Live Train Times Now Available

Rail Record is delighted to announce that the initial live train times search feature is now available from the main menu.

Although far from perfect, it is now possible to search for train services on a particular date. You can also choose from All Services and Freight Only.

Click on the magnifying glass on the search page to show the search options. Type in a location, tiploc or 3-alpha CRS code and press All Services/Freight Only to give you a list of services for that day. If there are multiple locations with similar name, such as London Waterloo, Paddington, Marylebone, Bridge, you’ll get a page showing a list of stations and locations. Pick the one that meets your requirements.

At the moment, the date box is text-only and you have to enter a date in the format of dd/mm/yy. We understand this is difficult, especially when working out which day a date is, but we will soon be adding a calendar to choose a date from. The date picker calendar will be optimised for your device, so you wont be struggling around opening/closing the keyboard on your phone.

The list of services which appear are in order of their call time, starting from 0000 in the morning to 2359 in the evening.

We will also be adding + 1 day and – 1 day so you can go to tomorrow and yesterday easier. Clockwise from top left: 1. the expected platform of a train’s arrival/departure. 2. origin of the train. 3. The train’s identity (each train in the region has its own unique identity). 4. Schedule type (WTT/STP) – we have information on VAR schedule updates inside a train’s timetable page. 5. Destination of this service. 6. Arrival and Departure times. Below the row is a View Schedule button, which when clicked, takes you to the timetable.

Train Timetable Page

At the top, is the magnifying glass. Click this to be taken back to the search page to start a new search. Below this is the train’s overview and operator (if available). Below this is the schedule and list of calling points. a is for arrival, d is for departure and p is for pass. Sometimes you may see next to a location name, in square brackets, a number. This indicates [x], so far, the number of times the train has passed this station. Sometimes trains pass stations multiple times because it reverses/changes direction at some point.

Below the timetable is the detailed service information such as:

> Date the train runs.
> Operator and Description (if available).
> Activation and Cancellation status.
> Some enthusiast information such as the usual train type (if available) and schedule created/updated (VAR) info.

Below the service information is the live train performance. Click the “Show Live Train Updates” to see a train’s progress. Older reports are at the bottom, whilst the train’s current/most recent location is pointed at/at the top row.

Also coming soon will be user-added traction information, so users can share sighting reports and allocations for particular services. This comes in addition to loco search features and members area.

What’s next?

We will be updating the search page with the following:

> A date field with a device-optimised calendar. Older versions of Internet Explorer will still be required to use the existing text format dd-mm-yy – sorry.
> A location field which dynamically gives you a list of locations based on what you type in. Type 3 characters or more, and a list of suggested locations will drop down, eliminating the need for the list of locations page.

We hope you find the Rail Record live train times feature useful and look forward to future features will be adding in due course.

Author: matt

Owner of Rail Record