RealTimeTrains website

[pokemonsuper9]

I would like to say RTT is superb. Well done. Don't let the wibblers get you down. The product is brilliant. I will be honest and say I didn't "get" RTT when first suggested but now I tell everyone to use it and try to convert as many people as I can. By that I mean normal people using the train.

It is worth noting that, I suspect, the RTT team is one or two blokes who have designed a tool that is a useful for all rail users by relying on solid data. It is having solid, reliable and trustworthy data that builds a reputation and it is one worth hanging on to. Personally, I don't want wibblers adding random and often incorrect data to a useful tool and thus, while helping their own narrow needs, ruin a great resource for all rail users who don't care if a class 66 or class 90 is hauling a Felixstowe > Crewe box train!

keep up the good work!

Ever since I first found RTT (don't remember when) I've used it for most of my travel (with journeycheck as a backup since different feeds)
RTT's KYT makes a good product even better
The reactions to this post make me wish we had like buttons for posts.

 

[Class15]

@Tom may I ask how you add the day-to-day points? For example the stations down the NLL when only Navarino Road Jn, Canonbury West Jn and Westbourne Road Jn are in the actual feeds? Is there a way that this is calculated to make the info correct?

Just to add my two pence to the discussion between RTT & Railcam (I am a subscriber to Railcam & and have suscribed to Railmiles several times), I think that they serve slightly different functions - the clues are in the names. RTT is primarily poviding train running info & Railcam is primarily to watch trains.

For me, the main purpose of getting a Railcam subscription was to get all the extremely handy user-added info that doesn’t come on free websites, and I mainly use the cameras to see what’s on the front of freight trains that I want to see. But I don’t see Railcam as purely a website to watch trains - the gen is very useful and I have never been caught out by incorrect data, except once when 90044 was accidentally typed in instead of the actual loco 90043, which isn’t a big problem. Most of the Railcam data comes from volunteers with TOPS and is almost always reliable, which is why I use Railcam to track things these days. Railcam also has the extremely helpful diagrams function which many other websites lack.

@Tom

I would like to say RTT is superb. Well done. Don't let the wibblers get you down. The product is brilliant. I will be honest and say I didn't "get" RTT when first suggested but now I tell everyone to use it and try to convert as many people as I can. By that I mean normal people using the train.

It is worth noting that, I suspect, the RTT team is one or two blokes who have designed a tool that is a useful for all rail users by relying on solid data. It is having solid, reliable and trustworthy data that builds a reputation and it is one worth hanging on to. Personally, I don't want wibblers adding random and often incorrect data to a useful tool and thus, while helping their own narrow needs, ruin a great resource for all rail users who don't care if a class 66 or class 90 is hauling a Felixstowe > Crewe box train!

keep up the good work!

However, a lot of people do care whether a 66 or 90 is working the Felixstowe - Crewe trains. I have often seen looks of despair and frustration from other spotters when a 66 comes charging past with one of those trains.

 

[DarloRich]

However, a lot of people do care whether a 66 or 90 is working the Felixstowe - Crewe trains. I have often seen looks of despair and frustration from other spotters when a 66 comes charging past with one of those trains.

I am sure some spotters are upset about this sort of thing but they want to get something serious to worry about! Imagine what it was like in 1986 when you sat on a platform and................ waited.

I maintain that the majority of people using RTT don't care about this kind of thing. They worry about the 0826 to Waterloo and how many carriages it has.

 

[Class15]

I am sure some spotters are upset about this sort of thing but they want to get something serious to worry about! Imagine what it was like in 1986 when you sat on a platform and................ waited.

I maintain that the majority of people using RTT don't care about this kind of thing. They worry about the 0826 to Waterloo and how many carriages it has.

Fair point, and most people do, but all I’m saying is that some people do care

I am sure some spotters are upset about this sort of thing but they want to get something serious to worry about! Imagine what it was like in 1986 when you sat on a platform and................ waited.

I maintain that the majority of people using RTT don't care about this kind of thing. They worry about the 0826 to Waterloo and how many carriages it has.

It is serious (at least to me)! I would’ve never completed the Freightliner 90 fleet without the help of Railcam and the very kind people on the TOPS requests thread.

 

[DarloRich]

Fair point, and most people do, but all I’m saying is that some people do care

I take your point - however I would counter by saying that from my understanding RTT is marketed at a general user of the railway service rather than those with specific needs and that any development of the tool will be focused on the general rather than specific user.

 

[Techniquest]

@DarloRich makes a good point, it used to be oh so much harder to find trains. If the Know Your Train thing, and indeed RTT in general, had been available in the mid 2000s I'd have had a very easy time getting all the ATW and FGW fleets cleared. No chasing stuff around the country without any gen, wow things are so much easier now. The youth of today, etc!

For what it's worth, I don't think letting users add allocations in manually is a good idea either.

For the average person, RTT is incredibly useful and that is my primary use of it. How many coaches has a particular train got, is it on time or cancelled, that kind of thing is my main use of RTT. I do use it for searching out various MUs from time to time, of course.

Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without RTT on my trips, it's such an incredibly useful tool!

 

[pokemonsuper9]

No chasing stuff around the country without any gen, wow things are so much easier now. The youth of today, etc!

I am very much one of the younger ones, only starting to keep track of units properly last October (with photos dating back further).
(Mileage tracked since the start of 2023, Commute tracked since September, and Non-commute journeys also tracked since start of 2023)
Without RTT KYT finding 390137 (the last 390 I need) would be a lot harder, although "finding" is kind of limited when it's "check RTT when near the WCML and if it's passing while I'm available go to it"

 

[Techniquest]

I know what you mean, it's hardly 'finding' a winner when you've looked then up on RTT first. Not that I never do that myself, of course. I was doing that all the time with the TfW 153/9s, which I guess helped boost TfW's revenues with all the late notice tickets I was buying!

 

[Class15]

I find it interesting how much the opinion of everyone on this thread has changed, to be honest. When I posted the user-added idea, almost everyone was for it. Now the second that Tom said he thought it wasn’t a good idea everyone is against it. I’ve made a note of that .

 

[zwk500]

I find it interesting how much the opinion of everyone on this thread has changed, to be honest. When I posted the user-added idea, almost everyone was for it. Now the second that Tom said he thought it wasn’t a good idea everyone is against it. I’ve made a note of that .

I suggest you reread the thread. You made the suggestion in #1,737, The next two posts was a clarification and confirmation, and then #1,740 is a 'not if it displaces KYT'. There was plenty of opposition before Tom said his piece.

 

[Class15]

I suggest you reread the thread. You made the suggestion in #1,737, The next two posts was a clarification and confirmation, and then #1,740 is a 'not if it displaces KYT'. There was plenty of opposition before Tom said his piece.

Yet the suggestion was that it wasn’t going to displace KYT! I think you’ve got muddled up there ZWK500. I frankly have better ways to spend my time than be hanged up on in a thread on a website which has severely reduced my trust in both RTT and RUK. Railcam all the way! In fact I just saw a pair of 90s thanks to Railcam! I’m not saying RTT is a bad resource (in fact it’s very good) but it seems overrated.

 

[Techniquest]

I can't comment on Railcam, I haven't got the patience to sit in front of a screen and wait for a train to pass by. Athough I do have the luxury of the railway station being only around 1 mile away, so when I want to see a train I don't have to go far Plenty of people don't have that luxury, I didn't until December 2017 so I know the frustration it can cause.

Personally, I'm quite happy to use RTT to find out when something is coming my way then go out and actually see it!

 

[Class15]

I can't comment on Railcam, I haven't got the patience to sit in front of a screen and wait for a train to pass by. Athough I do have the luxury of the railway station being only around 1 mile away, so when I want to see a train I don't have to go far Plenty of people don't have that luxury, I didn't until December 2017 so I know the frustration it can cause.

Personally, I'm quite happy to use RTT to find out when something is coming my way then go out and actually see it!

I use Railcam primarily for allocations for freight, which it is undeniably excellent at compared to others.

 

[Techniquest]

I use Railcam primarily for allocations for freight, which it is undeniably excellent at compared to others.

Fair enough Freight isn't my thing, great to watch but I don't chase after it or whatever.

Back in my day, we had the luxury of interesting workings such as the trip working with an 09 through Newport, that was funky. Such a thing happening now would be a weird sight

Ooh I'm getting all nostagic suddenly

 

[Tom]

Methinks there be a major disconnect between what I see RTT as and what others see RTT as.

RTT was initially developed as a way of helping me out on my own commute. The entire feature set that underpins is essentially driven by what I want as a traveller on the network. If I do something on the way that's quite helpful to further my goals in achieving what I ideally want - then it'll happen. The entire feature base is largely driven by my own desires to reduce pain on my own travels! The commercial imperatives by and large come second to that.

The fact that there is a committed set of enthusiast users around for RTT is both a blessing and a curse: blessing because we can find errors much more quickly than we otherwise would, curse because enthusiasts are very much a vocal minority when it comes to new feature requests.

KYT only really came about because I was getting quite frustrated with my frequent trips on the Highland Main Line in 2018/2019 and 170s only intermittently having sockets. Existing information systems only went to the degree of listing the number of coaches - but that didn't solve my problem of the 170s not having sockets on quite a long journey. It had long been said that the ability to do numbers were for the benefit purely of spotters and that it was commercially sensitive. KYT demolished the former part of the argument, and the fact that GBRf were happy to release allocations demolished the latter part in a way that I never expected realistically possible. Right time, right place, right people.

I find it interesting how much the opinion of everyone on this thread has changed, to be honest. When I posted the user-added idea, almost everyone was for it. Now the second that Tom said he thought it wasn’t a good idea everyone is against it. I’ve made a note of that .

I've made statements before that I'm not in favour of user or crowd sourced allocations - your suggestion wasn't new in any case and we've been having requests along those lines for the last 3 years ever since the first set dropped.

I acknowledge that it's a nice to have for some but it's completely outwith my general direction for RTT and other sites are better suited for answering the more enthusiast questions. I don't think RTT can be (or ever will be while under my control) a one stop shop for all the needs of the general public and enthusiasts.

 

[Class15]

Methinks there be a major disconnect between what I see RTT as and what others see RTT as.

RTT was initially developed as a way of helping me out on my own commute. The entire feature set that underpins is essentially driven by what I want as a traveller on the network. If I do something on the way that's quite helpful to further my goals in achieving what I ideally want - then it'll happen. The entire feature base is largely driven by my own desires to reduce pain on my own travels! The commercial imperatives by and large come second to that.

The fact that there is a committed set of enthusiast users around for RTT is both a blessing and a curse: blessing because we can find errors much more quickly than we otherwise would, curse because enthusiasts are very much a vocal minority when it comes to new feature requests.

KYT only really came about because I was getting quite frustrated with my frequent trips on the Highland Main Line in 2018/2019 and 170s only intermittently having sockets. Existing information systems only went to the degree of listing the number of coaches - but that didn't solve my problem of the 170s not having sockets on quite a long journey. It had long been said that the ability to do numbers were for the benefit purely of spotters and that it was commercially sensitive. KYT demolished the former part of the argument, and the fact that GBRf were happy to release allocations demolished the latter part in a way that I never expected realistically possible. Right time, right place, right people.


I've made statements before that I'm not in favour of user or crowd sourced allocations - your suggestion wasn't new in any case and we've been having requests along those lines for the last 3 years ever since the first set dropped.

I acknowledge that it's a nice to have for some but it's completely outwith my general direction for RTT and other sites are better suited for answering the more enthusiast questions. I don't think RTT can be (or ever will be while under my control) a one stop shop for all the needs of the general public and enthusiasts.

Do you think, as a general question, that one day all freight companies will have their info on RTT? And passenger companies?

Also, the day-to-day info (passing points that are not in the main feed) is very helpful, but how is this info calculated?

 

[Tom]

I don't know whether all operators will be present on RTT in future. I think passenger operators is more likely, I simply don't know about freight.

Schedules are passed through a geography database when they are 'flattened' between 1-4pm the day before operation. It knows distances between timing points and uses that against the schedule to determine approximate timings together with some rules around acceleration and braking curves. You can identify any of these times as they are in a lighter colour in the WTT pass times.

 

[Class15]

I don't know whether all operators will be present on RTT in future. I think passenger operators is more likely, I simply don't know about freight.

Schedules are passed through a geography database when they are 'flattened' between 1-4pm the day before operation. It knows distances between timing points and uses that against the schedule to determine approximate timings together with some rules around acceleration and braking curves. You can identify any of these times as they are in a lighter colour in the WTT pass times.

Thanks

 

[stevieinselby]

@Tom

I would like to say RTT is superb. Well done. Don't let the wibblers get you down. The product is brilliant. I will be honest and say I didn't "get" RTT when first suggested but now I tell everyone to use it and try to convert as many people as I can. By that I mean normal people using the train.

It is worth noting that, I suspect, the RTT team is one or two blokes who have designed a tool that is a useful for all rail users by relying on solid data. It is having solid, reliable and trustworthy data that builds a reputation and it is one worth hanging on to. Personally, I don't want wibblers adding random and often incorrect data to a useful tool and thus, while helping their own narrow needs, ruin a great resource for all rail users who don't care if a class 66 or class 90 is hauling a Felixstowe > Crewe box train!

keep up the good work!

Seconded/thirded/whatever we are up to now!

As a passenger, RTT is generally as accurate and comprehensive as I need it to be, even without KYT, although there are times when it does come in useful to be able to check what stock is typically used when deciding which service to travel on! As an enthusiast, the more operators use KYT the better, but I'm not interested in seeing the product diluted by crowdsourced information (I hesitate to call it "data"). Rest assured that the vast majority of users are incredibly grateful for the work that you put into it.

 

[357]

+1 to not wanting publicly inputted unit numbers.

Before I get accused of some vendetta I can, if requested, post screenshots of a conversation via Facebook with Tom about this very subject from many years ago!

 

[Topological]

KYT is invaluable for knowing where the doors will be on the Marches trains. Being in the right place at Piccadilly really makes a difference.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

KYT is invaluable for knowing where the doors will be on the Marches trains. Being in the right place at Piccadilly really makes a difference.

are they that busy that the platform at Piccadilly is overflowing before the train even gets there?
Or are you referring to arriving there?

 

[Topological]

are they that busy that the platform at Piccadilly is overflowing before the train even gets there?
Or are you referring to arriving there?

That busy

Well the substitutes cannot keep timings so often arrive late compared to their intended arrival (WTT at xx:11 for xx:30 departure)

This is of course when they arrive, when they turn short there is nothing RTT can do.

 

[Falcon1200]

Seconded/thirded/whatever we are up to now!

And from me too.

Rest assured that the vast majority of users are incredibly grateful for the work that you put into it.

Yes indeed.

 

[william.martin]

Is this even technically possible?

Realtime Trains | 1I08 0715 Holyhead to Birmingham International | 10/06/2023

Real-time train running information for 1I08 0715 departure from Holyhead to Birmingham International on 10/06/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[158841]

One little thing from the Welsh contingent
The 175s seem to be turning into power cars pushing coaches!
The 3 cars seem to all do this, can it be looked into please?

 

[liamf656]

One little thing from the Welsh contingent
The 175s seem to be turning into power cars pushing coaches!
The 3 cars seem to all do this, can it be looked into please?

It’s already being looked into, there is an issue with the feed that sends the info down to RTT. It’s a known problem with Northern allocations too

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Yes, I'd personally recommend removing the pictures until it's fixed as it plagues Northern's allocations too.

Note that I said pictures, not the allocations in general.

 

[158841]

Be interesting to see the loco and stock allocated as when it's a GC set they just show the 67 allocation and no photo, but if it's a VTEC set it'll show the stock not the loco!
Any idea when the 197s will also get an image?
Also I can confirm that ALL TFW units are in their new colour scheme except for the two hireins obviously. Can these get updated too?

 

[SuperLuke2334]

Be interesting to see the loco and stock allocated as when it's a GC set they just show the 67 allocation and no photo, but if it's a VTEC set it'll show the stock not the loco!
Any idea when the 197s will also get an image?
Also I can confirm that ALL TFW units are in their new colour scheme except for the two hireins obviously. Can these get updated too?

RE your loco hauled point, it only shows the allocation if TfW put it in the system. If not it will show the VTEC red image, even if it is a GC set.