It’s a couple of days since I made the last release so, somewhat belatedly, here’s what’s new this week:

• On the Didcot Parkway to Swindon map, some of the signals on the Down and Up Main lines didn’t have the correct DM/UM prefix – this has now been added
• On the Sandwell & Dudley to Penkridge map, one of the routes from 4282 signal was always indicating a route via Birmingham rather than the Up Stour line – this has been fixed
• On the Richmond to Stratford, Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction, a number of minor errors have been fixed
• The Rugeley Trent Valley to Crewe map was missing a route from the goods platform at Stafford
• The South Croydon to East Grinstead and Uckfield map now shows route set indications where they’re provided

There are also a couple of back-end changes which you won’t notice, but will help linking headcodes to train schedules which, unfortunately, still isn’t perfect. Rest assured, I’m working on it.

Until next time, enjoy the site and please do keep emailing in your feedback!

// Peter

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

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

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:

• Missing crossovers have been put in on the Tring to Wolverton map, and Drayton Road Junction and the Milton Keynes station areas now have route indications
• Missing crossovers have been put in on the Tring to Wolverton map, and Drayton Road Junction and the Milton Keynes station areas now have route indications
• The East Coastway map now has further barrier indications for some of the crossings
• A missing signal on the Rugby to Birmingham New Street map just north of the station has been put back
• A mispositioned signal on the Merseyrail Northern map on the Aintree branch has been respositioned
• The Crewe – Shrewsbury map has the crossing at Nantwich displayed correctly
• The North Kent map has a mispositioned signal at New Cross put in the right place
• A missing crossover at the east end of Leeds on on the Wakefield Westgate to Leeds maphas been put in
• St James Street station on the Bethnal Green – Cheshunt map is now displayed

…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

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

Highlights this time around:

• A brand new map of Crewe to Shrewsbury, which doesn’t yet include Shrewsbury or Crewe but will do soon
• The Harpenden to Bedford map has been reborn and will be extended further north in due course
• The London Paddington map has been redrawn and extended to just shy of Acton Main Line, with signal aspects throughout

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!

A fortnight has gone by already. Sometimes, I’m not sure where the days and weeks go.

Work on the London Waterloo – Clapham Junction map is going well, although Clapham Junction is a complicated area, so it’s not quite ready. However, to make up for it, we have a new map of Exeter St. Davids – Liskeard, which is as far west as train describer coverage goes.

There are also now route indications shown on the Kenton to Tring map at Watford Junction, a few trivial issues fixed on the GNGE map, and the Bethnal Green – Cheshunt map is now under a new section on the maps page.

That’s it for today. There’s a pint in the pub with my name on it…

The past three weeks have gone quickly. I’ve been working on some other projects (more about that in a few weeks) and making the most of the sunshine – but still, I’ve managed to find time to get another handful of things fixed on the site.

The changes this time are centred around the Wessex maps:

• The former Queenstown Road to Surbiton map now covers the District Line between Wimbledon and Putney Bridge/Point Pleasant Junction, New Malden to Teddington, the start of the branch to Effingham Junction, as well as Hampton Court Branch.
• The Queenstown Road to Windsor & Eton Riverside, Chersey and Longcross map no longer shows the District Line past East Putney or past Ashford, but includes the triangle at Strawberry Hill and the depot, the entire Shepperton branch and the line to Teddington, joining up with the map above
• A new Ashford to Windsor & Eton Riverside and Earley map covers Ashford to Windsor & Eton Riverside and Chertsey, plus the line from Virginia Water through to Earley, joining up with the Reading map

As always, there are a handful of minor bug-fixed as a result of your feedback:

• Occasionally, conflicting signal aspects and routes would be shown on certain maps – this was down to an error in the way TD messages are processed, and was very hard to fix – but it’s fixed now, so signals and routes should show correctly
• The East Grinstead and Uckfield branch map will now show trains arriving and departing from platform 3
• The Sandwell & Dudley to Penkridge now has berths for some signals between Dudley Port and Tipton, and a few signal indications are now fixed

I think I’ve earned a cup of tea now. Please keep your emails coming in!

There’s only time for a very quick blog post this week, as life is getting in the way. So, on with the show…

Two new maps this week:

• The Cambrian Lines map is ready – although it looks easy, it took much longer than expected
• The Didcot Parkway to Swindon map is up, covering from just west of Chippenham to Didcot Parkway, including an overlap with the Oxford map, which will be slightly redrawn and extended later

And finally, before I go to tackle the gardening – last week’s update introduced an unfortunate latency bug, meaning at peak times, the maps were lagging behind reality by as long as 30 minutes in some cases.

I’m really sorry that I didn’t spot the bug during testing – but I’m pleased to say it should now be fixed, and I’ll be keeping an eye on the maps this week. For the technically minded, this was caused by the train describer handling code searching all berths for a train description, rather than searching specific berths. The fix is simple – as with a SQL database, an additional index.

So, that’s it for this week – I realise I’m also behind on fixing some of the bugs on the site, which I hope to tackle this week. There won’t be any new maps next Sunday, as I’ll be busy preparing my presentation for OpenTech 2015

// Peter

It’s been another busy week, with two new maps this time, covering the Merseyrail routes:

• The Wirral Line map covers the route from West Kirby and New Brighton to Birkenhead North, Hamilton Square, the lines to Ellesmere Port and Bache, and the loop around Liverpool James Street. Chester will be added soon.
• The Northern Line map covers Hunts Cross through to Liverpool Central, the spur to James Street, plus Sandhills to Southport, including the lines out to Ormskirk and Kirkby

These maps are as difficult as others – there’s no short-cut to laying them out, and it’s all drawn and wired up by hand. Mistakes always creep in, and I always try to fix them as soon as I can – like these ones from previous releases:

• The Stafford map now has crossovers in the right position on the route to Penkridge, and a repositioned crossover to allow the route from 102 to 223 signals
• The Marylebone to South Ruislip map has been reworked around Neasden South Junction, including the sidings and freight terminal
• On the Bournemouth to Weymouth map, signal 5690 – which was always showing a green aspect – has been corrected to always show a red aspect

One important thing to point out is that there are a couple of bugs I’m still trying to fix on the site:

• Sometimes, trains on maps are shown in white (meaning they’re clickable and you can see their schedule), but they’re linked to completely the wrong trains
• On certain maps, on bi-directional lines, signals in both direction are showing a proceed aspect
• TRTS indications and shunt signals occasionally switch on and off without warning

These are tricky problems which I’m trying hard to fix. I’m sorry it’s taking a while – there are only so many hours in the day to draw maps, write software, help the rest of the Open Data community, do my job (which pays my bills, including site hosting) and most important of all, actually take some time out.

That’s all for this week. The next release, hopefully next Sunday, will cover the route from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, the line to Kemble, part of the line to Bristol Parkway, plus Chippenham and Thingley Junction.

// Peter