Christmas is a time for relaxation for some, but not everyone wants to spend their entire day drinking wine and eating mince pies. However, I seem to have been able to combine both, and I’ve spent the holiday season working on a load more tweaks and improvements to the site.

Today’s update was due yesterday, but our service provider, Linode have been hit by DDoS attacks, which meant that OpenTrainTimes appeared to be down. If these attacks continue to happen, I’ll look at moving the OpenTrainTimes infratsructure elsehwere, possibly on to multiple servers on different providers.

On to more positive news – Linode appears to be stable again, so I’ve seized the opportunity to release the code I’ve been working on over the past week or two.

Here are the highlights:

• Network Rail’s North Linconshire renewals have allowed us to show the area from Wrawby Junction to Cleethorpes on the site
• The Thameslink Programme has resignalled Charing Cross to London Bridge to a new control system at Three Bridges ROC – and our diagram is ready and up-to-date for the go-live at the start of January 2016
• Trains which started from 2200-0200 didn’t have their progress tracked on the site, and didn’t appear on the location pages for the next day. This has been fixed.
• There are more route indications on the Darlington, Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness, Horley to Hassocks, Crewe to Shrewsbury and York maps

There are also a number of minor fixes to maps – mis-labelled junctions, signals and missing crossovers in particular.

Thanks to everyone who got in touch with comments, suggestions and feedback in 2015. Long may it continue in 2016 – a year when the site will be even bigger, better and loved than it is now!

// Peter