It’s been two months of silence – or so it seems. Busy working in the background has been yours truly, working on some massive behind-the-scenes updates to the site to optimise it and make it faster.

The biggest change you’ll see is that maps load faster. A lot faster. The previously bulky (sometimes several megabytes) maps are now a few hundred kilobytes, meaning that if you’re using them on a mobile device, you’ll really notice the difference.

Next, a much-requested feature – inter-map links. Between maps, you’ll see that some labels, such as “To/From London Euston”, are now clickable and have a coloured border. Clicking one of these will take you to the adjacent map. Right now, it’ll just load the map and you’ll have to find the right part yourself – but in the coming weeks, the map will take you exactly to the right place.

Another new feature – every location in blue on the maps can now be clicked and will take you to the timetable for that particular location. Neat, huh?

The rest of the changes are under the hood – some maps have been tidied up, others have been extended slightly, and most of the foundation for the next year’s worth of updates to OpenTrainTimes is in there and ready.

Enjoy the faster site and please get in touch and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep bang up-to-date with the latest news.

In the mean time, Happy Christmas – and look out for the new maps of Charing Cross/Cannon Street, plus the Lincolnshire freight lines which are coming over Christmas!

Peter