Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | vasile's commentslogin

Thanks for featuring, author of the website here. This is the same version as the one I've first made back in 2006, the main dataset is a derived GTFS dataset from swiss raw timetables (HRDF) [1].

The position of the trains are interpolated, based on the departure / arrival times of stop times and is using the average speed. I've used to have also an hourly updater for the delays using the GTFS-RT dataset [2] but is gone due to lack of time. ATM there is no official dataset to give the live position of the vehicles, all the other websites are just interpolating positions based on the time delays.

The website still runs as hobby project, is not meant to be taken as source of truth for actual position of the trains, though I get many requests from trainspotters and photographers asking me for such feature :)

And for some routes you can sit and enjoy watching the route displaying actual train units [3] more a simcity-like feature :)

[1] https://opentransportdata.swiss/en/dataset/timetable-54-2024...

[2] https://opentransportdata.swiss/en/cookbook/gtfs-rt/

[3] https://maps.vasile.ch/transit-sbb/?hms=10:00:00&vehicle_nam...


Thanks for the link, author of the website here. For this particular #swisstrains project I was using derived GTFS dataset form this one https://opentransportdata.swiss/en/dataset/timetable-54-2024... - this portal contains public transport data from all swiss transport operators (not only SBB)


Thanks for featuring, author here. This is the first version of the #swisstrains webmap which I've made 17yrs ago, it still runs for historical reasons, it used to fetch also live delays but the position of the trains were still interpolated, using the average speed between the two timetable stops.

The other clones are more or less using same technique, swiss transport agencies are not (yet) offering live position of the trains / vehicles, only the actual delays measured at stations.


This map is a visualizaton of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) attempt to operate the longest passenger train in the world. They will try on 29.October to run a 1'910-metre-long train with 100 coaches along the Albula/Bernina UNESCO World Heritage.


The API is rich and neat, just hacked a little demo with driving directions https://github.com/vasile/mapkit-js-demo


Nice to meet a fellow Romanian obsessed about maps and public transport! Thank you for the projects on your website, they're great!


From a user's perspective, zoom is broken.


Nicely done.

The window scroll gesture DOES NOT zoom the view.

THANK GOD.


This is absolutely stupid and hinders usage.


Wow, thanks for posting this. The user interaction is really great on mobile web! Usually maps like this suck on mobile.


You can check a small animation[1] of the rail traffic from this upcoming weekend when the first passenger trains will pass through the tunnel

http://maps.vasile.ch/transit-sbb/?hms=08:40:00&day=2016-06-...

[1] http://imgur.com/cN3HKPp?v=2


So how much time approximately will be saved vs the existing routes?


In addition to the other replies, I want to point out that a major reason for the tunnel's existence isn't just to reduce travel times, but to provide an alternative way for freight to cross the mountains besides using trucks over the roads, which are dangerous and make a lot more pollution. Even if transit times for passengers don't decrease that much, this will be judged a success if it gets a lot of freight trucks off the road.


It cuts the Zürich-Milan journey time for passenger trains by about an hour (from 173 to 111 minutes) accelerating train trips from Germany/Switzerland to Italy significantly.


I heard numbers of 45 minutes less for Zurich-Milan. Maybe your number already includes the Ceneri Base Tunnel[1], to be opened in 2020?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceneri_Base_Tunnel


Indeed you are right - I got my number from 24heures.ch, and it is comparing the number before both tunnels vs. the time after both are open:

http://www.24heures.ch/suisse/Le-tunnel-de-base-du-Gothard-r...


Could you double-check the Zürich-Milan journey time?

The article says "... the journey time for travellers between Zurich and Milan will be reduced by an hour to two hours and 40 minutes."

I cross-checked that with http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/switzerland-s-gotthard-tra... ("reducing the journey times between Zurich, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy, from just over four hours to two-and-a-half hours") and http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2026369... ("the journey time of three hours and 40 minutes from Zurich to Milan on the Cisalpino tilting train will be cut by an hour".)

You can see these all give a time of over 150 minutes using the tunnel, not 111 minutes. They all agree it's a savings of about an hour.


I don't get this. Zurich is in Switzerland. I don't think even with this tunnel opening we will be getting from Zurich to Milan in under 2 hours... Are your numbers wrong?

Edit: we will be looking at journey times of about 170 minutes from Zurich to Milan AFTER the tunnel opens.


Yeah - I've done that journey and have in mind that it takes about 4 hours right now from Zürich to Milan by train (with various stops)


The TGV Paris-Lyon takes less than 2 hours to cover a substantially longer distance.


The terrain geography in Switzerland doesn't allow you to drive constantly with 300km/h, in France it's a different story


But the real goal is to get trucks off their roads. Hopefully this happens.


Self-correction: It cuts the Zürich-Lugano journey time from 173 to 111 minutes rather than Zürich-Milan (which still takes longer). Though it does cut journey times for the latter by an hour too.


MagnumOpus is right, GBT will save ~1hr of travel, check out this infographic where you can see the comparison of stage coach, train, car and new train via GBT: http://interactive.swissinfo.ch/infographic/Gotthard_Strecke...


The login system suggested should be used via HTTPS where you have to do more than just sniffing the traffic. Also, as the author mentioned, we don't do e-banking or stuff that involves $$$. Just keep it simple :)


Yeah, now that I think about it, username/password combos pose the same risk as this when it comes to sniffing.

Does it just use an easily obtained device id though? so could a potentially malicious app that the user installs also grab the device ID and then forward it?

Even if an app 'saves' a username/password combo, (I hope at least) it does it in a secure way, where other apps can't access the saved info.

If all this system does is use a device id, its still not as secure. The article didn't mention whether or not it did this, but it would be better if, in addition to a device id, the app also randomly generated a key and stored it in a place that other apps couldn't access it. If it used that in addition to the device id for authentication, it would at least be as secure as other apps that 'remember' your username/password.


Again, the article stresses the "good enough security" . However, udid itself can be sniffed and read by other apps, so it's not good to rely only on it but in a combination with some kind of a "salt".


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: