Also, biggest issue (station bug) seems to have been fixed in the API (mobile site soon!). Thanks Pieter Colpaert.

First of all, big thanks for all the code and help from Pieter Colpaert.

Updates:

• API (extreme beta), thanks Pieter (wiki),
• Code clean up, improvements,
• Station bug has not been solved, yet — working on it, (edit: fixed)
• iRail mailing list, for easy communication (wiki / archive).

And again, Git repo located here. Feel free to participate.

You can very easily fork my Git repository, all working improvements will be merged to the main stream.

To access the iRail source code;

Be aware you need to be added as contributor before being able to commit changes.

1. get Git
2. [browse to some folder] mkdir git
3. cd git
4. git clone git@github.com:Tuinslak/iRail.git
5. cd iRail
6. git fetch

To edit & commit changes:

1. git add [file]
2. git commit -m ‘edited [file], added this and that’
3. git push

To update repo

1. git fetch
2. git merge origin/master

To check log

1. git log

Info here and here, oh and here.

Nightly built accessible here. Git gets updated every night around 4h00. (see the index.php; set $dev to 1)

Feel free to commit [working and useful] updates. Decent updates will make the iRail.be website. Contact me if you have any questions or remarks. Most important bug is the station issue and my todo list can be found here.

I’m fairly new to all this Git-stuff, so I might have done some stuff wrong, or not optimised, or whatever. Contact me if so.

• Aalst,
• Asse,
• Brugge,
• Mechelen

Trying to find a fix.

Issue: All those stations give an additional intermediate page with the question to confirm your station choice.

Old solution: could be by-passed by adding “[B]” to the end of every station name but this has recently changed and is no longer working.

Current solution: none yet. Working with cURL to check the POST data.

Report additional broken stations to bugs@irail.be please.

Edit: Fixed — Thanks Pieter !

The copy of the letter to the NMBS/SNCB can be viewed here.

Minor modifications have been made to make it work correctly again with the new route planner of the NMBS/SNCB (changelog); and I’ll keep working on it to optimise it (next on the todo list is a better results page). Also, feedback is always welcome… But mail me; not the NMBS/SNCB.

Also, dear NMBS/SNCB, please provide us with an API. Clearly, I’m not the only one interested in open data and APIs. This would make small projects like this quite a bit easier and would greatly increase the end quality. Data scraping just doesn’t fit web2.0.

I’d like to gratefully thank everyone for the amazing support, and special thanks go to Ywein Van den Brande, Sébastien Boelpaep and Vincent Van Quickenborne.

Have a nice day,

Yeri Tiete
iRail.be

Edit: Due to a bug in the querying, not all station information is displayed correctly and an error page is shown. Working to get it solved.

And pretty happy I set up my nginx caching up a few weeks ago.

MRTG traffic stats on vm1, my nginx caching server, of the first 2 days (only major traffic source is this blog):

Top referrers (though not 100% accurate):

Website hits:

Top posts last few days:

Flickr hits last few days:

Screenshots are all a few days old by the way.

This, and a bunch of other cool stats from Google Analytics.

Oh, and also, visits on iRail.be from the NMBS/SNCB network starting Sept 1 2008:

Geachte,

NMBS heeft onlangs vernomen dat u de uitbater bent van de website www.irail.be.

Uw website is, zoals u het zelf vermeldt, een route planner waarbij alle gegevens en informatie van NMBS website komt (“all data and info is retrieved from the B-Rail website”).

uw website maakt hergebruik van de data van NMBS. Hierdoor schendt u haar intellectuele rechten, zoals haar auteursrecht en databankrecht. Tevens maakt u zich daardoor schuldig aan het strafrechtelijk misdrijf van namaak.

De verklaring inzake het auteursrecht op de website van NMBS (http://www.b-rail.be) bepaalt:

“De site en zijn samenstellende elementen (teksten, lay-out, tekeningen, foto’s, films, grafische voorstellingen en andere elementen die op de site voorkomen) zijn beschermd door intellectuele rechten, net als de logo’s, merken en commerciële benamingen die door de NMBS gebruikt worden.

Daarom verbiedt de NMBS elke bezoeker van haar website om zonder haar voorafgaande expliciete schriftelijke toelating, de teksten, lay-out, tekeningen, foto’s, films, grafische voorstellingen, logo’s, merken, commerciële benamingen, en andere elementen die op de site voorkomen, gedeeltelijk of in een via een elektronische, mechanische of andere procédé bewerkte vorm, te gebruiken, reproduceren, afficheren, publiek te maken, wijzigen, wissen, aan te passen…

Elk inbreuk op wat voorafgaat, leidt tot rechterlijke vervolging, burgerlijke of strafrechtelijke, zonder afbreuk te doen van het recht op schadevergoeding voor de NMBS”.

Wij stellen u hierbij formeel in gebreke voor deze inbreuken en manen wij u aan om die onmiddelijk te staken. Bij gebrek aan staking zal de NMBS zonder verder bericht de nodige juridische stappen ondernemen.

Het voorgaande wordt u gericht onder alle voorbehoud en zonder enige nadelige erkenning.

Hoogachtend,

Xavier Ansseau
Eerste adviseur – afdelingschef

Original can be read here and here. Yes, my scanner was on holiday, had to use a camera.

My mail to the NMBS on October 6th 2008. They never replied to that e-mail. Until now, when they got their own mobile website, that is.

Thank you for using iRail all this time.

This website was created during my spare time (and mainly for myself). It is also maintained during my spare time. NMBS/SNCB never helped to create or maintain this website (nor did it show any interest to do so).

I never got paid (or earned any kind of money) for this website. The website is free to access from any device (but it’s built to be used on an iPhone or iPad).

All problems related with this website should be directed to ME and NOT the NMBS/SNCB.

All data and info is retrieved from the B-Rail website. Every request on the iRail website is translated into a request on the B-Rail website. iRail just shows you what the B-Rail route planner would show you without the regular layout (most of the css/html is stripped off). Only the icons have a local backup on the iRail website (technically easier to make sure icons are showed correctly).

I am not responsible for incorrect time tables (and I don’t think B-Rail is either). I am sure there are glitches in the iRail website that might give you false/bugged information (please, report, to me) and some stations might not be working (please, report, to me, as well). In some cases I might be able to fix these issues.

For the REAL NMBS/SNCB Mobile website please visit THIS website.

Again, iRail was only created due to a lack of alternatives (and is still online because some visitors, including myself, seem to prefer my version over the official one), as a hobby and for personal experience.

Please, don’t force me to kill this website.

Edit: read more.

Well done I’d say. Just a tiny bit late. And too bad there doesn’t seem to be an iPhone optimized version (later?).

Oh well, *finally*. I’ll be testing it next time I’ll be taking the train.

Due to this change, iRail was no longer able to provide any scheduling information which included Brussels-Midi.

I’ve made a quick and dirty work around (by including “+ Eurostar” in the drop down menu), solving this bug.

However, please, NMBS/SNCB, please please please provide an API or report such changes to web developers.

As it is now, if you manually fill in Brussels-Midi and do not add the Eurostar text, the iRail website will not be able to to look up the requested information.

Thanks to Stéphane for the bug report.