource, especially as it's free to use - Thank you.😁👍👌
I also use RTT and I've noticed recently they've started providing the unit number above each schedule. You even get a wee picture of the unit - woohoo!! This feature can be helpful when captioning photographs - any plans for something similar on OTT?
Cheers for now,
Dougie.
If train operators are willing to share the data with us (and, of course, everyone else), then we're very happy to include them
At the moment, I think it's only LNER and Scotrail that have the unit numbers included in the data, I haven't seen it for any other operators, but hopefully that is something that can become more widespread.
Is there something similar for Germany or Poland?
Is there any advantage with Open Train Times over Real Time trains? Obviously apart from Open Train Times looking somewhat cooler.
Open Train Times has maps.
Real Time trains has details of the type of train for some train companies.
I use both websites.
I believe @poggs spent a lot of time in the early days getting the Network Rail data feeds fixed and working properly.
Are the 710's operating on all lines if not then which lines
Watford DC, GOBLIN, Chingford, Enfield and Cheshunt, and soon Romford to Upminster.
When I'm out and about, I prefer to use the RealTime Trains website because I prefer its user interface.
However, I do like looking at the Open Train Times map, and its a useful backup if rtt for some reason isnt working.
So yeah, I use both RTT and OTT, but for different circumstances.
I'm trying to get the app. I don't see it on the Play Store. Is it just on for Apple at the moment?
it's an App, just to to the website! www.opentraintimes.com
Can you do a videos on the class 315 s because there great and then the new 710s on the lead valley lines and can you came to highams park
I bet you missed the noise of the beeps when the doors open! Let's try and get Geoff to 200k. So close! Great video. x
Great video Geoff I use the website its very useful I like the Maps that is very good and useful
I like to follow random trains on the signalling maps!
I like to use Traksy especially for my guards route learning