Apologies for last night's downtime. A server update went wrong, compounded by our datacentre provider trying to be helpful. Most downtime was when very few trains are running, so hopefully minimal impact.
Looking into options to prevent it in future, if only so I can get a good night's sleep!
New year changes to Cambridge South and Micklefield are now mostly done. Already appearing on the old site, and will appear on the new site overnight
It's not supposed to be appearing on the legacy maps at all - the legacy server doesn't have any way to show the updates unfortunately.
We had to move the legacy site to backup servers earlier, and it seems like the backup servers have been set up with the new maps by mistake
Lots of invisible under-the-hood work recently to keep things running with growing traffic.
But we did roll out a fix yesterday to a very long-standing bug with routes and aspects on the free site. These should now be more reliable, with no more crazy routes popping up and hanging around for hours
We have also added new maps to the new site powered by GPS reports. These include:
- Wigan Wallgate to Southport and Headbolt Lane
- Shrewsbury to Chester
- Wrexham to Shotton
- Llandudno Junction to Llandudno, Blaenau and Holyhead
These depend on live updates, so not 100%, but still useful
We have added in all the new signals between Guildford and Havant, and the area around Carmarthen, both of which are now in the Network Rail data feed
Screenshot showing details for unit 220 001 today, including information about the 4 coaches, and the services it is allocated to
Unit allocations are now available for almost all trains on the new site. The unit numbers are also clickable (or you can enter a unit number in the search bar), to see details of the unit, and all the services it is allocated to today
A screengrab showing the 19.03 iK32 Hull-Leeds service, with a note to say it will be worked by 185 106, which has 3 coaches and 155 seats
Screenshot showing details of the 17.27 1E73 Plymouth to Leeds train, showing that it consists of a pair of class 220s
A couple of examples:
It will take a day or two for them all to appear.
Right now the system doesn't show units being added or removed partway through the journey - it just shows all the units as running the whole distance
There will be more updates in a few weeks to show more information, in more places, and possibly to show them on the old site as well. For now we just wanted to get the basic data live since it's now available
Unit allocations are now starting to appear for most operators on the new Traksy site. They are on the train widget which appears when you click on a headcode, in the same place they were for C2C trains.
An in slightly less exciting news, if you click a station name on the map, it will now open the schedule in a pop-up box instead of a whole page view.
New feature released to the new site - maps based on reports. We now have maps of:
- All Devon and Cornwall branches and Penzance
- Windermere
- Whitby
- Cotswold line and Worcester
All still a bit experimental, works best with GPS reports, and the platforms at Worcester are a mess, but nice anyway
I've corrected this in the source files. It will take a while for it to filter through to the site
There have been a few issues this morning with updates on the old site getting behind. They should hopefully be resolved now, but I'm continuing to monitor things
Signal aspects and most routes have been added from Paddington out to Hanwell
Signal aspects have been added to the full Tyneside area. There are also some routes on the Northumberland line, although these are quite patchy and may be wrong.
Euston has also gained TRTS indicators. It also has some signal aspects, although these are very patchy, and in some cases a bit suspect
Updates to the routes and signal aspects on our maps, including:
- Liverpool St and the Watford area now have maps and routes (on the new site)
- Crossrail has routes and aspects for all users
- Charing X, Cannon St, London Bridge have correct aspects
- West coast from Watford to Crewe has aspects
Working on a plan to improve the signal aspects and routes. K know there are some areas which are currently completely wrong.
Where should I work on first?
Good spot. I've added the missing crossovers in, so they should appear on the maps overnight
Anybody who has been struggling to use a new or updated subscription in the last 4 or 5 days, these should now be working
Should also now keep subscribers logged in more reliably
That's quite a big project - I don't have the SOP (mappings table) for that area. I'm considering working on a process to automatically calculate them this month, but it's likely to take a few weeks at least.
Further improvements:
- "Track on map" button now works *if* the train you are trying to track is on a map you recently opened
- Almost all weirdness with scrolling fixed
- More efficient use of maps should make things better when switching between maps
More to come
Some improvements to the new site:
- Logging in should work more smoothly
- Page should load a lot faster when you hit refresh
- Various scrolling weirdness fixed
- Improved some of the more exotic styling on Safari
Scrolling can still be a bit weird. Please give me a shout if you see any problems
A day or so of really using the new site on trains has been interesting. Immediate focus will be to make it work better on bad connections and fix the way maps scroll.
Working on maps makes sense. We'll still do cool stuff with schedules longer term, but it's maps you're all here for 🗺️
Quick straw poll. What would you most like to see released next?
- Work on schedules so they contain all the information in the feed
- Information about exactly what type and size of train is expected to run a service
- Nicer maps with more detail
- More maps, even where there's no live info
Apparently yesterday's improvements to the new site included a nasty bug which was making it difficult to click on trains and see details. That's now been resolved
Some improvements/bugfixes:
- VSTPs can now be displayed them in the new site
- VSTPs now nearly always have the operator provided
- All schedules now display the train service code
- Various bugfixes and tidies.
Hopefully there will be some more exciting new features next week
Some bugfixes on new site that might have been irritating people for a while:
- You can once again search for trains or pick them from the timetable and have them open on the appropriate day
- When you click on an unknown train it will once again show a little popup so you can search by headcode
