Find journey info by train number?

[Andy A]

Hi all

I'm a new user here and have been playing with the Darwin schedule info via the excellent Huxley.

So far I haven't been able to find what I need, which is: Given a train number, what journey is the train on?

I have a series of East Midlands train numbers (NL01-NL12 and 222001-222104) and I'd like to find a feed where I can search for a train number and get information about the route it's on, i.e. origin, destination, & departure time.

Is anyone able to point me in the direction of a data feed or webservice which would provide this data please?

Many thanks in advance

Andy

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Andy

Huxley gives access to the Live Departure Boards API, which isn't a set of schedule data, it's a set of predictions for when a train will arrive and depart a set of locations.

The NLxx numbers you have are diagram numbers (NL stands for Neville Hill), and the 222xxx numbers are the painted numbers of trains which are allocated to those diagrams.  For example, diagram NL01 may have train 222001 allocated to it, NL02 may have 222096 allocated to it, etc.

There isn't an open and public interface in to this data.  The industry has a system called GEMINI which holds this data for most operators, but not all.

If you had the diagrams, you could work out which train was on that diagram by knowing the origin and destination locations and times, and match that up to a digram - but unless you knew which train was on a diagram on a particular day, there's no way to work this out without querying GEMINI.

Out of interest, what's the use-case here?

Peter

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "A gathering place for the Open Rail Data community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to openraildata-t...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to openrail...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Ben Woodward]

There isn't a public feed for this information, you could get it with
access to something like Gemini.

[Andy A]

Hi Peter, thanks for the reply. 

Do you know if GEMINI has an API or feed? Understood it's not open/public, but I may be able to request access from my customer.

The use case is an on-board passenger media portal that we're trialling. From Darwin/Huxley we're able to show the route status info if the passenger selects the station & time they departed. But I'd like to be cleverer than that and tell them if their train is delayed without asking them which train they're on first. We know the train number. Sounds like GEMINI is the potential solution if there's a way to export...

Many thanks again

Andy

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Andy

If your customer is a TOC and they already input information in to GEMINI, one of the solutions may be to have the TOC send their diagrams and allocation data to you, and you align that data.  It may be quicker and easier than getting access to GEMINI via Atos/Worldline.

Peter

--

[Andy A]

Hi Peter

Apparently the data gets input using Web GEMINI. Sounds like a manual process. Would these diagrams normally be in computer-readable form that could be imported? 

I'm guessing ATOS Worldline access is expensive?

Thanks

Andy

[Peter Hicks]

Hi Andy

I'm not sure how much data modification can be done within WebGEMINI - I've not used it from a TOC perspective.  However, it does import data automatically from other systems, such as RAVERS (soon to be R2), RSL, TRUST, etc.

Diagrams are likely available somewhere in an easily parseable format - but I'm not sure if there's a standard electronic format, as there is with CIF for schedule data.  Can you ask the TOC in question?  Maybe see if you can get some example data from their planning system.

Worldline, formerly Atos, isn't a system as such - they bought the BR Business Systems business at privatisation and run (or at least used to) many shared systems such as GEMINI, the predecessor to Web GEMINI.  I'm not sure how you'd go about getting access - possibly the IT department at your TOC can help.

Getting unit allocation data available under an Open Data style licence and workable API is something I looked at, but the benefits are small in comparison to the costs.  However, if TOCs wanted to make their diagrams etc. available somewhere - then I'm sure the industry could pull together and create a service that provides the same data, just via a different route.

Peter

[David Turner]

Hi Andy, Peter,

If the TOC in question uses VoyagerPlan and has the Diagram Exchange
module then they will be able to use this to export their unit
diagrams in a (reasonably sane) XML format.

If it's EMT you're talking about then they do indeed use VoyagerPlan
and have the Diagram Exchange module, although not many users will
have access to Diagram Exchange so you may have to hunt a bit to find
someone there who can help you.

There are other onboard systems that know more about what service
they're operating than just the set number, so you may be able to get
useful data off of them. Things like the current headcode or a GSMR
code or whatever it is that gets the right seat reservations. If it
were me, though, I'd just try and get the train manager to type a
train id into your system when they're preparing for departure.

HTH