How to tell if a journey requires changing trains

[Daniel Earwicker]

I have fetched the National Routeing Guide .zip and I can see how to build a network of stations based on the links between them, but what would tell me that the passenger has to change trains to continue the journey? Or to put it another way, is there a concept of "lines" that stations belong to, so I can see if it's necessary to switch lines and hence change trains?

[Peter Hicks (Poggs)]

Hi Daniel

> On 23 Jun 2024, at 13:57, Daniel Earwicker <d...@earwicker.com> wrote:
>
> I have fetched the National Routeing Guide .zip and I can see how to build a network of stations based on the links between them, but what would tell me that the passenger has to change trains to continue the journey? Or to put it another way, is there a concept of "lines" that stations belong to, so I can see if it's necessary to switch lines and hence change trains?

To know if a passenger needs to change, you’ll need the timetable - also freely available. You may also need fares data, but I’m definitely not an expert on fares these days.

The concept of a ‘line’ is strictly in the marketing/branding domain - e.g. “the St Albans Abbey line”. Although there is a single unit running up and down the line, calling at all stations with a set pattern, there is also an early morning train (0551 from Watford Junction) which runs fast from Watford North to St Albans Abbey. There’s a further service which runs from Euston up to Watford Junction and then all stations to St Albans Abbey. How would you classify a train that runs across multiple ‘lines’?



Peter

[Ian Sargent]

The Routeing Guide tells journey planners which routes are valid/not valid between any two stations in the National Rail network. It is not, in itself a journey planner but overlays the fares and timetable data during a passenger enquiry.

[Michael Tsang]

On Sunday, 23 June 2024 15:43:11 BST 'Peter Hicks (Poggs)' via A gathering

place for the Open Rail Data community wrote:
> The concept of a ‘line’ is strictly in the marketing/branding domain - e.g.
> “the St Albans Abbey line”. Although there is a single unit running up and
> down the line, calling at all stations with a set pattern, there is also an
> early morning train (0551 from Watford Junction) which runs fast from
> Watford North to St Albans Abbey. There’s a further service which runs
> from Euston up to Watford Junction and then all stations to St Albans
> Abbey. How would you classify a train that runs across multiple ‘lines’?
>

There is a field, called "headcode", in the timetable data which represents
which line the train runs on. For example, 10 refers to Waterloo - Woking and
42 refers to Waterloo - Cobham - Guildford.

But it is of no use in journey planners, it is only to be shown at the
destination blind at the front of the train for passenger to identify it.

[Peter Hicks (Poggs)]

Whilst it may be shown on a Class 455 destination blind for SWR services, none of the London Overground services have a headcode in the Network Rail CIF.

The ‘headcode’ field is now used as part of the Retail Service ID (RSID) for reservable trains. Whilst the first two digits may align nicely with a route (e.g. Greater Anglia have 06xx for Cambridge/Ely - Liverpool Street and vice versa), Avanti have 36 for Blackpool - Euston, Edinburgh-Euston and Glasgow - Euston services. In fact, Birmingham - Euston services appear to start 55, 56, 57 or 58.



Peter