TrainSplit v2

[methethpropbut]

A small glitch I noticed - but the system seems to get confused between the "Depart after" and "Arrive before" timings - sometimes when I search for example "depart after" 13:00, and then click on the arrows to look for other trains, it switches to "arrive before" 13:00 instead!

 

[yorkie]

A small glitch I noticed - but the system seems to get confused between the "Depart after" and "Arrive before" timings - sometimes when I search for example "depart after" 13:00, and then click on the arrows to look for other trains, it switches to "arrive before" 13:00 instead!

Same here; it's a UI issue. I get the same on VTEC's website.

 

[SickyNicky]

It's a "feature"

If you select for a time after (say) 13:00 and then click the "before" arrow, what you're effectively asking for is a time before 13:00. So that's what you get!

 

[julieandjack]

Any news on the mobile app?

 

[paul1609]

It's a "feature"

If you select for a time after (say) 13:00 and then click the "before" arrow, what you're effectively asking for is a time before 13:00. So that's what you get!

Its really annoying if your booking a long distance journey to a station that has relatively early last trains from London (in my case Helensburgh to Appledore (Kent) because the switch causes the site to return that it hasn't found any available tickets for the journey. I'd given up on Trainsplit and used Virgins own site to book an advance to London on several occasions before Id worked out what was going on.

 

[SickyNicky]

Its really annoying if your booking a long distance journey to a station that has relatively early last trains from London (in my case Helensburgh to Appledore (Kent) because the switch causes the site to return that it hasn't found any available tickets for the journey. I'd given up on Trainsplit and used Virgins own site to book an advance to London on several occasions before Id worked out what was going on.

Oh, OK. I take it that you'd prefer that I retained the previous "before/after" selection then? It would be relatively easy to do. What do others think?

 

[FQTV]

Oh, OK. I take it that you'd prefer that I retained the previous "before/after" selection then? It would be relatively easy to do. What do others think?

I agree that it should retain the previous selection. The current set-up is, as Paul1609 says, a bit of a chew when looking at longer journeys (which is presumable exactly what TS is most handy for) and when you ask it look departing than 13:00, it switches to looking for arrivals before 13:00. That could be a six or seven hour jump, and is either going to put folks off or just increase the number of searches required to get the requested results.

It may be a particular irritation because the algorithm is (understandably) set to look for 'cheap' first. That regularly means that a 'departing after 13:00' search returns a first option departing after 14:00, which may be too late. So the user is also understandably going to want to track back to see what else is available around about.

This is, of course, on a non-split basis, what the WebTis matrix is so efficient at showing.

 

[julieandjack]

Oh, OK. I take it that you'd prefer that I retained the previous "before/after" selection then? It would be relatively easy to do. What do others think?

Hi SickyNicky. Any news when the mobile app will be available?

 

[methethpropbut]

Yup I'm with paul1609 and FQTV about this! Generally use it for long journeys (a few hours at least) so when I search for a train departing say 15:00 and press back, I'm trying to get a train departing at 14:00 - think most people using the site will be like that too! But thank you for taking our feedback.

 

[Mathew S]

Hi SickyNicky. Any news when the mobile app will be available?

It's certainly already available, I've got it on my phone. Where are you looking for it?

 

[SickyNicky]

It's certainly already available, I've got it on my phone. Where are you looking for it?

Really?! That seems very unlikely, given that I have the release candidate on my phone now and am doing some testing as we speak.

 

[Mathew S]

Really?! That seems very unlikely, given that I have the release candidate on my phone now and am doing some testing as we speak.

Apologies, evidently I've misunderstood. Is this not the app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.trainsaver.app

 

[SickyNicky]

No that's just a white label wrapper for the website. We have a proper app coming hopefully very very soon.

 

[Mathew S]

No that's just a white label wrapper for the website. We have a proper app coming hopefully very very soon.

Ooh, nice
Apologies for my misunderstanding!

 

[julieandjack]

No that's just a white label wrapper for the website. We have a proper app coming hopefully very very soon.

Great! You mentioned that its being vetted or did you say accredited? Is that finished? The mobile website is killing me on my phone

 

[SickyNicky]

Great! You mentioned that its being vetted or did you say accredited? Is that finished? The mobile website is killing me on my phone

Can't give you a timescale, but it's not long.

 

[julieandjack]

Can't give you a timescale, but it's not long.

You said that 4 months ago and still nothing. That's why I was asking again.

 

[SickyNicky]

You said that 4 months ago and still nothing. That's why I was asking again.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the rail industry and accreditation. You can rest assured that we're trying hard!

 

[julieandjack]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the rail industry and accreditation. You can rest assured that we're trying hard!

Haha. Fair enough. Does it allow for beta releases?

 

[SickyNicky]

Haha. Fair enough. Does it allow for beta releases?

That's already been done, yes. Once it does get released, there are still some things that we want to add to the next version, so it won't be perfect, but it's on the way.

 

[julieandjack]

That's already been done, yes. Once it does get released, there are still some things that we want to add to the next version, so it won't be perfect, but it's on the way.

So you mean it will be a cut-down version of the website?

 

[SickyNicky]

So you mean it will be a cut-down version of the website?

Oh no, totally different. Redesigned UI specifically for mobile users.

 

[julieandjack]

Oh no, totally different. Redesigned UI specifically for mobile users.

Ok looking forward to it. Hopefully will not be 4 more months! Haha

 

[Dai Corner]

Perhaps I should be asking in a developers' forum rather than here, but what is the advantage of an app over a website in a case like this? From the user's perspective I have to find and download an app and it takes up storage space on my device without any particular advantages I can think of except perhaps that it may look 'prettier'.

 

[takno]

Perhaps I should be asking in a developers' forum rather than here, but what is the advantage of an app over a website in a case like this? From the user's perspective I have to find and download an app and it takes up storage space on my device without any particular advantages I can think of except perhaps that it may look 'prettier'.

You should be able to get a pretty identical look on a website now. I'm sure SickyNicky can give a more directly relevant list for TrainSplit, but the main benefits I can see are:

• Working offline. You wouldn't be able to buy tickets offline, but you should be able to see the tickets you have bought, and possibly look at the results of recent searches. You can do this using websites on Android just fine (although most sites don't do it and users probably don't know they can). It's also hard to impossible to do it well on iPhone just now
• Notifications. Getting alerts if your train is running late, or a new offer gets launched or something. Again, you can do this on Android from a website, but not on iPhone right now. Unfortunately marketing teams have leapt on this feature ineptly on Android so it becomes another annoying pop-up the second you land on a site, so I can't see Apple being that keen to roll it out.
• Payment mechanisms. You can integrate with the various wallets and apple/google pay much more effectively on an app, making one-touch payment easier. I'm not sure how important this really is, given that you can usually just store a card on your account for a site and use it easily anyway, but some people are huge fans and prefer to manage most of their spending through the phone.
• Access to secure storage. In an era where m-ticketing is becoming more important, it's far easier to store/manage/display secure tickets on the phone. Again, whether this is really more useful than a barcode based system is debatable, but it's something
• Access to a large (though rapidly shrinking) group of people who like to install apps, prefer to use them, feel safer with something that's come from an app store etc. This is still a valuable market segment, particularly on iPhone, and there is a whole ecosystem based around marketing to them.

Given the costs of producing and maintaining apps, the ongoing decline in app installs and usage, and the rapid increases in functionality available to web apps, it's likely that the number of content sites offering apps may fall a lot in the next couple of years. Transactional apps like TrainSplit are likely to be around a bit longer than that.

 

[Dai Corner]

Thanks for the insights @takno

Another irritation for me, as a cheapskate with an older iPhone, is apps which won't run under later operating systems. I'm pleased to hear that we're moving away from apps towards websites.

 

[julieandjack]

Thanks for the insights @takno

Another irritation for me, as a cheapskate with an older iPhone, is apps which won't run under later operating systems. I'm pleased to hear that we're moving away from apps towards websites.

SickyNicky said he doesn't have an iPhone app, only Android coming so it won't work on your iPhone in any case when it finally arrives.

 

[takno]

Thanks for the insights @takno

Another irritation for me, as a cheapskate with an older iPhone, is apps which won't run under later operating systems. I'm pleased to hear that we're moving away from apps towards websites.

Unfortunately Apple tie new versions of Safari into the iOS releases, so as an older iPhone user you won't get the newer versions of Safari which newer web app features depend on. You're likely to find the in relatively near future that websites start to become degraded or unavailable. If you want to use cheaper or older hardware you really are better embracing Android, where even 5 year-old phone is still getting the latest version of Chrome.

 

[Dai Corner]

Unfortunately Apple tie new versions of Safari into the iOS releases, so as an older iPhone user you won't get the newer versions of Safari which newer web app features depend on. You're likely to find the in relatively near future that websites start to become degraded or unavailable. If you want to use cheaper or older hardware you really are better embracing Android, where even 5 year-old phone is still getting the latest version of Chrome.

Yes I'd more or less decided my next phone will be Android. What you say reinforces that. Thanks

I better let the thread get back on topic. Sorry SickyNicky!

 

[paul1609]

Unfortunately Apple tie new versions of Safari into the iOS releases, so as an older iPhone user you won't get the newer versions of Safari which newer web app features depend on. You're likely to find the in relatively near future that websites start to become degraded or unavailable. If you want to use cheaper or older hardware you really are better embracing Android, where even 5 year-old phone is still getting the latest version of Chrome.

Does the latest version of Chrome run on the old i phones?