> Signalbox's technology identifies the train a device is on by matching a snapshot of smartphone data to a train’s trajectory data. The technology uses advanced algorithms works even with severely degraded data. We are able to pinpoint a smartphone to any type of train without background location tracking or hardware.
Hmm, that's...interesting?
show comments
dan_sbl
Meanwhile, the sad state of intercity trains in the United States, outside of the Northeast Corridor.
I looked into the gtfs (gtfs.org) a while ago. This is a data feed format (protobuf based) that a lot of sites like this use for both schedules and real time updates that is pretty widely adopted. Most gtfs location feeds require getting an API key. But there are a handful of public ones that share actual location updates without that.
This is also how e.g. Google maps and others integrate schedule information for public transport as well.
Building a map from the real time updates is relatively straight foward once you have access.
suggests the data mostly comes from railway signalling information, plus a bit of "AI" in some way. I wonder how far apart railway signals usually are, or what the AI is trained on, or anything really vs just looking at a map.
If you’d like to take a look at how one of the older Victorian mechanical signal boxes on this map (still) work, I can wholeheartedly recommend Tom Scott’s recent video on signalling in Britain [1].
This only seems to be standard overground trains. If you add in metro networks like the London tube, or light rail / trams like in Manchester, then you’d get at least hundreds more.
show comments
Tmpod
Still barebones, but there are two emerging projects for Portugal's (passenger) trains:
Dutch (and Dutch-bound) rail network overview: https://treinposities.nl/
And the equivalent for buses: https://busposities.nl/
Not all of them have GPS trackers, so some positions are guessed.
There's functionality for this in the official Dutch Railways app, but it looks like they didn't bother putting that onto their website. There is a common source of open data for most of these details, but I don't find the docs to be very complete.
Very nice! I’m making one for NYC subway. It’s still in-progress and animations need a lot more work. Next steps was to adjust the size and overlay it on a proper map.
Are 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.
parkersweb
Bit puzzled by some of the station data. This train:
is a train from Cambridge to Kings Cross - and in the side panel it shows it as calling at the new Cambridge South station. But Cambridge South isn't shown on the map. That's kinda understandable (because it opened a week ago), but Cambridge North (which opened in 2017) also isn't shown on the map. Neither are offered in any of the auto-complete dropdowns?
I'm wondering if the station data a static dataset which hasn't been updated in a long time?
It's pretty good, my 16 y.o. son will be stuck in it for many hours. I like that you can select a train and see its stops. It would be equally awesome to select a station and see the train arrivals/departures board.
Off-topic, I don't get why people still use a www subdomain, especially so in this case, www.map. Conway's Law in action?
show comments
HaphazardGuess
very cool. Unrelated but anytime im looking at a map be it city roads, rails subway, etc i wish there was a way to filter the layers based on construction date.
I would like to be able to see when each road/section was built. I assume with GoogleEarth and other databases it should be possible to run some kind changelog comparison and do this at scale for at least the last 20 years or so.
Paul_S
I can tell it's not accurate because it has half the trains marked as on time.
Reality is far more depressing. You'd also need to add ghostly white for cancelled and bus icons for replacement buses. Why do I live here god. Why can't we have a functional train network like literally any other civilised country.
Used this many times during the longer commutes across country, works well.
philipwhiuk
Topping out at 10 minutes delay for the most severe marker colour is an interesting choice.
show comments
nephihaha
A 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.
dboreham
For the similarly confused: it displays times in your local browser time zone, not the time zone of the actual train. I'm pretty sure this is an oversight since there's no universe in which I want train times not in their native time zone.
inglor_cz
I remember my colleague from MFF UK, Robert Babilon, producing his first real-time map of Czech trains in 2004.
The page, called Babitron, still exists and still keeps that delightful 2004 look. I visited it a few days ago. Unfortunately today there is a message "We are moving Babitron to a different server", so the link isn't working.
Now "Jetlag the game" HAS to shoot their next episode over there
k2xl
Would be cool if these could animate/interpolate to their next position
show comments
IshKebab
Is this actually based on GPS (or similar) on the trains, or is it just interpolating signal times (which are waaaay coarser)?
show comments
scoot
I live next to a railway line so I'm in the (not particularly unique, and definitely not enviable) position to compare what's on the map to "IRL" trains, and I can tell you it's as good as useless.
- Trains appearing on the map that aren't anywhere to be seen on the tracks.
- Trains on the tracks that don't appear on the map.
- Trains moving away from the station that according to the timetable view shouldn't have left the station yet.
- Trains on the map seemingly stopping and changing direction, only to reverse course once again.
The map shows a single line segment for what is in fact a multi-line stretch of railway. That's okay as a simplification (I guess), but the icons aren't pinned to the line, so appear to be driving off the track, or even on the adjacent street.
As for realtime - even if the data was accurate and timely, a 2Hz refresh rate most definitely isn't realtime.
Sorry if it seems like I'm shitting on it - it's a fun toy, but I wouldn't depend on it for anything important.
show comments
addysan
yeahh
steamsloth
Perhaps I’m going mad based off the praise heaped in other responses, but - something seems wildly off with the locations?
I just witnessed a London Liverpool street service plough through the M25 motorway - about 40 miles south of it's typical route and 5 miles south of the nearest actual railway.
Dozens of the trains seem to be traversing through the English channel/La Manche towards the north sea.
In fact the number of trains actually tracking a rail line (and this is outside of the cities where the tube/metro might obscure this) seems in the minority. Most seem to be going straight through the middle of farmers fields on some obscure course unrelated to theirs.
Switzerland's real-time map of trains and public transport (zoom in on a city to view its public transport in real time). You can find boats too.
And if you check on/off the other options, you get way more informations.
https://maps.trafimage.ch/ch.sbb.netzkarte?lang=en&baselayer...
> Signalbox's technology identifies the train a device is on by matching a snapshot of smartphone data to a train’s trajectory data. The technology uses advanced algorithms works even with severely degraded data. We are able to pinpoint a smartphone to any type of train without background location tracking or hardware.
Hmm, that's...interesting?
Meanwhile, the sad state of intercity trains in the United States, outside of the Northeast Corridor.
https://asm.transitdocs.com/ https://amtraker.com/map
I looked into the gtfs (gtfs.org) a while ago. This is a data feed format (protobuf based) that a lot of sites like this use for both schedules and real time updates that is pretty widely adopted. Most gtfs location feeds require getting an API key. But there are a handful of public ones that share actual location updates without that.
This is also how e.g. Google maps and others integrate schedule information for public transport as well.
Building a map from the real time updates is relatively straight foward once you have access.
Checkout the French equivalent : https://carto.tchoo.net. Looks more complete.
Past similar HN submission got no attention, whereas the UK's top page. Interesting !
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45249351
Would be better if it had some technical explanation rather than just yet another public transport map. This:
https://vgcgroup.co.uk/news/signalbox-for-train-locations/
suggests the data mostly comes from railway signalling information, plus a bit of "AI" in some way. I wonder how far apart railway signals usually are, or what the AI is trained on, or anything really vs just looking at a map.
There's one for the Czech network (one of the densest in the world, if not the densest) https://grapp.spravazeleznic.cz
If you’d like to take a look at how one of the older Victorian mechanical signal boxes on this map (still) work, I can wholeheartedly recommend Tom Scott’s recent video on signalling in Britain [1].
[1]: https://youtu.be/omYfLDlt-MA
This only seems to be standard overground trains. If you add in metro networks like the London tube, or light rail / trams like in Manchester, then you’d get at least hundreds more.
Still barebones, but there are two emerging projects for Portugal's (passenger) trains:
- https://comboios.live
- https://comboios.ruicosta.pt
Dutch (and Dutch-bound) rail network overview: https://treinposities.nl/ And the equivalent for buses: https://busposities.nl/ Not all of them have GPS trackers, so some positions are guessed.
There's functionality for this in the official Dutch Railways app, but it looks like they didn't bother putting that onto their website. There is a common source of open data for most of these details, but I don't find the docs to be very complete.
Here is the map made by the Swedish transport authority: https://www.trafikverket.se/trafikinformation/tagkarta/
I have to say that it was surprisingly snappy when selecting a train or scrolling the map.
Tokyo equivalent with animated trains, weather, flights and more: https://minitokyo3d.com/
Very nice! I’m making one for NYC subway. It’s still in-progress and animations need a lot more work. Next steps was to adjust the size and overlay it on a proper map.
https://donohoe.dev/subway/map/
Are 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.
Bit puzzled by some of the station data. This train:
https://www.map.signalbox.io/?train=202607066710114&location...
is a train from Cambridge to Kings Cross - and in the side panel it shows it as calling at the new Cambridge South station. But Cambridge South isn't shown on the map. That's kinda understandable (because it opened a week ago), but Cambridge North (which opened in 2017) also isn't shown on the map. Neither are offered in any of the auto-complete dropdowns?
I'm wondering if the station data a static dataset which hasn't been updated in a long time?
It's fun to watch it side-by-side with https://www.youtube.com/@RailcamUKLive
Shameless self-promotion: I make a departure board for the Swiss public transportation network: https://www.stationdisplay.com/
I had to press the Back button a LOT of times to get back to HN!
There are two very lonely trains departing from Stranraer and Kyle of Lochalsh
Indian equivalent: https://railradar.in/railradar
Boston: https://tmap.live.
London: https://londonunderground.live
this reminds me of the London specific equivalent posted awhile back: https://londonunderground.live (previously discussed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43651390).
It's pretty good, my 16 y.o. son will be stuck in it for many hours. I like that you can select a train and see its stops. It would be equally awesome to select a station and see the train arrivals/departures board.
Hungary https://vonatinfo.mav.hu/
I would love to see this for Germany :D
Real-time position of Prague trams including filtering just air-conditioned ones or certain production type, try mobile app Tramdex.
Estonian equivalent: https://elron.ee/#trainmap
It would be amazing if someone could visualize this data in Railroad Tycoon or Transport Tycoon game engine.
Here's the Danish one (with some trains in Sweden): http://landetspuls.dk
Off-topic, I don't get why people still use a www subdomain, especially so in this case, www.map. Conway's Law in action?
very cool. Unrelated but anytime im looking at a map be it city roads, rails subway, etc i wish there was a way to filter the layers based on construction date.
I would like to be able to see when each road/section was built. I assume with GoogleEarth and other databases it should be possible to run some kind changelog comparison and do this at scale for at least the last 20 years or so.
I can tell it's not accurate because it has half the trains marked as on time.
Reality is far more depressing. You'd also need to add ghostly white for cancelled and bus icons for replacement buses. Why do I live here god. Why can't we have a functional train network like literally any other civilised country.
Tokyo: https://minitokyo3d.com
Used this many times during the longer commutes across country, works well.
Topping out at 10 minutes delay for the most severe marker colour is an interesting choice.
A 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.
For the similarly confused: it displays times in your local browser time zone, not the time zone of the actual train. I'm pretty sure this is an oversight since there's no universe in which I want train times not in their native time zone.
I remember my colleague from MFF UK, Robert Babilon, producing his first real-time map of Czech trains in 2004.
The page, called Babitron, still exists and still keeps that delightful 2004 look. I visited it a few days ago. Unfortunately today there is a message "We are moving Babitron to a different server", so the link isn't working.
https://kam.mff.cuni.cz/~babilon/zpmapa2
Although it's a bit rougher design wise I prefer https://traksy.uk/live
Amongst other things it shows all the signalling segments so you can actually see where your train is when waiting e.g. https://traksy.uk/live/T+CDU+BRI+d+@2026-07-06T15:00/S+G1548...
Now "Jetlag the game" HAS to shoot their next episode over there
Would be cool if these could animate/interpolate to their next position
Is this actually based on GPS (or similar) on the trains, or is it just interpolating signal times (which are waaaay coarser)?
I live next to a railway line so I'm in the (not particularly unique, and definitely not enviable) position to compare what's on the map to "IRL" trains, and I can tell you it's as good as useless.
The map shows a single line segment for what is in fact a multi-line stretch of railway. That's okay as a simplification (I guess), but the icons aren't pinned to the line, so appear to be driving off the track, or even on the adjacent street.As for realtime - even if the data was accurate and timely, a 2Hz refresh rate most definitely isn't realtime.
Sorry if it seems like I'm shitting on it - it's a fun toy, but I wouldn't depend on it for anything important.
yeahh
Perhaps I’m going mad based off the praise heaped in other responses, but - something seems wildly off with the locations?
I just witnessed a London Liverpool street service plough through the M25 motorway - about 40 miles south of it's typical route and 5 miles south of the nearest actual railway. Dozens of the trains seem to be traversing through the English channel/La Manche towards the north sea.
In fact the number of trains actually tracking a rail line (and this is outside of the cities where the tube/metro might obscure this) seems in the minority. Most seem to be going straight through the middle of farmers fields on some obscure course unrelated to theirs.
The surveillance is... quite disturbing.
edit: /s