RealTimeTrains website

[MerlinRail 804]

I second this!

I’ll fourth this!

Finally, could a feature be added where RTT+ members can be sent STP notifications? A rival site has this feature, but with it only being on that rival site, I'd have to purchase a separate subscription for those in order to get them directly (currently, the ones I'm interested in, for Cambrian 197s, are forwarded to me by someone I know, who doesn't pay for STP notifications, as someone who's been getting them from that rival site since before they started charging for them).

And second this

Sorry, I accidentally sorta posted that twice. I’ve cleaned it up now

 

[Peter0124]

Apologies if its already been mentioned but is the API portal not working?

Ive successfully reset my password but it won't let me log in. I know theres a warning message below about future logins being closed but I already had an account?

 

[MrJeeves]

Apologies if its already been mentioned but is the API portal not working?

Ive successfully reset my password but it won't let me log in. I know theres a warning message below about future logins being closed but I already had an account?

Have you considered sending your support query to RTT's support inbox?

 

[trainophile]

Just had a massive argument with a desk clerk at my station of origin (not WOF) as he was insisting I’d have to buy a new ticket to my eventual destination and claim back for the cancelled one, if I wasn’t prepared to wait around for the next one from Worcester Foregate Street to Cheltenham Spa and miss my connection.

Turns out on tweeting GWR that it isn’t cancelled after all. I did wonder as usually for cancelled trains it just shows CANCELLED all the way down but it’s still showing timings. I’m going to have to stop relying on RTT.

 

[Watershed]

As useful as it is, RTT isn't an official source of information. It runs off a different feed than the Darwin 'single source of truth' feed that station displays and journey planners use.

You are always best off double-checking what's going on using something like NRE, which not only has the latest delay/cancellation info but also allows you to replan your journey based on what is now running.

Not sure what your argument was around though? Why would you have to claim back the cost of a new ticket - what ticket do you have?

 

[Peter0124]

I have seen RTT say a train is cancelled when its actually running. Probably a last minute reinstatement. It is rare

 

[tram21]

Just had a massive argument with a desk clerk at my station of origin (not WOF) as he was insisting I’d have to buy a new ticket to my eventual destination and claim back for the cancelled one, if I wasn’t prepared to wait around for the next one from Worcester Foregate Street to Cheltenham Spa and miss my connection.

Turns out on tweeting GWR that it isn’t cancelled after all. I did wonder as usually for cancelled trains it just shows CANCELLED all the way down but it’s still showing timings. I’m going to have to stop relying on RTT.

View attachment 195722

It uses internal industry systems and is not designed, or supposed to be relied upon for train service information.
It is incredibly helpful to find train schedules, allocations etc., but there are some shortfalls such as when a train diverts it isn't shown, or when a train is cancelled then reinstated it takes time to update (which likely happened here).

Use National Rail Enquiries for the most up to date customer facing information to double check anything you see on RTT.

 

[Tom]

This train was indeed cancelled, and in apparently quite a deliberate act, at 0735 following a manual train call at 0734.

It was reinstated at 0805.

There is an intermittent bug, caused apparently by a race condition, that results in the train itself being uncancelled but the message staying. It even returns a few minutes later if I manually remove it out of the train…

We have a couple of mitigations and changes in the alterations/cancellations area being planned for this, following some probably unintentional changes in one industry organisation, which we are likely going to roll out later this quarter after testing is complete.

 

[zwk500]

I have seen RTT say a train is cancelled when its actually running. Probably a last minute reinstatement. It is rare

Rare but on the rise, is my experience. I have seen multiple instances of it on RTT with GWR trains at Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington.

I've also seen issues with the Data feeds at Birmingham New Street when XC start doing set swaps or turning back but I usually put that down to the time it takes for the Controller's decisions to be input in to the feeds themselves on a busy weekday evening.

 

[trainophile]

As useful as it is, RTT isn't an official source of information. It runs off a different feed than the Darwin 'single source of truth' feed that station displays and journey planners use.

You are always best off double-checking what's going on using something like NRE, which not only has the latest delay/cancellation info but also allows you to replan your journey based on what is now running.

Not sure what your argument was around though? Why would you have to claim back the cost of a new ticket - what ticket do you have?

A rather complicated split ticket journey to Paignton bought via Trainsplit. Changing at Cheltenham Spa onto the XC to Newton Abbot. I was hoping to be advised to continue to BHM rather than change at Worcester and try to pick up the same ex-Edinburgh XC from the adjacent platform, as it was showing as being a couple of minutes late and it’s cross platform at New Street so I could probably have just made it.

However my post wasn’t really about that, and I apologise for not realising that there’s an existing thread about RTT. Plenty to read now on my journey!

Edit: tickets are Off Peak Return HFD-CNM and Advances all the way from there.

 

[duffield]

I've noticed there's a bit of an "information anomaly". Looking at EMR MML services, in simple view or in detailed narrow/mobile view, you can easily tell which services are class 810s because they are *not* listed as "EMR Meridian". This information disappears in wide/non-mobile view! It's a bit strange to actually have a useful piece of information disappear on a bigger screen with otherwise more information, although I can sort of see why.

BTW, is there any prospect of detailed/wide view getting a "class" column, displaying e.g. "810" or "222"? I realise this is complicated by mixed sets e.g. XC 220+221 but at least the leading set's class could be displayed.
Edit: This info would potentially be useful to people other than enthusiasts, e.g. persons with reduced mobility may find certain classes much easier to use for various reasons.

 

[DelW]

Turns out on tweeting GWR that it isn’t cancelled after all. I did wonder as usually for cancelled trains it just shows CANCELLED all the way down but it’s still showing timings. I’m going to have to stop relying on RTT.

If you want an alternative source to check, I'd suggest Tiger (tiger.worldline.global), which AIUI exactly replicates the departures board information at the station you choose. Not every station is on their system, but I think you'd find at least one station on the route of most trains. It's not a replacement for RTT as you can't show the route of a service in the same way as that does, but it's an additional backup. Though when the situation is changing as Tom noted above, any source may be incorrect for a period of time.

 

[XCTurbostar]

Spotted another glitch:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026

Train information at Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

4N45 appears to show as 1N45 on this page!

 

[IanXC]

Spotted another glitch:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026

Train information at Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

4N45 appears to show as 1N45 on this page!

Shhh! Can't be having the Branch Line Society hear you!

 

[Tom]

We have now formally confirmed that 5 years is the rolling limit that we will be supporting in the base RTT+ subscription. We will be rolling out a further bolt-on subscription to take that back to the origin of RTT (or more, it's predecessors, Rail Staging & Timetables). Real-time data will not be completely available across that entire period but for those instances we will infill with a timetable. The start date will likely be 1st January 2012 - so it should also contain the Olympics & Paralympics 2012 timetables which contained highlights like CrossCountry to Weymouth...

RTT+ Extended Horizon is now available for an extra £15 per year pro-rata on top of existing subs. Headline is it goes back to late December 2011. Real-time data starts in late 2013 but there are some missing bits up to November 2014 on schedules, and June 2016 for real-time data. More information at https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/plus/extendedhistory/.

Yes, we're in the process of selecting a Merchant of Record service to process customers outside GB. The legal risks with processing it ourselves and remitting VAT to incorrect authorities, etc, is just too high for us to take the risk ourselves.

I would expect that we can support that by the end of next month.

We enabled international payments about a month ago.

Just had a random idea for a feature: a quick add button or something on a service page that lets you add that service, or part of it, to your railmiles

This is coming.

Is it possible to have a toggle that removes Rail Replacement Buses eg 0B00? While it is handy having them, there could be a toggle like the WTT/VAR/STP/CAN ones could be named "BUS" so then schedules come up without them or with them if needed?.

We will offer the ability to split it out for RTT+ users in a future update.

I've noticed there's a bit of an "information anomaly". Looking at EMR MML services, in simple view or in detailed narrow/mobile view, you can easily tell which services are class 810s because they are *not* listed as "EMR Meridian". This information disappears in wide/non-mobile view! It's a bit strange to actually have a useful piece of information disappear on a bigger screen with otherwise more information, although I can sort of see why.

The reason for not doing it on desktop detailed is primarily from layout and space point of view - the former is more I've not been able to get it right and latter is (I think either here or on another forum) when we added a lot of the brand names some people went nuts about the additional pixels being consumed.

BTW, is there any prospect of detailed/wide view getting a "class" column, displaying e.g. "810" or "222"? I realise this is complicated by mixed sets e.g. XC 220+221 but at least the leading set's class could be displayed.
Edit: This info would potentially be useful to people other than enthusiasts, e.g. persons with reduced mobility may find certain classes much easier to use for various reasons.

We probably won't do this (space constraints) but we do have plans around facilities and suchlike in simple view.

Spotted another glitch:

Realtime Trains | Departures from Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026

Train information at Drax Aes (Gbrf) around 0730 on 13/01/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

4N45 appears to show as 1N45 on this page!

Will be fixed over the weekend going forward. This bug dates from "Initial commit" - so 14 years ago!

 

[Benjwri]

RTT+ Extended Horizon is now available for an extra £15 per year pro-rata on top of existing subs. Headline is it goes back to late December 2011. Real-time data starts in late 2013 but there are some missing bits up to November 2014 on schedules, and June 2016 for real-time data. More information at https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/plus/extendedhistory/.

Certainly fun too look at the Olympic timetables and pre-Covid service levels. Look forward to the upcoming RailMiles integration to add stuff from before I had it.

 

[Howardh]

I'm on Euston (1213) to Picc, We've been diverted via Crewe but RTT shows the original route via Stoke!

 

[pdeaves]

I'm on Euston (1213) to Picc, We've been diverted via Crewe but RTT shows the original route via Stoke!

RTT isn't intended to update with 'off [planned] route' diversions. Other systems deal with that.

 

[jfollows]

I'm on Euston (1213) to Picc, We've been diverted via Crewe but RTT shows the original route via Stoke!

I had the reverse last week.
RTT will simply show the actual times against booked times, so in my case blank after Stafford (Little Bridgeford Junction) to Cheadle Hulme. In your case presumably Colwich to Cheadle Hulme.
Sites such as https://charlwoodhouse.co.uk/ can fill in some of the blanks.
It's the way it works, and none the worse for it.
As a free resource it’s brilliant!

 

[Howardh]

I had the reverse last week.
RTT will simply show the actual times against booked times, so in my case blank after Stafford (Little Bridgeford Junction) to Cheadle Hulme. In your case presumably Colwich to Cheadle Hulme.
Sites such as https://charlwoodhouse.co.uk/ can fill in some of the blanks.
It's the way it works, and none the worse for it.
As a free resource it’s brilliant!

Just been informed that we're now not diverted, and on the original route, so RTT will be correct!

 

[IanXC]

Just been informed that we're now not diverted, and on the original route, so RTT will be correct!

RTT was never wrong in any of the circumstances you've mentioned about this diversion.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

RTT+ Extended Horizon is now available for an extra £15 per year pro-rata on top of existing subs. Headline is it goes back to late December 2011. Real-time data starts in late 2013 but there are some missing bits up to November 2014 on schedules, and June 2016 for real-time data. More information at https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/plus/extendedhistory/.

Great stuff. This’ll be useful for TSW runs

 

[Tom]

Look forward to the upcoming RailMiles integration to add stuff from before I had it.

Now (unofficially) added!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

This £15 thing, I wonder what the chances are of a free day or so trial being added? When I purchased the £5 subscription, once I realised I couldn't do a certain few things I'd hoped I could do with it, I didn't really use the premium features.

 

[Tom]

I'm not really sure what you expected from the subscription as it provides everything that we've advertised.

I am not really inclined to offer a trial of Extended History as with the very nature of it with a trial of a day or two you could download all the data from it. The full detail of what it includes is in the text at the bottom on https://realtimetrains.co.uk/plus/extendedhistory/. Otherwise the behaviour of it is exactly the same as it would be on any other page of the site with all the usual functionality.

 

[alistairlees]

Does LNER onboard wi-fi block RTT and Railmiles? I can't access it using their wifi, but it's fine on my phone.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does LNER onboard wi-fi block RTT and Railmiles? I can't access it using their wifi, but it's fine on my phone.

I've certainly heard a report of it doing so, yes. Bizarre but true. If accessing using HTTPS you usually don't get the "blocked" page, it just doesn't load.

 

[Mike395]

I'm not hugely surprised - they blocked Google Cloud Platform's UI for a while because it was pulling certain resources from 'youtube.com' which they'd entirely blocked as a blunt instrument. My gut feeling is its probably similar here.

 

[alistairlees]

Yes, RTT simply won't load. Google Drive does work now, but I think that's fairly recent - I used to have to use my phone's connection to get it

 

[Tom]

There is no block in place at the LNER end for RTT, nor us of them. There is an issue being investigated by our transit providers as traffic from two specific IPs (both used by LNER WiFi) is going missing en route between two upstream peers.