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Developer at MBTA

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Sep 15, 2015, 11:00:09 AM9/15/15
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Currently experiencing an issue with production commuter rail data: predictions are unavailable (locations unaffected.)

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StefanW

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Sep 15, 2015, 11:17:33 AM9/15/15
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I suggest a correction to that status update: locations are unaffected only on the "original" textfiles Commuter Rail feeds, http://www.mbta.com/rider_tools/developers/default.asp?id=21899

The API v2 vehiclesByRoutes call is returning nothing for any Commuter Rail route, which it almost always does when there are no predictions. For example (using the open development key, not my own):
http://realtime.mbta.com/developer/api/v2/vehiclesByRoutes?api_key=wX9NwuHnZU2ToO7GmGR9uw&format=json&routes=CR-Fairmount,CR-Fitchburg,CR-Franklin,CR-Greenbush,CR-Haverhill,CR-Kingston,CR-Lowell,CR-Middleborough,CR-Needham,CR-Newburyport,CR-Providence,CR-Worcester

I've raised this issue previously: I feel strongly that the vehiclesByRoute / vehiclesByRoutes call should return info regardless of a prediction being available or not. It hasn't been that way though.

Another reminder of my mash-up of the "original" CR feeds, plus API v2, plus GTFS, plus departure boards:

If the API v2 was functioning the way it should, the column "Found in API v2 vehiclesByRoutes?" would always have data. The "original" data feed is the source of all the columns except the ones that are "Found in .... ?"

The bottom line is that until this gets fixed the API v2 is useless for CR unless there are predictions, which are often incomplete or (like now) offline.

StefanW

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Sep 15, 2015, 11:47:20 AM9/15/15
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For what it's worth, the preview server (of what's going live tonight) does still return the vehiclesByRoutes data even though the production server(s) are not. As I type this, there are 20 trains coming back:
That's from taking the same link I posted above at 11:17 and changing to the preview server IP address and making it "v2.1"

Unfortunately this still falls short of the "original" textfiles CR feeds, because (as I type this) there are 23 trains in the original feed that are reporting locations. My expectations are simple: 100% of the trains that appear in the "original" feeds should appear in API v2 vehiclesByRoutes.

(By the way sorry for going somewhat off the topic of "Status updates".)

Developer at MBTA

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Sep 15, 2015, 1:35:17 PM9/15/15
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This issue has been resolved. 

-developer@mbta


On Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 11:00:09 AM UTC-4, Developer at MBTA wrote:

StefanW

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Oct 23, 2015, 12:25:26 PM10/23/15
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It seems like the "old" textfiles Commuter Rail feed is stuck again. The last data point / update was 8:46:41 AM today.

Developer at MBTA

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Oct 23, 2015, 5:20:21 PM10/23/15
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You're correct. We experienced an outage which we have now resolved. 

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