Realtime Trains is a website that tracks trains on the British railway network.

History

Realtime Trains was launched in October 2012 by Tom Cairns, a student at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

. In March 2020,

Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of Abellio, it operated the ScotRail franchise from 1 April 2015, taking over from predecessor First ScotRail. ...

became the first operator to share additional rolling stock information with Realtime Trains. The additional information was dubbed ''Know Your Train'', and includes a visual overview of the type of rolling stock and number of carriages used by each service. Operators which now offer this information include

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

and

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

. In May 2021, Realtime Trains stated that 45% of the distance travelled by trains on the British railway network was covered by Know Your Train. Another service called ''Track Your Train'' was added in September 2020, offering advanced notice of platform alterations and potential delays to a service. Initially, Track Your Train is only available on selected services starting at

London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. Following a grant from the

Culture Recovery Fund The Culture Recovery Fund is a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had bec ...

, in 2021 Realtime Trains installed live departure boards for Swanage Railway heritage services at

Corfe Castle Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates to the 11th century and commands a gap in the P ...

and Swanage stations.

Data sources

The data presented on Realtime Trains is created using a variety of sources and human input. In 2017, Realtime Trains installed

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

tracking devices in trains to allow services to be tracked during a diesel gala on the Swanage Railway.

References

{{reflist British companies established in 2012 Internet properties established in 2012 British websites Transport websites