Irish Rail web site

[fergn]

Can't help but notice that according to the realtime system that the Maynooth to Rosslare Harbour train that is due in Connolly at 17:23 has just arrived at Greystones?!? and also its running to Rosslare too! I have to say I am impressed with the new system besides the obvious errors.

[finnyus]

It actually looks promising! Cobh Junction is in the drop down list instead of Glounthaune. If you type Glounthaune you get the full information, if you select Cobh Junction you see nothing.

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by MOH

Yet another change to the interface. Little green map of ireland icon in each station picker box brings up the rubbish network map, you can click your station there to select it. Though I can't see why anyone would bother, especially given thos awful maps.

Can I ask whats wrong with the map? Can you show a better map? We'll give them feedback

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by finnyus

It actually looks promising! Cobh Junction is in the drop down list instead of Glounthaune. If you type Glounthaune you get the full information, if you select Cobh Junction you see nothing.

This and other issues we have spotted have been emailed to our contact within Irish Rail who is in charge of the website.

Its a big improvement

[comcor]

If you're doing that, you might want to bring to their attention that there's some real weirdness with the display for Kent Station

• Cork-Cobh trains don't appear at all (although there's no problem with Cobh-Cork trains). Cork-Midleton and Cork-Dublin do both appear
• Currently it's showing a Cork-Midleton train on time, but departing in -14 minutes
• The 23:55 arrival from Dublin has apparently already arrived in Rathpeacon

[MOH]

Originally Posted by Victor

Can I ask whats wrong with the map? Can you show a better map? We'll give them feedback

The font is awful, it's actually painful to look at for any length of time.
Think the hotspots are a bit too close together, can see people easily clicking the wrong station.

[ACustomer]

It seems like a good concept, but it should have been refined before going live.
1. The train reference numbers are a bit of a mystery to the layman, but they just might be useful in following up an enquiry (but somehow I doubt it)
2. The list of lines where they say the coverage is limited is practically the entire system (including Hazlehatch-Heuston), which seems a bit daft.
3. If one enquires about, for example, Cork Departures (which I happened to do, coincidentally, like comcor), one gets information on Cork Arrivals as well, and information such as "A210 Dublin Heuston to Cork, Due 1050, ETA 1055". This omits the information which people might want: 0800 Departure time from Heuston. Typically people might want to know if the 8am from Dublin is on time or not, because that's the one that Grandma said she would be on.

[Mark Gleeson]

Train codes are shown in timetables europe wide

There are some bugs, the Rathpeacon one is already in with Irish Rail

A request is in to allow for a pop up on click or on hover to show the timetable for the train, eg calling stations and times. It should display A204 08:00 Dublin Heuston - Cork, there are a few issues like that

[Kilocharlie]

Here's one from Kildare at 15:59:
A714 Heuston - Galway ETA 19:52, Due in: 232 Mins, Latest information: Departed Woodlawn.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail are avid readers of this thread so post any and all problems

I'm told Glounthane is fixed as are a few other minor glitches

[MOH]

The RSS feed is completely useless. I'm not sure exactly what they were trying to achieve, but sending me details every 3 hours of what the next few trains are at my selected station is entirely pointless.

[shweeney]

Seems to be some bugs at departure stations - Greystones only shows southbound arrivals or through-trains. Departing Darts are not shown - ditto Malahide, but Bray and Howth don't seem to have the same problem.

EDIT - as soon as I posted this a northbound departure appeared in the list for Greystones, weird.

[shweeney]

Originally Posted by MOH

The RSS feed is completely useless. I'm not sure exactly what they were trying to achieve, but sending me details every 3 hours of what the next few trains are at my selected station is entirely pointless.

I don't get this - the feed will update as often as you refresh it, every minute if you want.

Mark - if you can find some way of scraping the RSS feeds into a database you could compile punctuality figures to compare to IE's published stats.

[Mark Gleeson]

We can't say how but we have extensive arrival time details, not estimated arrival times since the start of the month. Its slowly filling up a database and the numbers aren't good

We will have full details on Nov 30th, the current 4 week period is Nov 2nd - Nov 29th

[shweeney]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

We can't say how but we have extensive arrival time details, not estimated arrival times since the start of the month. Its slowly filling up a database and the numbers aren't good

We will have full details on Nov 30th, the current 4 week period is Nov 2nd - Nov 29th

cool. Anyway - I really like the RSS feed - I've added them to my phone so I can check the times of the next few trains without faffing around in a browser.

+1 for Irish Rail (& I don't say that often).

[Mark Gleeson]

We can expand our data collection operation with this more advanced system.

A further tweak coming online in our system on November 29th. The new RSS feed lacks the data required for an accurate recording of train arrivals. The google maps function has it though.

[ThomasJ]

Its good to see these changes in place this will work well but this shouldn't distract from the real-time platform display that should be working in stations such as maynooth line, kildare line, greystones-gorey etc and the upgrades needed to have these systems working effectively providing we see the works done this system should work well!

Our central signalling system is subject to ongoing work to support this real-time facility. However real-time information has weaker coverage in certain areas, these include:
• Hazelhatch - Heuston Line
• Waterford Line
• Athlone - Westport/Ballina Line
• Charleville - Cork/Cobh/Midleton Line
• Mallow - Tralee Line
• Ballybrophy - Limerick Line
• Limerick - Ennis Line
• Athy - Waterford Line
• Limerick Junction Station
• Limerick Junction - Rosslare Line
• Greystones - Rosslare Line
• Drogheda - Belfast Line
• Drumcondra - Sligo Line

In these cases your query will return the scheduled time only

One other thing, hopefully well see an upgrade on the mobile site to reflect these changes!

[Mark Gleeson]

There is no coverage south of Bray Head, its not Greystones per say, so departures may not picked up until after departure

The Hazelhatch Heuston problem should be solved quickly enough as will Limerick Junction in 2010

A large part of the network is controlled locally using the emergency control system until it is all transfered to Dublin when a larger building is provided

[ThomasJ]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

A large part of the network is controlled locally using the emergency control system until it is all transfered to Dublin when a larger building is provided

Is it planned?

[MOH]

Originally Posted by shweeney

I don't get this - the feed will update as often as you refresh it, every minute if you want.

Mark - if you can find some way of scraping the RSS feeds into a database you could compile punctuality figures to compare to IE's published stats.

Ah, stupid me, it's just google reader.