Hi!
I was wondering if it is possible to define which trips are cancelled if you generate trip_updates file (GTFS format) based on TFL api: arrival predictions for all stops of a given mode. For example, is it possible to receive information like: lineName=100, start_time=9:00, status=cancelled?
The routes and stops in arrivals api are all scheduled by definition as I understand. What method do you recommend to use to get disrupted trips?
There is a method called “Get disruptions for all lines of the given modes” but it looks like it returns a general description that cannot be really matched to the exact trips for exact routes.
Thanks in advance.
@john_wr
There are, of course, two types of cancellation, the full-cancel where the whole service is taken out of action, and the part-cancel where one or more stops are skipped, usually to bring a train unit back to the starting point to run the next service on time.
TfL’s APIs don’t usually make a great song-and-dance about the former, they usually just vanish from view. There is no “cancelled” in TfL worldview, because there isn’t a timetable as people turn-up-and-go.
Clearly this is hogwash and if you are prepared to do the legwork of comparing timetables to services you can see the ones that aren’t there. However, this is easy for TfL Rail and London Overground as there appear in NRE Darwin.
For the tube, buses, trams and river buses the only way to find things that are cancelled would be to watch the live feeds and compare them with the timetables.
Not sure that it is hogwash. If the bus due to run the 0900 is unavailable on a high frequency service, chances are that the service either side will be stretched out by the controllers to avoid a long gap. Indeed, there may well be a bus at precisely 0900 as a result! So what exactly should be shown as cancelled and would it really be helpful for the passenger to show it (whatever it is) as such?
I appreciate that passenger information is not necessarily what this thread is about but then what is the aim of the exercise?
Michael
@mjcarchive
For clarity, I the word hogwash was referring to the non-existence of timetables. Your comments about the controllers work are fair.