| Realtime Trains | |
| Language: | English |
| Area Served: | Great Britain |
| Founder: | Tom Cairns |
| Advertising: | Yes |
| Commercial: | Yes |
| Registration: | No |
| Current Status: | Active |
Realtime Trains is a website that tracks trains on the British railway network.
Realtime Trains was launched in October 2012 by Tom Cairns, a student at the University of Southampton.[1] [2]
In March 2020, Abellio ScotRail became the first operator to share additional rolling stock information with Realtime Trains.[3] The additional information was dubbed Know Your Train, and includes a visual overview of the type of rolling stock and number of carriages used by each service.[4] Operators which now offer this information include Northern Trains and TransPennine Express.[5] In May 2021, Realtime Trains stated that 45% of the distance travelled by trains on the British railway network was covered by Know Your Train.[6]
Another service called Track Your Train was added in September 2020, offering advanced notice of platform alterations and potential delays to a service. Initially, Track Your Train is only available on selected services starting at .[7]
Following a grant from the Culture Recovery Fund, in 2021 Realtime Trains installed live departure boards for Swanage Railway heritage services at and stations.[8]
The data presented on Realtime Trains is created using a variety of sources and human input.[9] In 2017, Realtime Trains installed GPS tracking devices in trains to allow services to be tracked during a diesel gala on the Swanage Railway.