vehicle schedules

[Rob]

I was wondering if there's any schedule/operational data that identifies which vehicles are associated with a trip ahead of time and when/how that information becomes available.

I'm specifically interested in commuter rail and that operational information.  Thinking about it from a delay modelling perspective among other things.

For example vehicle ID 1632 enters North Station and it disappears from the API feeds.  Is there any scheduling information available that will tell me which trip that vehicle will be associated with prior to it becoming available again in the vehicle feed?

I guess part of my question is how are those operational decisions made too.

Thanks