Reminder: In the UK we do not know where the trains are. We know what section of track they are on, but not where within the section. A section could be miles long. To know more precisely, we telephone the (manned) signal boxes to ask if they can see the train or how recently it passed them, and occasionally phone the driver on his mobile to ask them directly.
Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
151–160 of 165 posts
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#152Cool ... I'm a sucker for maps. I checked at 4:41 PM PDT (utc-7) and saw a _bunch_ of trains around London. What are all those people doing riding trains at 12:41 AM London time?_ [edit: added PM]
I think London commuter trains generally finish up around that time.
This is fairly typical for commuter trains in general, really; a last train time of midnight to 1 am, resuming around 5am, is common. 24 hour commuter trains are relatively rare, as the volume isn't there and they tend to do track maintenance at night.
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#153Are the trains located where the urban areas are, or are the urban areas built around the train network? It's chicken and egg question, but in Manchester and London it's very clear that mass transit led to urban development, rather than the other way around. It's very surprising that cities like Leeds have no mass transit at all, and sizeable cities like Liverpool and Birmingham don't have much.
A bit of both. Adamstown, a new (2006) suburb of Dublin, is a very obvious example; it was planned on the basis that it was on a train line, and a station was built as part of the initial development. Less dramatically, you tend to see densification around train and tram networks.
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quite right, "UK" is an abbreviation for "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"
I could also mention Manx Railways, which are historic heritage lines, but there are at least three railway lines there that are mostly used by tourists and some commuters. The Isle of Man has a curious relationship with the UK. As a Manxman once said to me, the government there is British when it feels like it and not British when it feels like it.
The Isle of Man is not strictly speaking part of the UK at all.
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#155A couple of obvious observations: * Does not include Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, both of which have notable rail networks (as they are not in GB). * Does not include heritage railways. There are a number of other railways on here which are not marked but offer tourist travel.
NI gets slightly messy; do you include the Enterprise service to Dublin? If so, only the ones run by Translink, or also the ones run by Irish Rail? (The Dublin-Belfast service is a particularly weird train service in that it has _two_ operators, with joint ownership of the rolling stock).
You can also buy tickets from either operator, but you have to buy tickets from the operator in the country that you're leaving (even if they're return tickets). This leads to the interesting situation where a Dublin->Belfast->Dublin return journey a couple of weeks out costs 28EUR, but a Belfast->Dublin->Belfast return journey on the same day costs 30GBP (~35EUR).
And if you're over 65 and live in Northern Ireland, you can use it for free, but you have to be over 66 to use it for free if you live in the Republic of Ireland.
Currently it's just the one cross-border link, but the 2050 rail plan calls for two more, so they'll presumably at some point have to make all this less weird.
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#156Looks neat! But it can use a better clustering approach when the map is zoomed out, the crowed arrows doesn't communicate much apart from their is activity, maybe some approaches could be to not show arrows at high level only connecting lines with maybe the arrow collapse into a lesser short form like how google maps collapse icons at higher zooms to small does and the trick is to add a heavy white stroke which adds a nice separation when it gets crowded, just some 2 cents. But nice work man!
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#157Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for confirming that it is working correctly
Now do cars! Every car that doesn't use any subsidies. Every car that's lifecyle CO2-neutral. Etc.
Are you implying in anti-train?
I think trains should be subsidised. Business needs its workers moved around, so central taxation should pay for that benefit. I just don't think those subsidies should go into train company profits.
I don't think me being annoyed that an object moving at 70 mph can't get a movement in air is an anti train stance either. It is a swipe at the people who sealed up the windows without a plan b.
In a couple of weeks I'm going 300 miles on a work trip on a route that is perfectly well served by train... but I'll take the car because it is half the price, so why give up the convenience?
I am pro train, anti the current setup
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#159A couple of obvious observations: * Does not include Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man, both of which have notable rail networks (as they are not in GB). * Does not include heritage railways. There are a number of other railways on here which are not marked but offer tourist travel.
NI gets slightly messy; do you include the Enterprise service to Dublin? If so, only the ones run by Translink, or also the ones run by Irish Rail? (The Dublin-Belfast service is a particularly weird train service in that it has _two_ operators, with joint ownership of the rolling stock). You can also buy tickets from either operator, but you have to buy tickets from the operator in the country that you're leaving (e…
NI gets very messy! They had so many lines once and between the Troubles and cuts, they lost many of them. (The cross-border canal system was even more neglected.) The NI trains run on a different gauge from here (this came up yesterday when someone was talking about the possibility of a train between Scotland and there.
The train to Dublin is way slower than it should be. The trains within the Republic tend to be much better. That said, Letterkenny's most logical rail connection would be to Derry just due to the lay of the land.
Re: Real-time map of Great Britain's rail network
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could also mention Manx Railways, which are historic heritage lines, but there are at least three railway lines there that are mostly used by tourists and some commuters. The Isle of Man has a curious relationship with the UK. As a Manxman once said to me, the government there is British when it feels like it and not British when it feels like it.
The Isle of Man is not strictly speaking part of the UK at all.
Like I say, the Manx government is not British when it suits it (offshore banking) but is British when it does suit it (defence). Their relationship is complicated, and often contradictory.
Apart from the Commonwealth Games, there is little effort to set up a proper national sporting infrastructure like the Faroe Islands have. Their football team does not get out much and if they have a national rugby side I've never heard of it.