I've mentioned this before on another thread about the swiss map but for the uninitiated:
It's certainly a cool map and useful to get a general idea how many trains are around at any given time, but it's important to note that this is not real data. They use the train schedule combined with the projected delay to estimate track location. I'm not sure if it's because SBB has an interest in keeping reported delays low or if they think exposing real data is a security risk, but I noticed the data being fake on several occasions, for example:
- My train wasn't able to continue its journey and was stuck between two stations for a few minutes while the map showed it continue to the next few stations up until the point where it started moving again, when their App also showed it running with a delay of 8min.
- On several occasions: watching the map show a train roll into the station and driving off, while seeing from my window that the train is only just arriving when the map shows it as between stations already.
The app for public transportation in the Stockholm region give real time location updates for its busses, and station-to-station updates for tram and commuter trains. With the constant delays for the operator in my area it is invaluable for catching busses.
I have a crowdsourcing app [0] that powers maps like this [1] in South Africa. Where I'm able to directly or indirectly get bus feeds for agencies, I'm able to augment them and provide a hybrid of live vs scheduled services.
It's been a fun project, both the app and the site. The idea with the app's that there's often numerous commuters on a bus/train vs relying on a hard to get vehicle telemetry feed/source. So I'm trying to get a fun/friendly way of getting commuters to share their location data in exchange for shared alerts and updates on delays.
Nothing novel, if you're in a first world country lol.
