RealTimeTrains website

[phil1960]

he app is free I can't see what's worth complaining about given tom paid money to build it and upload it

Except there is a tab on the app ready for including the RTT ticket booking tool. Currently its just a link to the webpage. So money will be made that way which will go towards funding the rest of the features.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 May 2026 ==

Who else has spotted that the new Realtime Trains App is now available on the App Store?

Wasn't aware until Seat 61 announced it today as I'm not signed up to any mailing list / Social Media feeds for RTT. It's OK. I can see the detailed search has had a few things cut out to reduce the size on the screen.
Applies equally to the desktop site, but I've never liked the idea of publishing platform numbers which don't appear on National Rail/TOC tools and the CIS. Crucial certainly at some mainline stations in case of any last minute stock swap etc. But yet, passengers like to avoid the scrum as soon as the platforms are formally announced and hopefully are aware changes can happen plus to check other sources such as NRE etc.

 

[Tom]

Except there is a tab on the app ready for including the RTT ticket booking tool. Currently its just a link to the webpage. So money will be made that way which will go towards funding the rest of the features.

Tickets makes us essentially no money. We built it because I wanted something that suited my needs. Our profit after a year is in the very low 4 figures after selling low-mid 6 figures of tickets. It will not go anywhere towards funding the app.

Thus the app is ad supported unless you have an RTT+ subscription, in which case you can remove ads that way

Edit: the tickets tab, when it is made available in app, will be ad free.

 

[Watershed]

For the benefit of other readers, a profit margin of perhaps 0.6% on ticket revenue is entirely in keeping with what you could expect as a third party retailer. The commission rate is only 4.5% and there are costs of doing business such as card processing fees, TIS costs, customer service etc.

Since the ticket revenue itself is passed through to the TOCs it's really more like a 15% profit margin. Obviously some of that (I'm suspecting a fair portion) will come from split saving fees but it's not as unremunerative as it may sound.

 

[Adam Williams]

For the benefit of other readers, a profit margin of perhaps 0.6% on ticket revenue is entirely in keeping with what you could expect as a third party retailer. The commission rate is only 4.5% and there are costs of doing business such as card processing fees, TIS costs, customer service etc.

Since the ticket revenue itself is passed through to the TOCs it's really more like a 15% profit margin. Obviously some of that (I'm suspecting a fair portion) will come from split saving fees but it's not as unremunerative as it may sound.

It's a volume game, really. Lower commission of course for the business customers.

And decent engineers and customer support staff that have a clue don't come cheap.

Of course, you can try and stack things in your favour if you outsource your engineering to Poland/Ukraine/Slovenia or customer support to Nigeria (as more than one of Raileasy's other API clients do; and indeed some of the other retailers I've worked with, have done). In my experience the quality tends to suffer as a result, though, so it's very much a trade-off. It's quite obvious where corners have been cut when you look at some other TIS suppliers.

I think RTT have a good proposition though - the industry has clearly left a gap when it comes to customer information provision by doing a poor job at it, and so if you can get users on-board by actually trying at that rather than just emulating what everyone else is doing, you can encourage diversified revenue by offering value-added features & then meeting their ticket purchasing needs in new, innovative ways too.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Yes.

Thank you; I'll try to remember to send something in tomorrow.

 

[MrJeeves]

It's quite obvious where corners have been cut when you look at some other TIS suppliers.

At least the RTT apps are native for each platform...

 

[WelshBluebird]

Applies equally to the desktop site, but I've never liked the idea of publishing platform numbers which don't appear on National Rail/TOC tools and the CIS

Then the answer is to provide that info via those earlier. Its an utter joke that a train can be sitting in the platform for half hour but will only be announced officially 5 minutes before departure (as has happened to me at Paddington before).

 

[tfw756rider]

Yes, it’s taken 6 months to get a good initial first release, and I’m quite pleased with them. There are still things that we are going to work on but for 90% of everyone’s needs (and that 10% is probably disproportionately represented here) it is fab.

I appreciate what you're saying, but I think that the next feature addition should to be the "all day" and/or "custom range of times" view, even before anything else.

That's my preferred way of using Realtime Trains, and it can feel quite restrictive/frustrating to have to work out / guess what "around time" that isn't "now" a working I'm looking for is... around.

Anyway, I prefer a view that's a longer time period than the "now" or "around time" windows anyway, in any case but especially at quiet locations where workings are so infrequent that the restriction can mean one working on a search screen, so it's not even a list of workings in that case and then you have to keep changing the "around time".

As always, I appreciate Realtime Trains very much.

 

[phil1960]

I've noticed today on the desktop site for the detailed view is that the LHS miles and chains column has gone. I know for some routes that never appeared, but seems to be everything.

 

[louis97]

I've noticed today on the desktop site for the detailed view is that the LHS miles and chains column has gone. I know for some routes that never appeared, but seems to be everything.

It's still there, note it won't appear if the window or device you are viewing RTT on is less than a certain width.

 

[800Travel]

Really pleased to see the new app is available. 3 main bits of feedback from me, but overall seems fantastic:

1. It would be good to be able to select all day in the time field, like we can on the website
2. It would be good to be able to search by headcode like we can on the website
3. It would be good to be able to search by unit number like we can on the website

 

[tfw756rider]

Really pleased to see the new app is available. 3 main bits of feedback from me, but overall seems fantastic:

1. It would be good to be able to select all day in the time field, like we can on the website
2. It would be good to be able to search by headcode like we can on the website
3. It would be good to be able to search by unit number like we can on the website

Basically the same features I'd like to see added, though I'd like the "custom range of times" view in addition to the "all day" view.

 

[AlexNL]

Tickets makes us essentially no money. We built it because I wanted something that suited my needs.

The main reason for good product development: "I am annoyed with something and I have the skills to make a better product out of it."

You've done a good job with Realtime Tickets, I've used it a couple of times last summer.

 

[stra200]

Sorry if been asked in the past, but is there the data somewhere that RTT could use to show which carriages are the bike and disabled carriages? I use Northern and EMR if it is operator specific

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Sorry if been asked in the past, but is there the data somewhere that RTT could use to show which carriages are the bike and disabled carriages? I use Northern and EMR if it is operator specific

They do on EMT but not Northern - I just had a quick look. Screenshot below. I think it depends on if the operator supplies the data, because they definitely show both on Avanti - and also which is the quiet carriage. Second screenshot below.

 

[DelW]

Having done some fairly extensive travels around England and Wales on public transport over the last fortnight, I'd just like to record a vote of thanks to Tom and his team for RTT, and also to its author/owner for bustimes.org.

It's remarkable just how much easier those two sites make travelling by public transport in unfamiliar areas, and also how much better they work than most of the 'official' sources.

 

[Thomas6187]

I like the new feature, where if you've got Rail Miles, the unit allocation show up in green if you 'require' the unit

 

[8ace]

Love RTT and Railmiles, big thanks to Tom and his team
Any chance of getting the add to Railmiles button included in the app please?

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Just a quick question - is there any reason for half and quarter minutes not being shown in the app version?

 

[ainsworth74]

I like the new feature, where if you've got Rail Miles, the unit allocation show up in green if you 'require' the unit

Yes I have to say Tom and team have been on an absolute tear recently of updates for Railmiles and RTT and the integrations between them. Super impressive stuff and making me a very very happy subscriber.

 

[Tom]

More coming very soon.

There is a Tickets integration coming to RailMiles as well, due before the end of the month.

 

[185143]

I like the new feature, where if you've got Rail Miles, the unit allocation show up in green if you 'require' the unit

I saw that earlier with a TfW 197, couldn't work out why!

 

[Chapeltownveg]

I have rtt+ and railmiles both linked to the same account ive checked a few units i know ive had not getting a green tick on any of them is the update rolled out for everyone ?

 

[bluegoblin7]

I have rtt+ and railmiles both linked to the same account ive checked a few units i know ive had not getting a green tick on any of them is the update rolled out for everyone ?

Green shows for units you need, not for those you've already logged.

 

[Tom]

RTT+ users can now do a fleet search via Quick Search, and you can then change the dates searched by. RTT+ users can go back 5 years and Extended History for that little bit beyond to when Know Your Train started in 2020.

Just search a class number in the Quick Search box while logged in.

p.s. it'll say if it is required in RailMiles or not.

 

[Peter0124]

RTT+ users can now do a fleet search via Quick Search, and you can then change the dates searched by. RTT+ users can go back 5 years and Extended History for that little bit beyond to when Know Your Train started in 2020.

Just search a class number in the Quick Search box while logged in.

p.s. it'll say if it is required in RailMiles or not.

Cool feature
•Though how come the headcodes have disappeared from fleet search just now? They were there when I tried an hour ago.

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Cool feature
•Though how come the headcodes have disappeared from fleet search just now? They were there when I tried an hour ago.

They’re still there for me. Have you accidentally done it in simple mode?

 

[Peter0124]

They’re still there for me. Have you accidentally done it in simple mode?

Its not showing for me for some reason. I think it's in detailed mode as it's in the URL

 

[MerlinRail 804]

It’s not showing for me for some reason. I think it's in detailed mode as it's in the URL

Oh yes I seem to be getting that too with vehicle search. Class search is giving the headcodes though

 

[Peter0124]

Oh yes I seem to be getting that too with vehicle search. Class search is giving the headcodes though

Appears they come up with this link:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/vehiclesearch/390121

But not:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/vehiclesearch/390121?detailed

EDIT -- Regardless, this feature is amazing, so thanks to Tom for implementing it for us!