RealTimeTrains website

[D6130]

As much as i love RTT there are times when looking elsewhere is very important.. Currently showing 1K13 as cancelled due to an issue with the train crew yet it is running on time.

Which 1K13 is that?

 

[CR165022]

Which 1K13 is that?

Believe they mean the XC one, it's still displaying the cancelled message but the times of it running are showing as normal too

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Believe they mean the XC one, it's still displaying the cancelled message but the times of it running are showing as normal too

Yes looks like this one

Realtime Trains | 1K13 1152 Birmingham New Street to Leicester | 17/03/2026

Real-time train running information for 1K13 1152 departure from Birmingham New Street to Leicester on 17/03/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[1D54]

Yes, that was the one, very annoying but a first for me on this site so no harm done but wondering how it happened.

 

[Deepgreen]

There is bound to be some lag between what is happening and what happens on an internet app.

Although seemingly not for 'Tiger Worldline', whatever that is... I use RTT and Traksy and can almost always deduce what is going on from them.

 

[Tom]

There is a long standing issue where a cancellation is correctly reversed when it comes in (hence the locations aren't marked with cancelled or dashed out) but the original cancellation data that caused it still hangs around ... even if we manually delete it out of the schedule.

It'll be this bug.

 

[Frontera2]

How "automatically" is automatically? Does it guess the diversion route, or is it still relying on a human to tell it that?

In any case, surely you'd throw a manual delay on the point it rejoined to avoid the "delayed" problem, even if you didn't add the diversion locations in?

It's fully automatic based on signalling data, eg if train goes from berth X to berth Y then it "knows" that it can no longer call at or pass stations 2, 3, 4, 5 and will instead add passing points 6, 7, 8 and 9. The passing points are added incrementally where necessary, for example if a train is detected as going from Rochester towards Strood instead of Sole Street, then passing points will be added as far as Dartford but not beyond - until the train departs Dartford, given the 3 potential routes available from Dartford to London.

On the second point, yes a manual delay will usually be added where this is known in advance. So if a train is supposed to be running Ramsgate > Canterbury > Ashford > London but is diverted to run via Dover instead, we know that this will result in a delay at Ashford so this will be manually added at the point the diversion is added to our systems.

 

[MrJeeves]

It's fully automatic based on signalling data, eg if train goes from berth X to berth Y that it knows that it can no longer call at or pass stations 2, 3, 4, 5 and will instead add passing points 6, 7, 8 and 9. The passing points are added incrementally where necessary, for example if a train is detected as going from Rochester towards Strood instead of Sole Street, then passing points will be added as far as Dartford but not beyond - until the train departs Dartford, given the 3 potential routes available from Dartford to London.

On the second point, yes a manual delay will usually be added where this is known in advance. So if a train is supposed to be running Ramsgate > Canterbury > Ashford > London but is diverted to run via Dover instead, we know that this will result in a delay at Ashford so this will be manually added at the point the diversion is added to our systems.

That is cool!

 

[WTT Gremlin]

Same at Kings Cross, where platform numbers are announced late even if the train is stood there and staffed and ready. Obviously you do need to be aware of late changes and make sure you have the right info. The annoying thing, a lot of the issues I use RTT to avoid could be avoided by better management/procedures. If a train is ready staffed and open start getting people on it.

There are many factors that require careful balancing regarding when to announce platforms, and often there are very good reasons which are out of public view, I.e. servicing of stock at a terminus, and trying to safely manage pedestrian flows through choke points of which Kings Cross has many.

 

[AlexNL]

Very nicely designed and integrated into the site.

I have just noticed a curious behaviour however. Consider the following service from Plymouth to Aberdeen, which despite showing Worcestershire Parkway as a calling point in the schedule, does not show as a marker or even a line vertex on the map. I would presume that this is something in the underlying data that is causing this?

That's indeed a data issue.

At its core the extension is very simple, which is a strength and is a weakness.

The extension comes bundled with a pair of JSON files which have the stations and routing codes (CRS and TIPLOC). If memory serves me right I sourced those from some NROD data and/or FOIA requests, and had to do some transformations (such as converting eastings/northings to lat/lon).

I've not really updated those files ever since creating them, which means some newer locations are not in the data. For TIPLOCs that's not that noticeable, but a newer station not being in the list is indeed more obvious.

 

[aelius]

It was recently showing a 22 car Pendolino from Edinburgh to Euston with separate train numbers.

 

[WTT Gremlin]

It was recently showing a 22 car Pendolino from Edinburgh to Euston with separate train numbers.

This is just a quirk of data when sets get swapped.

Could be easily avoided if such information was removed from the RTT offering. (This is a technicality, not an actual suggestion)

 

[Horizon22]

Although seemingly not for 'Tiger Worldline', whatever that is...

It is digital reflection of the CIS for any TOC using Worldline as their CIS provider. That's why there is not universal coverage.

 

[Sleepy]

Be interested to see which system LNER use for delay repay - yesterday 0755 Inverness to Peterborough (1E13) on realtime shows arriving at 1539:30 (scheduled arrival 1509) but LNER claims it arrived 1538 ???

 

[MrJeeves]

Be interested to see which system LNER use for delay repay - yesterday 0755 Inverness to Peterborough (1E13) on realtime shows arriving at 1539:30 (scheduled arrival 1509) but LNER claims it arrived 1538 ???

Likely Darwin, the same as all customer-facing information across the industry.

 

[Bow Fell]

It was recently showing a 22 car Pendolino from Edinburgh to Euston with separate train numbers.

And unfortunately this is one of the misinterpretations that frustrates me.

When there’s disruption, there just simply isn’t time to make sure it’s the unit number is accurate in real time. As long as the controller knows the diagram and what the unit is doing, in the nicest way possible that’s all that matters, not catering to a minority that it won’t even effect.

RTT is brilliant, but you have to know how to use it and its quirks and limitations.

Similarly, the delay reasons are just as frustrating, as someone who is involved in the nuances of the delay attribution process, RTT’s reasons are sometimes wildly inaccurate to just plain stupid. The “TT” reason being one during leaf fall season (cancelled due to it being autumn) which reflects badly on the industry as a whole and casual users who don’t understand such nuances.

The TT reasons being used on specific leaf fall “red days” where there is agreed time loss between the TOC and NR, and joint/full responsibility between both parties. Such adhesion delays can cause cancellations which would be displayed through Darwin as “Slippery Rails” and through to RTT “due to it being autumn”

Again, I’m not trying to take anything from away from the incredible work Tom has done but casual end users have to sometimes take with a pinch of salt what is shown on there.

 

[MrJeeves]

Similarly, the delay reasons are just as frustrating, as someone who is involved in the nuances of the delay attribution process, RTT’s reasons are sometimes wildly inaccurate to just plain stupid. The “TT” reason being one during leaf fall season (cancelled due to it being autumn) which reflects badly on the industry as a whole and casual users who don’t understand such nuances.

The TT reasons being used on specific leaf fall “red days” where there is agreed time loss between the TOC and NR, and joint/full responsibility between both parties. Such adhesion delays can cause cancellations which would be displayed through Darwin as “Slippery Rails” and through to RTT “due to it being autumn”

Again, I’m not trying to take anything from away from the incredible work Tom has done but casual end users have to sometimes take with a pinch of salt what is shown on there.

Thankfully these reasons are all open source, and anyone can submit proposed changes to them.

nr-reference-data/attribution.csv at main · realtimetrains/nr-reference-data

Reference data used by the Realtime Trains service - realtimetrains/nr-reference-data

github.com

 

[Frontera2]

It is digital reflection of the CIS for any TOC using Worldline as their CIS provider. That's why there is not universal coverage.

having Worldline CIS, Does not automatically translate to all your stations being on TIGER - trust me on that. ( There’s a cost involved ) For example,GWR and TfW both have Worldline CIS but not all stations are on TIGER - eg Fishguard Harbour, Pembroke Dock, Sugar Loaf to name just 3 examples.

 

[swtrains]

having Worldline CIS, Does not automatically translate to all your stations being on TIGER - trust me on that. ( There’s a cost involved ) For example,GWR and TfW both have Worldline CIS but not all stations are on TIGER - eg Fishguard Harbour, Pembroke Dock, Sugar Loaf to name just 3 examples.

Why's that?

 

[chrisjo]

Interesting 9-car on CDF-MAN yesterday. I saw it at Pengam and was disappointed!

 

[Frontera2]

Why's that?

Cost for one thing

 

[KNN]

Someone else might have pointed this out elsewhere, but the two new Black Country stations don't come up in the search. How do they get updated? There are a few new stations due this year.

 

[DavidGrain]

Someone else might have pointed this out elsewhere, but the two new Black Country stations don't come up in the search. How do they get updated? There are a few new stations due this year.

Darlaston DAS Willenhall WIA. They came up for me easily on RTT

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Mar 2026 ==

And for the Camp- Hill Line opening after Easter
Moseley Village MOV, Kings Heat KIH, Pineapple Road PIR

 

[Freightmaster]

Darlaston DAS Willenhall WIA. They came up for me easily on RTT

Only when searching in 'detailed' mode; in simple mode, neither station comes up
in the list of suggested stations as you start typing the letters in; you have to type
the entire station name in and press enter.



MARK

 

[Ian Hardy]

Only when searching in 'detailed' mode; in simple mode, neither station comes up
in the list of suggested stations as you start typing the letters in; you have to type
the entire station name in and press enter.



MARK

I never use the simple mode as there is far too much useful info missing from it.

 

[KNN]

Yeah I was using simple mode, I didn't realise you could type the whole name in and hit enter without it coming up as an option. It's still a bug though I'd say, as it isn't the intended functionality.

 

[Tom]

Given the API has been mentioned in this thread before, the new API is now available at https://api-portal.rtt.io. Documentation is at https://realtimetrains.github.io/api-specification/.

Full information at https://blog.realtimetrains.com/2026/03/next-generation-api-now-available/, but tl;dr it's better, old portal goes away in 6 months.

 

[CR165022]

Has anyone else had this issue today? Whenever I search a location it either gives me a search error, or just deletes the location selected and gives you a blank search instead.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm not having any issues.

 

[1D54]

Yep, about 20 minutes ago. I have a station permanently book marked and it disappeared but this has only happened on one occasion and i have been on RTT 20+ times today.