▲ 55 r/railroading
Do we think they implemented this right or are we about to see a massive uptick in bridge strikes lol?
u/ImplosiveTech — 1 day ago
▲ 18 r/Metra
My Metra Train Tracker - Transitstat.us
Transitstat.us is my battle tested train tracker for a variety of agencies, but notably Metra and CTA. I've been building and testing it myself, without any AI, since early 2022. I built it to be fairly barebones, but to be incredibly responsive and fast. In any given month, 4-5k people use it, so you don't need to take my word on its usability. This tracker is not affiliated with Metra in any way. To list some of the pages/features:
- Home screen allowing you to select your line, search for a train by number, or to just view all trains on a map if that's what you're here for.
- Viewing the map allows you to click on a train, showing a list of upcoming stops, as well as the ability to view the full train details.
- Searching for a train by number brings up every possible match and allows you select from there, including both scheduled and live trains.
- Selecting a line brings up all stops along the line, which upon selecting one will show you any tracking trains + any scheduled trains for the next 24h (up to 12 per direction) and allow you to view the full details of each train.
Some of the strengths I believe it has over Metra's official tracker:
- Train data cached locally: Most trackers make a web request on every click and page navigation. Transitstatus caches all data locally, which makes navigation incredibly snappy.
- Save favorite stations: Even though the platform Metra uses for their tracker supports favorites, they have the feature disabled for whatever reason. Transitstatus allows you to favorite stations, which will appear on the home screen.
- No bullshit to see train info: When trying to see the times for trains at a station, the official tracker requires you to select an origin *and* destination before showing you times. Meanwhile, Transitstatus allows you to just select a station and see all the upcoming trains.
- Modern mapping library: Trying to not get too technical here, but a lot of trackers (metra included) utilize the google maps web library for mapping. To keep it simple, this library isn't very performant, especially when zooming in/out while multiple lines and trains are on the map. Transitstatus uses the much more modern and performant maplibre-gl-js, which means that even on slower devices (and especially those on power saving mode) will still be fairly performant while zooming around the map.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. :)
u/ImplosiveTech — 14 days ago
▲ 8 r/rutgers
Tripshot GTFS/GTFS-RT + Transitstat.us
Hello all,
Some of you may have used my site (Transitstat.us) a few years back when Passio Go was first a thing at Rutgers. As it has come to my attention recently, Rutgers switched operators, and by extension, bus trackers. I have tracked down the GTFS-RT and GTFS feeds for rutgers in tripshot, and added the new tracking data to Transitstat.us: https://transitstat.us/rutgers
Fun fact: Both TripShot and Passio Go are owned by the same company. Why the switchup? Who the fuck knows... The data sure isn't perfect, but as far as I can tell, the realtime data is much better than what Passio Go was able to provide.
For the developers out there looking for the data feeds:
GTFS: https://rutgers.tripshot.com/v1/gtfs.zip?regionId=CA558DDC-D7F2-4B48-9CAC-DEEA1134F820
GTFS-RT Trips: https://rutgers.tripshot.com/v1/gtfs/realtime/tripUpdate/CA558DDC-D7F2-4B48-9CAC-DEEA1134F820
GTFS-RT Vehicles: https://rutgers.tripshot.com/v1/gtfs/realtime/serviceAlert/CA558DDC-D7F2-4B48-9CAC-DEEA1134F820
GTFS-RT Alerts: https://rutgers.tripshot.com/v1/gtfs/realtime/tripUpdate/CA558DDC-D7F2-4B48-9CAC-DEEA1134F820
u/ImplosiveTech — 23 days ago
▲ 29 r/trains
[US-CHI] View from a Train Hitting a Tree with Event Recorder Data
I'm a locomotive engineer in Chicago for Metra. About a month ago I hit a tree while operating and got a copy of the front camera video and the event recorder data. As I also program in my free time, I put together a program that renders the event recorder data as a video, and then composited it all together. Some additional info that might answer some questions:
- The wheels locked up upon hitting the tree due to branches getting stuck in the front truck.
- The "Doors Closed" indicator turned off due to branches unplugging the cable that facilitates this.
- I had the bell on and honked at the beginning of the video due to being in a work zone. You can see the "red boards" at the ~2s mark signifying the entry into said work zone.
u/ImplosiveTech — 1 month ago
▲ 464 r/dataisbeautiful
[OC] Number of "Mommy's Little Railfan" and "Daddy's Little Railfan" Shirts sold by New Jersey Transit by Size Category
Data was obtained via an OPRA (New Jersey's version of FOIA) request to New Jersey Transit (NJT). Made in Google Sheets. Raw data (list of orders and count of each variant ordered) is available here: https://pgm.sh/dir/files/njt-opra-260603-1006572/
u/ImplosiveTech — 2 months ago
▲ 51 r/chicago
No Pendry Hotel, I don't think that's how that works...
Noticed this while on the 146. Charging someone 82 bucks to park overnight in a tow zone can't be legal, can it?
u/ImplosiveTech — 3 months ago