There are quite a few sources of transport data these days, they are all slightly different and have slightly different characteristics. What we’d like to explain here is why you would choose a certain data feed over another one.
Each departure board connects directly to our own server infrastructure rather then the data feed directly, this gives us full control over the data going back to the board. If a data feed makes a change or goes down, we can very quickly adapt or re-route to a alternative feed.
Rail
There are two main sources of rail data. First one is National Rail Enquiries Darwin system and the second one is Network Rails Trust system. The Darwin system then offer the data in two ways, either a simple Rest API (you ask for the data and get a basic response for a particular station) or you use the more powerful push port system where they fire a continuous stream of real time messages and you parse the data yourself! Each way has its pros and cons, but the push port method is generally more powerful as you get near second real time updates and the most amount of data but is far more work involved in getting this system setup.
We provide a mixture of all the different feeds (Realtime Trains is Trust based, Darwin16 is our current NREA data feed which will eventually be discontinued) All freight & ECS data is provided by Network Rail. Here is a matrix explaining what features each data feed provides. Play around with them, find one which works best for you.
London Underground
There are two main sources of London Unground Data which is the latest TFI Unified API and the older XML data feed. They pretty much give the same data, just in different formats.
Bus
We have quite a few sources of bus data depending on the area and if its real time or just scheduled. Below is a list of the various bus data feeds we support.
- Transport API – This feed covers the whole country and has real time updates. We have to buy this data up front so requires Premium Plus to access it.
- Traveline – This feed covers the whole country and has real time updates. This feed has limited requests so requires Premium Plus to access it.
- Bustimes.org – This feed covers the whole country but is mostly timetable data but they are trailing real time updates in certain areas.
- Transport For London – This feed just covers the London area and is real time.
- Reading Buses– This feed just covers Reading and is real time.
- Go North East – This feed just covers the North East of the country and is real time.
- Trentbarton– This feed just covers around Derby and is real time.
Tram & Metro
We have quite a few sources of bus data depending on the area and if its real time or just scheduled. Below is a list of the various tram & metro data feeds we support.
- Transport for Greater Manchester – This feed covers the Greater Manchester Bee tram network and is real time.
- Transport for West Midlands – This feed covers the West Midlands Birmingham tram network and is real time.
- Transport For London – This feed covers the London tram network and is real time.
- Tyne and Wear Metro (Nexus) – This feed covers the Tyne and Wear Nexus Newcastle tram network and is real time.
- Shielfield Supertram – This data comes from bustimes.org timetable data only and not real time.
- Blackpool trams – This data comes from bustimes.org timetable data only and not real time.