Amtrak API 🚆
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mvs...@gmail.com
Mar 13, 2017, 7:23:19 PM3/13/17
to US Government APIs
When will Amtrak release an API for their data?
It seems it's impossible to get real-time train location/status data. They have a page on their site with an embedded map, but oddly you can't even see it by going directly to the URL: https://www.amtrak.com/trainlocationmap is a dead link. You have to start at https://www.amtrak.com/, scroll down, hit "Track Your Train". This is ridiculous.
The same data they have on their difficult-to-reach map should be available via API.
It seems it's impossible to get real-time train location/status data. They have a page on their site with an embedded map, but oddly you can't even see it by going directly to the URL: https://www.amtrak.com/trainlocationmap is a dead link. You have to start at https://www.amtrak.com/, scroll down, hit "Track Your Train". This is ridiculous.
The same data they have on their difficult-to-reach map should be available via API.
David Berlind
Mar 14, 2017, 2:30:37 PM3/14/17
to US Government APIs
The NJ Transit API includes some Amtrak data. Probably not what you're looking for.. but maybe you can find other state APIs like NJ Transit's from other states that includes Amtrak data? Painful, if that's the case. But potentially better than nothing.
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Alycia (Piazza) Yozzi
Mar 15, 2017, 1:36:15 PM3/15/17
to J. Albert Bowden, US Government APIs
I think I might have a contact at Amtrak's web team...interested?
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MJ Rossetti
Oct 16, 2017, 7:08:31 PM10/16/17
to US Government APIs
On Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 1:36:15 PM UTC-4, alycia.piazza wrote:
> I think I might have a contact at Amtrak's web team...interested?
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> Alycia M Yozzi
> Office of Government-wide Policy
> General Services Administration
> 202-219-1487
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> On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 12:30 PM, J. Albert Bowden <jalber...@gmail.com> wrote:
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> they're using obfuscators to "mask" their code.
> seriously, this should be illegal from government entities...
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> On Monday, March 13, 2017 at 7:23:19 PM UTC-4, Michæl Schade wrote:When will Amtrak release an API for their data?
>
>
>
> It seems it's impossible to get real-time train location/status data. They have a page on their site with an embedded map, but oddly you can't even see it by going directly to the URL: https://www.amtrak.com/trainlocationmap is a dead link. You have to start at https://www.amtrak.com/, scroll down, hit "Track Your Train". This is ridiculous.
>
>
>
> The same data they have on their difficult-to-reach map should be available via API.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "US Government APIs" group.
>
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to us-government-a...@googlegroups.com.
> I think I might have a contact at Amtrak's web team...interested?
>
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>
>
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>
>
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> Alycia M Yozzi
> Office of Government-wide Policy
> General Services Administration
> 202-219-1487
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 12:30 PM, J. Albert Bowden <jalber...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> they're using obfuscators to "mask" their code.
> seriously, this should be illegal from government entities...
>
> On Monday, March 13, 2017 at 7:23:19 PM UTC-4, Michæl Schade wrote:When will Amtrak release an API for their data?
>
>
>
> It seems it's impossible to get real-time train location/status data. They have a page on their site with an embedded map, but oddly you can't even see it by going directly to the URL: https://www.amtrak.com/trainlocationmap is a dead link. You have to start at https://www.amtrak.com/, scroll down, hit "Track Your Train". This is ridiculous.
>
>
>
> The same data they have on their difficult-to-reach map should be available via API.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "US Government APIs" group.
>
>
> To post to this group, send email to us-govern...@googlegroups.com.
Alycia, I would be happy to follow-up with your contact at Amtrak, and to work with anyone else on this initiative.
I think the play here would be to encourage Amtrak to publish their data publicly in GTFS format, which is pretty much a universal standard for publishing transit data.
https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/
I've been waiting for Amtrak to do this for a number of years, but I don't think they've caught on to the trend. Somehow TransitLand seems to have obtained their GTFS data, perhaps through a bilateral sharing agreement, or via freedom of information request (not sure). So it looks like Amtrak's systems may be already capable of producing data in GTFS format. But opening up the data to the public would be the key ask.
https://transit.land/feed-registry/operators/o-9-amtrak
Once Amtrak joins the rest of the world in providing open GTFS data, for anyone interested in making API-style use of this data, I have built a backend web service in Ruby on Rails to do just this. Feel free to fork/clone the code repository and deploy it to your own server (just maybe give me a shout-out to let me know you're using it).
https://github.com/data-creative/next-train-api
If Amtrak published their GTFS data for public consumption, it would be trivial for someone to configure another instance of this API to consume data from their feed URL.
I hope this solution is helpful. If anyone has questions about using my web service, please do not hesitate to email me at datacre...@gmail.com or tweet @data_creative.
Mike Rossetti
Jeremy Zilar - QXE
Oct 16, 2017, 7:43:05 PM10/16/17
to MJ Rossetti, US Government APIs
I wonder what has prevented them from publishing them thus far.
For a long time, the MTA in NYC was opposed to opening up their APIs. Once they did, a whole world of apps started to appear on the scene. But I think they were coached behind the scenes on how to navigate the the transition and manage it as a product.
I would be interested in talking to them.
-jeremy
On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 6:36 PM, MJ Rossetti <michael.j...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 1:36:15 PM UTC-4, alycia.piazza wrote:
> I think I might have a contact at Amtrak's web team...interested?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Alycia M Yozzi
> Office of Government-wide Policy
> General Services Administration
> 202-219-1487
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 12:30 PM, J. Albert Bowden <jalber...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> they're using obfuscators to "mask" their code.
> seriously, this should be illegal from government entities...
>
> On Monday, March 13, 2017 at 7:23:19 PM UTC-4, Michæl Schade wrote:When will Amtrak release an API for their data?
>
>
>
> It seems it's impossible to get real-time train location/status data. They have a page on their site with an embedded map, but oddly you can't even see it by going directly to the URL: https://www.amtrak.com/trainlocationmap is a dead link. You have to start at https://www.amtrak.com/, scroll down, hit "Track Your Train". This is ridiculous.
>
>
>
> The same data they have on their difficult-to-reach map should be available via API.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "US Government APIs" group.
>
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to us-government-apis+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
>
> To post to this group, send email to us-govern...@googlegroups.com.
>
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/us-government-apis.
Alycia, I would be happy to follow-up with your contact at Amtrak, and to work with anyone else on this initiative.
I think the play here would be to encourage Amtrak to publish their data publicly in GTFS format, which is pretty much a universal standard for publishing transit data.
https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/
I've been waiting for Amtrak to do this for a number of years, but I don't think they've caught on to the trend. Somehow TransitLand seems to have obtained their GTFS data, perhaps through a bilateral sharing agreement, or via freedom of information request (not sure). So it looks like Amtrak's systems may be already capable of producing data in GTFS format. But opening up the data to the public would be the key ask.
https://transit.land/feed-registry/operators/o-9-amtrak
Once Amtrak joins the rest of the world in providing open GTFS data, for anyone interested in making API-style use of this data, I have built a backend web service in Ruby on Rails to do just this. Feel free to fork/clone the code repository and deploy it to your own server (just maybe give me a shout-out to let me know you're using it).
https://github.com/data-creative/next-train-api
If Amtrak published their GTFS data for public consumption, it would be trivial for someone to configure another instance of this API to consume data from their feed URL.
I hope this solution is helpful. If anyone has questions about using my web service, please do not hesitate to email me at datacre...@gmail.com or tweet @data_creative.
Mike Rossetti
--
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