Realtime Trains

Last updated
Realtime Trains
Available inEnglish
Area servedGreat Britain
Founder Tom Cairns
URL www.realtimetrains.co.uk OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Advertising Yes
CommercialYes
RegistrationNo
LaunchedOctober 2012;13 years ago (2012-10)
Current statusActive

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

Contents

History

Realtime Trains was launched in October 2012 by Tom Cairns, a student at the University of Southampton. [1] [2]

In March 2020, Abellio ScotRail became the first operator to share additional rolling stock information with Realtime Trains. [3] 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. [4] Operators which now offer this information include Northern Trains and TransPennine Express. [5] 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. [6]

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. [7]

Following a grant from the Culture Recovery Fund, in 2021 Realtime Trains installed live departure boards for Swanage Railway heritage services at Corfe Castle and Swanage stations. [8]

On 1 April 2025, Realtime Trains launched Realtime Tickets, a train ticket retail website which supports split ticketing, in collaboration with TrainSplit. [9]

On 15 April 2025, "RTT+" was launched - a subscription service offering enhanced history (up to 5 years [10] ), CSV schedule data download and removal of on page ads. Subscriptions start from £5 per month, whilst registered but non-paying users benefit from 1 month schedule look back, increased from the 14 days available to non-registered users. [11]

Data sources

The data presented on Realtime Trains is created using a variety of sources and human input. [12] In 2017, Realtime Trains installed GPS tracking devices in trains to allow services to be tracked during a diesel gala on the Swanage Railway. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 Lea, Martin (11 May 2017). "Realtime Trains website installed GPS units in carriages being hauled during Swanage Railway's diesel gala". Dorset Echo . Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  2. ↑ Heaton, John (June 2014). "Real Time Trains". The Railway Magazine . Mortons Media Group. p. 16. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  3. ↑ Sapién, Josephine Cordero (10 March 2020). "ScotRail First TOC to Publish Real Time Train Data". Railway News. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Cairns, Tom (11 March 2020). "Introducing Know Your Train". Realtime Trains. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "New app to help Northern passengers find out 'realtime' train information". Rochdale Online. 5 November 2020. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  6. ↑ Holden, Michael (29 May 2021). "TransPennine Express joins Real Time Trains Know Your Train Scheme". Rail Advent. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  7. ↑ Cairns, Tom (14 September 2020). "Introducing Track Your Train". Realtime Trains. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  8. ↑ Lea, Martin (25 May 2021). "Swanage Railway's new innovative £223k system". Dorset Echo . Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  9. ↑ Holden, Michael (1 April 2025). "New train ticket website launched by Real Time Trains". RailAdvent.
  10. ↑ "RTT+: extended history update". RTT+: extended history update. 2025-10-23. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
  11. ↑ "Introducing RTT+". Introducing RTT+. 2025-10-15. Retrieved 2025-10-17.
  12. ↑ Steadman, Ian (21 July 2014). "Public transport bodies: producing lots of data, not necessarily making the most of it". New Statesman . Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
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