National Rail Timetable Data
Make National Rail's timetable data available as structured data.
The data is already available as a PDF - http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx.
Make National Rail's timetable data available as structured data.
The data is already available as a PDF - http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx.
Failure to release National Rail Timetable Data
FAIL!
DfT will work with the Transport Industry to make available the following rail data sets: Rail timetable information on a weekly basis (December 2011) - Further Detail on Open Data Measures in the Autumn Statement 2011, p6.
This does not constitute open data, however regularly it's released -> http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3828.aspx
Traveline have begun work "to make available the following data relating to buses: Traveline National Dataset on a weekly basis (Great Britain buses)" -> Traveline National Data set
Anyone from the Government, Transport industry care to provide a reason and an updated timetable for release of the above data.
Rail Timetable Data
A feed of timetable data, updated weekly, has been available on the ATOC website since late November last year. See http://data.atoc.org/
Open timetable data *is* available!
I don't understand the last comment. The data has been being released weekly as promised since early November, as far as I can see. Downloadable from here: http://data.atoc.org/how-to
PDF Scraper
I'm starting a PHP based PDF scraper for this job - anyone interested in helping?
Without a doubt
We need this. It seems a no brainer. We pay, then they sell us it back. It is ours.
Open data timetable information in everyone's best interests
It beggars belief that rail/bus/etc companies think that they can make more money from selling their timetables than they can by increasing usage of their core service.
It should be really easy for organisations that depend on public subsidy and franchised to be compelled to make this type of data available freely and in simple formats. They are effectively getting free promotion and information distribution.
Please make this available.
+1 Vote
I second that!
I would love to make an interface that didn't suck.
East Coast gets near but fails for shopping around days, nearby locations.
Raw scheduling data + JSON API/SPARQL for live location info + JSON API/SPARQL routing engine would be wonderful, thanks.
I'd also love this information...
I think it would be incredibly useful. However, I noticed that National Rail Produces commercial consumer-facing applications using this data - so maybe this is stopping them from making their timetable information open?
Transport data mashups are VERY IMPORTANT
We need this kind of data for mashups that will be transformative in persuading people to USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT and save the environment.
Proper and easily accessible information about how best to travel from point A to point B using public transport, how long one might expect the journey to take, and how much it might cost - this could really tip the balance in favour of public transport.
I agree this would be helpful
I agree this would be helpful - I posted a similar suggestion on this site a while back.
It looks like there is a single pdf for the original timetable published annually, with a periodically updated one for any changes to that original. While a bit messy, it ought to be possible to write something to parse the pdf into a database, then periodically check for changes. Some thought would be needed to decide how best to store and present the data, but it doesn't seem to be against any T&C's...
A nicely cut down version of the NREs own journey planner is here:
http://pda.ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/pj
But that is still not providing open access to the actual data
Someone has already attempted
Someone has already attempted [1] parsing the PDF version of the timetable, but the script already seems out-of-date and, looking at the code, the whole thing looks very awkward, time-consuming and inevitably brittle.
Do you know whether the terms & conditions for the PDA version of the Journey Planner are as ridiculously restrictive as for the main Journey Planner?
It's frustrating that the publicly available data is effectively obfuscated in this way and difficult to see how it is in anyone's interest.
[1] http://edwardbetts.com/rail_timetable_parser/
It looks like the T&Cs for
It looks like the T&Cs for the entire website would cover the pda version as well - and they are a tad draconian:
"
This Web Site is for your personal and non-commercial use.
You may not at any time modify, store, copy (including for example screen scraping),
extract, reutilise, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license,
create derivative works from, transfer, or sell, distribute or create any information,
products or services obtained from, linked to or using this Web Site and any data
therein or that may provide users with the ability to do the same.
"