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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time

You are here: Home > Forum > Miscellaneous > The real thing (anything else rail-oriented) > Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time

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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 08:10 #72164
maxand
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1637 posts 		TRAVIC (Transport Visualization Client) for Melbourne (Australia)

Quote:
A new visualisation reveals the incredible intricacy and coordination of a transport network that moves hundreds of thousands of people in Melbourne each day.

The 'viz' places a dot on the map for every tram, train and bus on the network, and then moves them in real-time through the network as Melbourne's commuters wake, go to work, return, go out for the night and go to bed.

The red, large dots represent trains, with the yellow dots trams and the tiny blue dots buses.

You can see red trains running the city loop, while buses (blue) and trams (yellow) ferry around commuters inside the grid. Compare 8.20am (above) to 11pm at night (below).

The map is built on General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data, which contains the route maps and timetables of each service on a network. Their release means app developers can now incorporate them into apps – as can, more importantly, Google into its Maps product.
Article

TRAVIC
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The following users said thank you: ozrail, Copping, uboat, Gwasanaethau
Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 09:14 #72169
ozrail
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197 posts 		Thanks for the TRAVIC link. We have it in Sydney as well, but only as a smart phone app. And if you press the top of the display five times it will show the train numbers.
Last edited: 14/05/2015 at 09:15 by ozrail
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 10:07 #72172
Copping
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95 posts 		If you zoom out and zoom into Europe you can see the UK rail and the location of most trains. The services along the HS1 seem quite quick, also covers most of Europe too. Interestingly it covers the New York Subway but not London Underground.
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 10:08 #72173
Sacro
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1171 posts
Online 		" said:
If you zoom out and zoom into Europe you can see the UK rail and the location of most trains. The services along the HS1 seem quite quick, also covers most of Europe too. Interestingly it covers the New York Subway but not London Underground.
Interesting, shame it's not live data feeds!
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 11:58 #72184
Peter Bennet
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5402 posts 		" said:


Interesting, shame it's not live data feeds!
Yes I cranked it up to 30x speed and watched my train home go without me!

" said:
If you zoom out and zoom into Europe you can see the UK rail and the location of most trains. The services along the HS1 seem quite quick, also covers most of Europe too. Interestingly it covers the New York Subway but not London Underground.
There is a similar LUL one somewhere, I think the link maybe in the WIKI.

Peter
I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs!
Last edited: 14/05/2015 at 12:00 by Peter Bennet
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 12:35 #72188
maxand
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1637 posts 		ozrail wrote:

Quote:
And if you press the top of the display five times it will show the train numbers.
I assume you mean click rather than press. Even so, I could not make this feature work. Where exactly do you click? Within the map or above it in the black top bar? Why five times?

Some more hints:
If anyone is having problems enabling movement, roll the mouse wheel to vary the magnification. This usually starts it off (as well as clicking the right triangular arrow at the bottom).

Drag-dropping the map will center it on a new area.

Hovering over what resembles a pile of cards in the top RH corner exposes a drop-down list of more options.

Hovering over any circular transport icon, such as a train (pink icon) enlarges the icon. Clicking the icon will now reveal the name of the service and the stops along the way. Click anywhere else on the map (except on another icon) to clear this feature.
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 23:01 #72224
Mattyq
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259 posts 		It seems this application picks up GPS for all transit networks in Australia (all trams, buses and pax trains and most ferries) and many others throughout the world. As far as Australian trains go, only Melbourne and Adelaide systems return information to the user.
Not fat ..... fluffy!! (G Iglesias)
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 14/05/2015 at 23:04 #72225
ozrail
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197 posts 		This YouTube video shows how it works, (if the link works).https://youtu.be/3wdFpubj4Yg. The trick is to set timetable for trains between Central and Redfern. Because all trains run between these to locations it show all trains in the network. The numbers show the train number and the type of train. The other numbers are unknown and don't seem to mean anything.
Last edited: 14/05/2015 at 23:06 by ozrail
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 15/05/2015 at 00:58 #72230
Mattyq
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259 posts 		[quote="ozrail" post=72225]This YouTube video shows how it works, (if the link works). [quote]

Umm..... it didn't work, Ian. :angry:

Further to my post, it seems that, despite the little coloured bubbles not having a route code in Sydney, Brisbane etc, double-clicking on the bubble will give you all the timetable details for that run from its current location to the end of its run. Works for everything that I've tried so far.
Not fat ..... fluffy!! (G Iglesias)
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 15/05/2015 at 02:01 #72231
uboat
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219 posts 		BlueHell Firewall which is a Mozilla plug in blocks access to this site.

I agree with Mattyq as i never had problems with Sydney Trains.
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 15/05/2015 at 05:48 #72232
Peter Bennet
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5402 posts 		" said:
It seems this application picks up GPS for all transit networks in Australia (all trams, buses and pax trains and most ferries) and many others throughout the world. As far as Australian trains go, only Melbourne and Adelaide systems return information to the user.
Don't think it does in the case of the UK's map, if it did then how can you run it faster than real time? It seems to me that it works on the timetable as written, not as run. Just tested against realtimetrains where I found a Thameslink train that was running late (not difficult) and the map clearly showed where it should be, not where it actually was.

Peter
I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs!
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 15/05/2015 at 08:15 #72233
kbarber
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1742 posts 		HS1 trains are quite entertaining between Ripple Lane and Stratford. Wonder what the DLR punters would think...
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 15/05/2015 at 09:59 #72238
Sacro
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1171 posts
Online 		" said:
It seems this application picks up GPS for all transit networks in Australia (all trams, buses and pax trains and most ferries) and many others throughout the world. As far as Australian trains go, only Melbourne and Adelaide systems return information to the user.
Maybe it seems that way but it doesn't. It's just interpolating based on station locations and arrival/departure time.

Put it this way, anything like this that has a 'fast-forward' button is unlikely to be hooked up to reality.
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 16/05/2015 at 00:49 #72272
Mattyq
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259 posts 		Hmmm.... never noticed that. Maybe it was just a fluke that I watched the "GPS" of a bus pulling up at our office door at the exact same time the bus actually did, especially when buses rarely run on time here.
Not fat ..... fluffy!! (G Iglesias)
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 16/05/2015 at 05:24 #72277
Hawk777
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386 posts 		How d’you know it was the same bus?
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 16/05/2015 at 22:53 #72312
Mattyq
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259 posts 		" said:
How d’you know it was the same bus? ;)

Good point.
Not fat ..... fluffy!! (G Iglesias)
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 16/05/2015 at 23:07 #72313
Brunel
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6 posts 		The other night I watched the 3 southbound Caledonian Highland Sleepers moving along as separate trains, south of Carlisle, despite them joining at Edinburgh.
This is presumably due to what most people are saying for UK trains, that the movements are based on timetable data and not GPS?
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 17/05/2015 at 04:11 #72320
Muzer
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718 posts 		Yep, I suspect it doesn't handle joins properly either. It presumably uses public timetable rather than working timetable data for the UK? I haven't actually looked at it. But if it did use working timetable, two of the highland sleepers should have disappeared at Edinburgh, at least that's my understanding.
Last edited: 17/05/2015 at 04:12 by Muzer
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Watch Melbourne's public transport system move in real time 17/05/2015 at 08:01 #72325
AndyG
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1842 posts 		Another clue is trains don't seem to stop at stations. :dry:
I can only help one person a day. Today's not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look too good either.
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