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Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

metra.jcs.org

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Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#31

Post by there »

kgermino wrote: post #6

Umm either Metra has shut down the Southwest Service and Rock Island lines or there's something wrong with your script because neither of them are showing any trains from any of the stations or days that I checked. What works looks great though. Thanks.

sorry about that, i just checked all of the lines and everything should be fixed now. please let me know if anything else looks odd.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#32

Post by there »

DougBarth wrote: post #7

Awesome. This is so much better than Metra's own site. A nice addition would be cross reference their service updates for any delay information.

i will certainly be adding delay information soon. i just need to write something to poll metrarail.com periodically.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#33

Post by brandnewlow »

pasbesoin wrote: post #28
brandnewlow wrote: post #9

Awesome. Just this posted this to Windy Citizen. Vote it up: http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/technology/2009/10/13/ip... Next time you or anyone else builds something cool and local, share it over there, please. On a related note, yesterday the WC hosted a discussion thread about Metra's new $3.9 M site. Our commenters sussed out that the shop that won the bidding process employs the son of a former Metra board m…

I just cited your first link on Facebook (where I keep in touch with a number of Chicagoland friends). Doing so, I noticed that Facebook did not pick up a "Windy City" graphic suitable for use as a thumbnail. Maybe an opportunity for a branding optimization?

Awesome, thanks for the tip. Will look into that. And thanks for sharing the link. We're building the smartest, sharpest conversation about Chicago on the web over on the WC. Discussions like that are happening more and more.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#34

Post by brandnewlow »

spanktheuser wrote: post #29
sachinag wrote: post #8

Stellar. OT: How many of us Chicago HN'ers are here? We should do a meetup sometime.

Very much in. Although trying to find space at Hopleaf these days is impossible. Map Room?

Works for me.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#35

Post by ccg »

sachinag wrote: post #8

Stellar. OT: How many of us Chicago HN'ers are here? We should do a meetup sometime.

+1. If you wanted to geek out or maybe demo something you're working on, Sully's Pub near North and Halsted might work. Chicago's Python and Android groups have met there a few times. They have a room upstairs with wifi and a projector, although I'm not sure if you can use that room unless you have a ChiPy-size group to buy enough food and drink.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#36

Post by rguzman »

sachinag wrote: post #8

Stellar. OT: How many of us Chicago HN'ers are here? We should do a meetup sometime.

+1 on the meetup. We should pick the venue in the loop (or not too far from it) to make it easiest for everyone to attend. I do love the hopleaf, however... Count me in either way.

Re: Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

#38

Post by there »

truebosko wrote: post #37

Mind if I ask how you got the data? Was it just screen scraping of the Metra site or do they actually have an API?

i extracted all of the station information by screen scraping the website, and then all of the per-station stop times and routes by writing some code to parse the pdf2html output from the tables in each of the pdf files.
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