Best free app for real time train times

[radamfi]

What is the best free mobile app for real time train times? (I object to paying £4.99 iPhone/£3.49 Android for the official National Rail app)

For iPhone/iPod Touch the old Cross Country app did real time information but it was a bit tedious to use. However, I notice that they have updated it, renamed it 'Train Tickets' and also brought out an Android version. Real time information is easier to access and I like the red or green tagging against each train. My only reservation is the lack of replacement buses or other buses advertised as part of the national rail timetable, such as the Reading-Heathrow and Woking-Heathrow coach services.

 

[andyfrommk]

my Friend heartily endorses DB Navigator
Don't let the branding fool you, it is usable in the UK, in fact most of Europe.

Also the reviews state that the app is a battery hog, apparently this is not so.

EDIT
Apparently is does not do live info, just timetables

 

[radamfi]

my Friend heartily endorses DB Navigator
Don't let the branding fool you, it is usable in the UK, in fact most of Europe.

Also the reviews state that the app is a battery hog, apparently this is not so.

The DB site and app are great for train times across Europe but don't take into account revised timetables due to engineering work so you really need the domestic websites/apps for that.

 

[andyfrommk]

Sorry, I don't have an android device so am going by what others have said.

I posted him a link to this forum and that's when he corrected me about what it can and can't do.

 

[jon0844]

I don't know a free app, but would say that for Android you can't go wrong with the Rail Planner Live (Thales) app which has been updated to improve the widgets and allow you to buy tickets via the app too.

I am not happy about being made to pay for any of these 'official' apps (well, licensed) as I think it's quite cheeky to charge people to access information that should be free - after all, besides a few enthusiasts or people who are exceptionally bored, most users are likely to be, or soon to be, customers of the railway.

 

[Bungle73]

I don't know a free app, but would say that for Android you can't go wrong with the Rail Planner Live (Thales) app which has been updated to improve the widgets and allow you to buy tickets via the app too.

I am not happy about being made to pay for any of these 'official' apps (well, licensed) as I think it's quite cheeky to charge people to access information that should be free - after all, besides a few enthusiasts or people who are exceptionally bored, most users are likely to be, or soon to be, customers of the railway.

If you wanted to purchase the National Rail Timetable book you'd have to pay for it; and besides the developers have to cover their costs, plus make a profit.

The "official" app is very good. I use it all the time. It will even tell you which platform your train is due to depart from before it comes up on the station displays so you can get there before the hoards do.

Plus it has live tracking so if your train is late you can see exactly where it is.

 

[jon0844]

I get that, but there are many people who were perfectly happy to give up their spare time to create free apps (early on, these existed until they were forced to be removed).

At the very least, you could give away the app for free with in-app advertising.

I believe you now have to pay to access the information, which is where I think the data should be made free. By all means charge for a printed book, as there's an actual cost to design/produce it - but a data feed? Isn't that something that should be funded by the railway industry itself, as it's data that is needed anyway.

The advance notification of platforms is fine unless you're at King's Cross when with all the work, it is quite often wrong and so you look rather stupid going to platform 11a for the next train, only to find it is 'moved' to platform 0! (That's spoken from experience!)

 

[radamfi]

The "official" app is very good. I use it all the time. It will even tell you which platform your train is due to depart from before it comes up on the station displays so you can get there before the hoards do.

Plus it has live tracking so if your train is late you can see exactly where it is.

'Train Times' from Cross Country tells you platform numbers and also shows you which two stations the train is between and how late it was at departed stations. From what I have seen on the screenshots, it is hard to see how the official app is significantly better.

 

[lemonic]

The reason there is no official free NRE app is because NRE licensed out the data to other companies to make paid-for apps. These companies paid for the data. If NRE were to make a free app it would probably put all the paid-for apps out of business and so it wouldn't be fair considering they paid for the data. Hence NRE are in a no-win situation and they can't make a free app if they wanted to. (This told to me by an employee of NRE.)

 

[radamfi]

The reason there is no official free NRE app is because NRE licensed out the data to other companies to make paid-for apps. These companies paid for the data. If NRE were to make a free app it would probably put all the paid-for apps out of business and so it wouldn't be fair considering they paid for the data. Hence NRE are in a no-win situation and they can't make a free app if they wanted to. (This told to me by an employee of NRE.)

Perhaps it would be better if NRE didn't do an app at all? I notice that TfL don't seem to have any apps but there are good free third party apps out there which do live Tube/DLR departure boards. However, NRE does do a good mobile site which looks similar to their app.

 

[lemonic]

Perhaps it would be better if NRE didn't do an app at all? I notice that TfL don't seem to have any apps but there are good free third party apps out there which do live Tube/DLR departure boards. However, NRE does do a good mobile site which looks similar to their app.

There is no NRE app at the moment and there won't be in the near future as I explained above. Until I heard about the new Crosscountry app on this thread, I believe there was no free app that gave live running information.

 

[jon0844]

Why did they license out the data for a price though?

If it had been free to begin with (or a nominal one-off fee), it would have been up to the devs to decide how to make money - or we might have seen some student writing an app for free (quite likely even better than the commerical ones) with the hope of being snapped up by a big developer as a result.

Perhaps more TOCs should offer free apps of their own, with a way to advertise and promote their services. Sadly, I could see them deciding to hide information about rival services if this happened.

 

[radamfi]

There is no NRE app at the moment and there won't be in the near future as I explained above. Until I heard about the new Crosscountry app on this thread, I believe there was no free app that gave live running information.

Oh, I thought you just said that there wasn't a NRE free app at the moment. I assumed that the £4.99 app is 'official' because it was basically NRE's app, albeit made by a third party.

 

[lemonic]

Oh, I thought you just said that there wasn't a NRE free app at the moment. I assumed that the £4.99 app is 'official' because it was basically NRE's app, albeit made by a third party.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. The £4.99 app looks like an NRE app, I think it uses the same logo as on the NRE website, and many people think it is made by NRE, but in actual fact it is nothing to do with NRE, apart from using their live running data.

 

[radamfi]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. The £4.99 app looks like an NRE app, I think it uses the same logo as on the NRE website, and many people think it is made by NRE, but in actual fact it is nothing to do with NRE, apart from using their live running data.

In that case, who decided that this app was 'official'?

Looking at:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/info_on_the_move/apps/index_custom.html#

National Rail do not indicate which of the available apps is 'official'. TOC apps appear to be excluded from this list, presumably in order to be seen to be impartial.

 

[lemonic]

In that case, who decided that this app was 'official'?

Looking at:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/info_on_the_move/apps/index_custom.html#

National Rail do not indicate which of the available apps is 'official'. TOC apps appear to be excluded from this list, presumably in order to be seen to be impartial.

I am not sure if I accidentally suggested that the £4.99 app was official or not, but as far as I know there is no official app. My use of the word official in post 9 was implying that if there was an official app, then it would be made by NRE and would (almost certainly) be free.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Bookmark this: http://m.traintimes.org.uk/live/

It does everything the app does as far as I am aware. They probably pull their data from the same place. You can set up other bookmarks for your local station (I used Birmingham Moor Street, you can change the URL to your local station)

You can also set it up to show journeys between two specific stations (Moor Street to Marylebone) or two cities (London [all stations] to Birmingham [all stations]) or between two cities or stations at a given time, handy for the next few trains home after you finish work or whatever (London to Birmingham at 16:00)

Train running information is contained within the links. If you click my first link now to see departures from Moor Street you will be able to see that the 22:01 to Snow Hill was last reported leaving Warwick Parkway on time at 21:37.

 

[radamfi]

I am not sure if I accidentally suggested that the £4.99 app was official or not, but as far as I know there is no official app. My use of the word official in post 9 was implying that if there was an official app, then it would be made by NRE and would (almost certainly) be free.

I'm sure it was originally marketed as the 'official' app, although that appears to have changed and renamed for impartiality reasons as explained here:

http://www.agant.com/nre.php

 

[phil8715]

You can get free apps for almost every country apart from our own.

I have on my android phone UK trains free, which provides real time live info.

 

[radamfi]

Bookmark this: http://m.traintimes.org.uk/live/

It does everything the app does as far as I am aware. They probably pull their data from the same place. You can set up other bookmarks for your local station (I used Birmingham Moor Street, you can change the URL to your local station)

There is certainly a lot to be said for using a proper mobile website instead of an app and I used to be an app sceptic. However, if the app is free, I can see the benefits of using an app, notably less data usage.

 

[jon0844]

The reason I like the app, especially for Android, is the widgets that show me regularly updated departure boards for my presets, and automatically update as soon as I unlock my phone - so I've got the info quicker than firing up the browser to look.

I was happy to pay for this benefit, even though I still would have liked the data feed to be free and my payment to merely be to the developer for finding clever and innovative ways to relay the information.

 

[phil8715]

The reason I like the app, especially for Android, is the widgets that show me regularly updated departure boards for my presets, and automatically update as soon as I unlock my phone - so I've got the info quicker than firing up the browser to look.

Jon can I ask you are the same Jon Morris, ex editor of What Mobile magazine?

 

[jon0844]

Yes, hence why I talk a fair bit about apps and hardware on here!

 

[phil8715]

I thought so. Nice to see you on a rail forum.

 

[jon0844]

[off topic]
I'm on Digital Spy quite a bit too - although a lot less than I used to be, due in part to the many, many trolls. This forum, like What Mobile, is well run and kept under control.
[/off topic]

 

[oversteer]

Is there any app / site that shows [historic] delay times ? I know the Cross Country app shows 'current' delays.

 

[Mike395]

Is there any app / site that shows [historic] delay times ? I know the Cross Country app shows 'current' delays.

Pretty much all apps show current delays - past delays aren't available anywhere in the public domain once the train completes its journey, as it would encourage Delay Repay fraud.

 

[whhistle]

Main Line:
Rail Planner Live (The Thalis app) -
This really is a good app. I wouldn't recommend paying for it though as it's not worth the £5.

Train Times UK - Another good app, pretty much the same as the Thalis one, but different layout. Costs £3.50 though.



Underground:

Bublmap - A geographically correct version of Zone 1. Good app. FREE!

Pubtran - THE app for the London Underground. Tell it the starting station and the ending station, it will tell you where to change and expected time of arrival. Includes live running info and three maps, the LUL, tourist attractions and main line rail maps. There's a fair bit to download (if you get all three maps) so I'd recommend WiFi for speed, but once you've got them, that's it. It's also FREE!



Haven't really found any others worth mentioning.

 

[Optimo]

Have to say after trying most of them over the last 3 years, I keep using the Agant one (iPhone). It's pretty solid, I can't think of any bugs, and it's reasonably useable.

I too initially balked at the £4.99 which I only effectively need because the train companies cannot run to their own published timetables, but that's showbiz.

There are not many updates, and the developer doesn't appear to interact with users that much (as some devs do - and take on user's suggestions etc). It used to show the train length I think, but no longer, which is one thing it is lacking (3 carriage trains from Harringey to Moorgate at peak time, ffs FCC!?)

Tried the TrainLine one as that is free I believe, but it was just a bit flabby.

Never been a fan of webapps because they don't remember 'favourites/home stations' (I don't think)

 

[Bungle73]

A good tube app is "Tube Exits", it tells you which carriage to get in to be near the exit at your destination, and also which side of the carriage is going to be near the platform.

Have to say after trying most of them over the last 3 years, I keep using the Agant one (iPhone). It's pretty solid, I can't think of any bugs, and it's reasonably useable.

I too initially balked at the £4.99 which I only effectively need because the train companies cannot run to their own published timetables, but that's showbiz.

There are not many updates, and the developer doesn't appear to interact with users that much (as some devs do - and take on user's suggestions etc). It used to show the train length I think, but no longer, which is one thing it is lacking (3 carriage trains from Harringey to Moorgate at peak time, ffs FCC!?)

Tried the TrainLine one as that is free I believe, but it was just a bit flabby.

Never been a fan of webapps because they don't remember 'favourites/home stations' (I don't think)

The Agant app has never shown train length....at least not since I purchased it, and that was a couple of years ago.