Network Rail public data feed access

[Andy Holt]

Hi there,

I have previously used the Network Rail public data feed to access the NR SCHEDULE CIF file, but while attempting to fetch the latest version today (our last update was a few months ago), I've found my account has been deactivated and I can't reactivate or create a new one as the account limit (1000) has been reached.

So I've got a couple of questions:

1. Has anyone had issues around the NR public data feed account limit before? Do I just need to wait a day or two for some accounts to be deactivated to make space for a new account, or is this likely to be a longer term problem?

2. Do you know of any other way I can obtain an up to date copy of the SCHEDULE CIF file? We currently only update every few months, so it doesn't need to be this week's version.

Many thanks for your help,

Andy

[Peter Hicks (Poggs)]

Hi Andy

On 4 Nov 2024, at 13:41, Andy Holt <andy...@schemeflow.com> wrote:

I have previously used the Network Rail public data feed to access the NR SCHEDULE CIF file, but while attempting to fetch the latest version today (our last update was a few months ago), I've found my account has been deactivated and I can't reactivate or create a new one as the account limit (1000) has been reached.

Looking at the last Open Data Service Report (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Open-Data-Service-Report-P04-2024-25.pdf), the number of subscribers to the public platform jumped from 587 to 725 between Period 12 and Period 13 this year, but has remained around 720-744 since then.

An additional 250 accounts being created between August and now seems strange.  It would be easy to put it down to a load of accounts being created for the sole purpose of trying to bump the user figures in order for more money to be spent on getting additional licences - but it could be down to something else, such as:

1. A spambot trying to sign up multiple times, but failing CAPTCHA/email validation, but still appearing to be a valid account (this happened regularly with the Open Rail Data wiki)

2. Somebody releasing a product which relies upon a unique NROD account for each user, rather than redistributing the data themselves

3. Increased interest from academia or an event where the feeds have been publicised, causing lots of people to sign up but not actually use the service

I have long held the view that the user limit should not be on the number of users, but on the number of users actively consuming real-time data.  At the moment, if somebody signs up and downloads a schedule file once a month, they’re treated as using the same capacity on the platform as a user continually subscribing and receiving messages on all topics.  That doesn’t seem fair, and may lead to problems with capacity management.

Peter

[Andy Holt]

Thanks Peter for the detailed response.

> An additional 250 accounts being created between August and now seems strange. It would be easy to put it down to a load of accounts being created for the sole purpose of trying to bump the user figures in order for more money to be spent on getting additional licences - but it could be down to something else

I suppose this means that I just need to wait for some spaces to open up again, and then log in more frequently so my account isn’t deactivated again.

>
> I have long held the view that the user limit should not be on the number of users, but on the number of users actively consuming real-time data. At the moment, if somebody signs up and downloads a schedule file once a month, they’re treated as using the same capacity on the platform as a user continually subscribing and receiving messages on all topics. That doesn’t seem fair, and may lead to problems with capacity management.
>

I completely agree – it’s a very strange way of limiting resource usage

[Matthew Burdett]

If it's just the CIF you want why not sign up to RDM - they're in there , or I can get you one 

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[Andy Holt]

>
> If it's just the CIF you want why not sign up to RDM - they're in there , or I can get you one
>

I didn’t know I could get it from RDM – subscribed now. Thank you!