Looking for Actual Historical Freight Rail Movement Data

[benjamin223]

Hi everyone,


I'm currently working on a research project related to the freight rail industry. I’ve come across several datasets—such as the Working TimeTable (WTT), TRUST, Darwin, and others—but I’m a bit confused about which dataset actually contains the real historical freight train movements.

Specifically, I’m looking for data that includes:

• Planned vs. actual departure and arrival times
• Train ID or service information
• Route and stopping points
• Any delays, reasons for delays (if available)
• Other operational details, if possible

My goal is to analyze real past operations, not just planned or theoretical schedules.

If anyone has experience working with UK freight rail data or can point me to the correct dataset(s), I’d really appreciate your guidance.

Thanks in advance!

 

[saismee]

TRUST will be what contains the timings that the train actually ran to on the day, the WTT will be the planned timings (I'm unsure if this includes variations and short-term plans/STPs though). Darwin is used for realtime data, including estimates of arrival and departure times - you likely won't need this.

 

[benjamin223]

TRUST will be what contains the timings that the train actually ran to on the day, the WTT will be the planned timings (I'm unsure if this includes variations and short-term plans/STPs though). Darwin is used for realtime data, including estimates of arrival and departure times - you likely won't need this.

How can I access historical TRUST data from previous years (e.g., last 2–5 years)? Is there a public archive, API access, or a process to request this kind of data?

 

[zwk500]

I'm fairly sure the level of data you're after is only held by NR and not published freely.

For an academic project you could reach out to NR (possibly directly to Capacity Planning) and see what they might provide. TRUST will have the first 4 bullet points, Darwin I'm fairly sure doesn't cover freight. If you want formations you might need other things such as ITED or TOPS printouts.

If memory serves this isn't the first time you've asked about this sort of data?

 

[trainmania100]

I think this would be a good place to start; without downloading you own data;

Rail Data Marketplace

(Requires registration),

Historic delays data, month by month, year by year, in CSV format (btw it's huge), it contains both passenger and freight data reasons for delays. It doesn't have full running times throughout, but rather delays where and when occured for a particular train on a particular journey. And why. Eg:

126V00CM12 might have a delay attribute 20L stoats nest junction due to late running train in front, or whatever.

Have a look at it, otherwise like above said the only thing is reaching out, maybe to network rail, or by compiling some trust data yourself from the movement feed which isn't particularly hard if you don't mind spending money on a VPS and spinning up a Kafka consumer.

It's good stuff but due to the size it's a bit of a pain to work with.

 

[saismee]

compiling some trust data yourself from the movement feed which isn't particularly hard if you don't mind spending money on a VPS and spinning up a Kafka consumer.

A VPS (virtual private server) wouldn't even be necessary. I'm sure an old laptop would be good enough to do this (maybe with an external drive for extra storage, if necessary).

 

[trainmania100]

A VPS (virtual private server) wouldn't even be necessary. I'm sure an old laptop would be good enough to do this (maybe with an external drive for extra storage, if necessary).

Could probably, I don't trust my internet connection to be reliable enough for 24/7 constant reading from a message broker nor do I know enough about windows Lol Just tried to open up a 5gb excel file and it wouldn't even let me it's too big. Id out to rename the extension to .cbb can't be bothered

 

[saismee]

Could probably, I don't trust my internet connection to be reliable enough for 24/7 constant reading from a message broker nor do I know enough about windows Lol

Who said the laptop had to run Windows?

 

[benjamin223]

I think this would be a good place to start; without downloading you own data;

Rail Data Marketplace

(Requires registration),

Historic delays data, month by month, year by year, in CSV format (btw it's huge), it contains both passenger and freight data reasons for delays. It doesn't have full running times throughout, but rather delays where and when occured for a particular train on a particular journey. And why. Eg:

126V00CM12 might have a delay attribute 20L stoats nest junction due to late running train in front, or whatever.

Have a look at it, otherwise like above said the only thing is reaching out, maybe to network rail, or by compiling some trust data yourself from the movement feed which isn't particularly hard if you don't mind spending money on a VPS and spinning up a Kafka consumer.

It's good stuff but due to the size it's a bit of a pain to work with.

Thanks a lot — this is exactly what I was looking for! I’ll explore the Rail Data Marketplace and dig into the historic delays dataset first. Really appreciate the guidance!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Jul 2025 ==

I'm fairly sure the level of data you're after is only held by NR and not published freely.

For an academic project you could reach out to NR (possibly directly to Capacity Planning) and see what they might provide. TRUST will have the first 4 bullet points, Darwin I'm fairly sure doesn't cover freight. If you want formations you might need other things such as ITED or TOPS printouts.

If memory serves this isn't the first time you've asked about this sort of data?

Thanks again — yes, you’re right, I’ve asked before as I was still trying to figure out exactly what I needed. Now I realize that delay attribution data is what I was actually looking for, and the pointers to TRUST and Rail Data Marketplace helped clarify that.


I’ll also take your advice and try reaching out to Network Rail’s Capacity Planning team for more detailed access. Appreciate your helpful insights!

 

[MrJeeves]

I understand Realtime Trains stores copies of the TRUST feed, and would likely be able to provide this to you.

Might be worth getting in touch with them?

 

[benjamin223]

Could probably, I don't trust my internet connection to be reliable enough for 24/7 constant reading from a message broker nor do I know enough about windows Lol Just tried to open up a 5gb excel file and it wouldn't even let me it's too big. Id out to rename the extension to .cbb can't be bothered

Is it possible to download the dataset using the API?

 

[trainmania100]

Is it possible to download the dataset using the API?

For the historic data, No they've only done it as zips containing month by month data throughout each year, updated month by month.

As others have said it may be easier doing a FOI request.

This chap has years of data archives so he may be able to help with an export if you reach out;

OpenRail Real Time Railway Data

 

[benjamin223]

For the historic data, No they've only done it as zips containing month by month data throughout each year, updated month by month.

Thanks for the info!
Just to clarify — is the monthly ZIP data you're referring to from TRUST or is it specifically related to delay attribution? I want to make sure I’m looking in the right place.

 

[Tom]

I understand Realtime Trains stores copies of the TRUST feed, and would likely be able to provide this to you.

Freight historical lookups is something we do fairly regularly for companies - either full train history, location, or just data logs, etc. We normally do it for free for academic purposes. History goes back to around 2013 depending on the query.

 

[trainmania100]

Thanks for the info!
Just to clarify — is the monthly ZIP data you're referring to from TRUST or is it specifically related to delay attribution? I want to make sure I’m looking in the right place.

Sorry it was just the historic lookup.
Tom above may therefore be able to help better.

 

[benjamin223]

Freight historical lookups is something we do fairly regularly for companies - either full train history, location, or just data logs, etc. We normally do it for free for academic purposes. History goes back to around 2013 depending on the query.

Thanks so much, Tom! That sounds perfect for my PhD research in freight rail. Just wanted to ask—how can I request the data, and where should I do it?
Really appreciate your help!