What's new – 31st August 2015

Exciting news this week – we have real-time train tracking. This is a feature I worked on several years ago but left to one side so as not to steal anyone else’s limelight. It’s not yet perfect – VSTP movements aren’t included, and there are some performance-related bits to tune up, but it’s a good start. Feedback on this feature is really appreciated – drop me a mail.

The changes to the Crewe map to make signal aspects visible a couple of weeks ago has now kicked in, a little later than expected.

There are just two pieces of news this week.

First, the Rugeley Trent Valley to Crewe map and the Wolverhampton map have been updated to reflect the resignalling this weekend at Stafford. Both Stafford No 4 and Stafford No 5 signalboxes have been taken out of service, with control now at the Rugby Railway Operating Centre (ROC).

Further south, the London Bridge map has been updated to reflect the work carried out under the Thameslink programme. I’ve also taken the opportunity to put on some route indications on the low level side of London Bridge, although some of the data is unclear and at times, it may appear as though conflicting routes have been set. If you spot this happening, please get in touch and let me know the date and time so I can fix it.

There are also some invisible changes which will help the site run better and smoother. There were problems on Friday afternoon with maps freezing, making for a frustrating train journey for me, trying to fix them whilst suffering from poor mobile reception.

So, until next time – enjoy 🙂

// Peter

What's New – 23rd August 2015

I’ve not been in good health for most of this week, laid low for most of the week and unable to do much. However, I’m feeling better now and I’ve just pushed out a minor release to fix a few issues.

Last Sunday’s release accidentally rolled out a new feature that wasn’t quite ready – real-time train tracking. I decided to leave this on, but later found all trains queried on-the-day or historically were an hour out from their actual timings. This highly irritating bug (affecting me too, as I use my own website for getting around) should be fixed now, and trains from tomorrow onwards will display correct timings. It didn’t affect any future schedules, and many people use the website for looking up future planned changes.

There were also some problems with the real-time maps lagging behind reality during peak times. This is fixed too – although if you still notice maps lagging, please let me know.

Finally, good news if you run IE8 – some of the code on the site is now lighter and uses more basic technology, which means features such as the location selection dropdown on the front page will now work.

That’s it for another week. Next week’s release, which will probably be on Tuesday evening, will see an updated map of the Stafford area.

// Peter

What's New – 16th August 2015

Another Sunday rolls around – it doesn’t seem like it’s been a week already.

Most of the effort this week has gone in to the two new maps:

  • Bedford North Junction to Syston North Junction, including the triangle at South Wigston and an extension of the Hillmorton Junction to Nuneaton map to include the other half of the Nuneaton – Leicester route
  • Crewe is now live, although it’s currently a work-in-progress, as the area is hugely complex, covers a number of train describers and this weekend’s planned works at Crewe SCC haven’t completed yet. I’ve decided to release this map before it’s quite ready as there’s been a lot of interest in it

Other less notable but still important things:

…and there are a few behind-the-scenes changes that will help improve linking schedules to train descriptions – a fix that’s hopefully due to be live next week.

Until next time, enjoy the site and keep sending in your feedback!

// Peter

What's New – 9th August 2015

Minimal post this week because there’s so much going on!

Highlights this time around:

The Crewe map should be making an appearance in a week or two, and the Stafford map will be changed as a result of the Stafford Area Resignalling.

Sorry that there are still a few bugs in the maps – I have a long list of little things to fix when I get time!