> Signalbox's technology identifies the train a device is on by matching a snapshot of smartphone data to a train’s trajectory data. The technology uses advanced algorithms works even with severely degraded data. We are able to pinpoint a smartphone to any type of train without background location tracking or hardware.
Hmm, that's...interesting?
jillesvangurptoday at 4:29 PM
I looked into the gtfs (gtfs.org) a while ago. This is a data feed format (protobuf based) that a lot of sites like this use for both schedules and real time updates that is pretty widely adopted. Most gtfs location feeds require getting an API key. But there are a handful of public ones that share actual location updates without that.
This is also how e.g. Google maps and others integrate schedule information for public transport as well.
Building a map from the real time updates is relatively straight foward once you have access.
suggests the data mostly comes from railway signalling information, plus a bit of "AI" in some way. I wonder how far apart railway signals usually are, or what the AI is trained on, or anything really vs just looking at a map.
If you’d like to take a look at how one of the older Victorian mechanical signal boxes on this map (still) work, I can wholeheartedly recommend Tom Scott’s recent video on signalling in Britain [1].
This only seems to be standard overground trains. If you add in metro networks like the London tube, or light rail / trams like in Manchester, then you’d get at least hundreds more.
jeroenhdtoday at 11:43 AM
Dutch (and Dutch-bound) rail network overview: https://treinposities.nl/
And the equivalent for buses: https://busposities.nl/
Not all of them have GPS trackers, so some positions are guessed.
There's functionality for this in the official Dutch Railways app, but it looks like they didn't bother putting that onto their website. There is a common source of open data for most of these details, but I don't find the docs to be very complete.
BoardsOfCanadatoday at 5:17 PM
I have to say that it was surprisingly snappy when selecting a train or scrolling the map.
Very nice! I’m making one for NYC subway. It’s still in-progress and animations need a lot more work. Next steps was to adjust the size and overlay it on a proper map.
Are the trains located where the urban areas are, or are the urban areas built around the train network?
It's chicken and egg question, but in Manchester and London it's very clear that mass transit led to urban development, rather than the other way around.
It's very surprising that cities like Leeds have no mass transit at all, and sizeable cities like Liverpool and Birmingham don't have much.
parkerswebtoday at 11:48 AM
Bit puzzled by some of the station data. This train:
is a train from Cambridge to Kings Cross - and in the side panel it shows it as calling at the new Cambridge South station. But Cambridge South isn't shown on the map. That's kinda understandable (because it opened a week ago), but Cambridge North (which opened in 2017) also isn't shown on the map. Neither are offered in any of the auto-complete dropdowns?
I'm wondering if the station data a static dataset which hasn't been updated in a long time?
It's pretty good, my 16 y.o. son will be stuck in it for many hours. I like that you can select a train and see its stops. It would be equally awesome to select a station and see the train arrivals/departures board.
Off-topic, I don't get why people still use a www subdomain, especially so in this case, www.map. Conway's Law in action?
HaphazardGuesstoday at 10:17 AM
very cool. Unrelated but anytime im looking at a map be it city roads, rails subway, etc i wish there was a way to filter the layers based on construction date.
I would like to be able to see when each road/section was built. I assume with GoogleEarth and other databases it should be possible to run some kind changelog comparison and do this at scale for at least the last 20 years or so.
Paul_Stoday at 12:11 PM
I can tell it's not accurate because it has half the trains marked as on time.
Reality is far more depressing. You'd also need to add ghostly white for cancelled and bus icons for replacement buses. Why do I live here god. Why can't we have a functional train network like literally any other civilised country.
Used this many times during the longer commutes across country, works well.
philipwhiuktoday at 10:07 AM
Topping out at 10 minutes delay for the most severe marker colour is an interesting choice.
nephihahatoday at 11:26 AM
A couple of obvious observations:
* Does not include Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, both of which have notable rail networks (as they are not in GB).
* Does not include heritage railways. There are a number of other railways on here which are not marked but offer tourist travel.
dborehamtoday at 2:32 PM
For the similarly confused: it displays times in your local browser time zone, not the time zone of the actual train. I'm pretty sure this is an oversight since there's no universe in which I want train times not in their native time zone.
inglor_cztoday at 10:16 AM
I remember my colleague from MFF UK, Robert Babilon, producing his first real-time map of Czech trains in 2004.
The page, called Babitron, still exists and still keeps that delightful 2004 look. I visited it a few days ago. Unfortunately today there is a message "We are moving Babitron to a different server", so the link isn't working.
Now "Jetlag the game" HAS to shoot their next episode over there
k2xltoday at 12:09 PM
Would be cool if these could animate/interpolate to their next position
IshKebabtoday at 11:10 AM
Is this actually based on GPS (or similar) on the trains, or is it just interpolating signal times (which are waaaay coarser)?
scoottoday at 11:36 AM
I live next to a railway line so I'm in the (not particularly unique, and definitely not enviable) position to compare what's on the map to "IRL" trains, and I can tell you it's as good as useless.
- Trains appearing on the map that aren't anywhere to be seen on the tracks.
- Trains on the tracks that don't appear on the map.
- Trains moving away from the station that according to the timetable view shouldn't have left the station yet.
- Trains on the map seemingly stopping and changing direction, only to reverse course once again.
The map shows a single line segment for what is in fact a multi-line stretch of railway. That's okay as a simplification (I guess), but the icons aren't pinned to the line, so appear to be driving off the track, or even on the adjacent street.
As for realtime - even if the data was accurate and timely, a 2Hz refresh rate most definitely isn't realtime.
Sorry if it seems like I'm shitting on it - it's a fun toy, but I wouldn't depend on it for anything important.
addysantoday at 1:37 PM
yeahh
steamslothtoday at 11:22 AM
Perhaps I’m going mad based off the praise heaped in other responses, but - something seems wildly off with the locations?
I just witnessed a London Liverpool street service plough through the M25 motorway - about 40 miles south of it's typical route and 5 miles south of the nearest actual railway.
Dozens of the trains seem to be traversing through the English channel/La Manche towards the north sea.
In fact the number of trains actually tracking a rail line (and this is outside of the cities where the tube/metro might obscure this) seems in the minority. Most seem to be going straight through the middle of farmers fields on some obscure course unrelated to theirs.