|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Wed 30 Oct 19:20
... that have Android smartphones, feel free to have a go with my new app that provides live train times. It's still in beta, but robust and functional (and mostly crash-free, but press that report button if they happen, please). I aim to add a couple of features before full go-live in the coming weeks.
The app is free, but has an unobtrusive advert in there (like the forum app).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.ijmsoftware.commutertraincheck
It doesn't do anything radically different from the other live train apps, but you can specify a time window for each journey (e.g. between 6am and 10am for Dunfy to Waverley), and it will show that journey as "Active" between those times, and therefore at the top of the home screen, within easy reach of your index finger. No f@nnying around with "favourites" screens or recent searches etc.
I'm also hoping punters find it simple and uncluttered. And you can side-swipe between the home and detail screen (so you can keep an eye on a detailed train journey whilst perusing updates of other trains on the home page).
Some screens to whet the appetite.
This is my signature
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Wed 30 Oct 20:05
It's missing "Scotrail apologises" in the text 😂
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Wed 30 Oct 20:10
Fair point, jake89. And I should probably add an intermittent popup message along the line "See it, say it, sorted." It wouldn't be annoying in the slightest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Turps
Date: Thu 31 Oct 11:45
Nice one!
Is this on the back of your own Scotrail nightmare commutes from the Gyle? Don't miss that in the slightest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Thu 31 Oct 18:10
Haha, aye Turps! Been driving a lot this year after the farcical start to the year on the trains. A bit better now, it seems.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Thu 31 Oct 18:15
I used to train it to the Gyle. Stopped because the trains were either cancelled or overcrowded. The Scotrail timetable seems to have gotten worse as time has passed. The funniest thing about South Gyle is how few Fife commuters appear to pay. They randomly have people to check tickets and when that happens there's a massive queue. Used to work with someone coming from East Lothian and they refused to pay unless the conductor reached her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Thu 31 Oct 22:44
At the start of the year it was horrendous, jake. Drove me to drive, so to speak. Attempting to get back into the train habit now, though. That god-forsaken Gateway station has outrageously taken some trains away from the Gyle, which can mean a longer split journey that now depends on two trains being vaguely on time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Turps
Date: Fri 1 Nov 14:32
I remember the odd train not even stopping at South Gyle due to over crowding or time tabling issues. Was a right pain when I worked till 7pm and the trains were few and far between anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Fri 1 Nov 18:51
It's why the workplace parking levy will be a disaster in Fife and beyond. Folk commuting from outside Edinburgh and having to deal with cancelled and overcrowded trains that only serve South Gyle and Edinburgh Park when Scotrail feel like it. So get those drivers out their cars and make the trains even worse. Absolute farce. Edinburgh Council should hang their heads in shame for allowing such an unsustainable development in the first place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Fri 1 Nov 18:52
Sorry, "for Fife and beyond".
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Fri 1 Nov 19:22
Any such levy basically frees up the roads for the wealthy. A "fairer" method is an "allocated days" type thing. But such a workplace levy would be outrageous.
Whilst I'm here, I may as well moan about the prices - over ten quid for a day return to the Gyle from Dunfy Town. That is radio rental. I have an efficient car which would save me £100 a MONTH over train tickets (and even that is buying cheaper weaklies...). Seriously. Would more than cover extra maintenance costs and depreciation. And takes the roughly the same time door to door.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Fri 1 Nov 19:31
£10 per day Vs £3-4 in the car. Only benefit is the train is quicker (if it runs on time).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Fri 1 Nov 21:48
In my motor it's nearer £2.50 a day (even stuck crawling in an hour of traffic... plug-in hybrid territory...). And door-to-door, it works out about the same-ish time-wise, on average over the course of the week. All that said, the train is a better experience overrall, and gives me a healthy walk to the station and back.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: DBP
Date: Sat 2 Nov 09:12
My wife and I both work near each other so for us it's £22 per day vs about £5 in car. We go in and leave early so leave work at 4 pmI'm back home before train when you consider 15 min walk to South Gyle and 15 min walk from DFE
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Milos Drizzle
Date: Sat 2 Nov 10:24
Even more reason to drive, if you are car-sharing, DBP. But it's mental when it costs £1200 a year more to use public transport than use an efficient car. For your family DBP it would be somewhere near double that. And now and then you hear about plans to charge for parking at train stations, beggars belief, really.
Back on topic (!), my new train times app is now LIVE for those rich enough to use the trains :-)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.ijmsoftware.commutertraincheck
This is my signature
Post Edited (Sat 02 Nov 10:26)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: parforthecourse
Date: Sat 2 Nov 13:07
Took the train from Dunfy to Haymarket for around 12 years, then a couple of years from Dunfy to Glasgow. The Glasgow journey finished me off and aged 40 learned to drive, and now take the car every day to Edinburgh. Even with the roads at their most packed, I'm in my own space, own music, can come and go to work when I please, etc. More expensive than the train when I factor in a car loan, servicing, tax, etc, less green, but I don't care.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: londonparsfan
Date: Sat 2 Nov 14:32
"More expensive than the train when I factor in a car loan, servicing, tax, etc, less green, but I don't care."
Commuting by train to Edinburgh is that bad I dont think you're the only one that thinks like that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: shrek par
Date: Sat 2 Nov 19:40
Got the train for years, then progressed to the bus as it was cheaper and you got a seat and now I'm taking the car as I get a (currently) free space at work. ScotRail are utterly cack. Would go back to the train if it was reliable but after a year of travelling around the full network last year (Fife/Edinburgh/Glasgow/Inverness/England) I'd rather take the car. Works out on a par with the train for me as I've a big diesel estate. As other have said, ScotRail can go swing for my cash.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: Mario
Date: Sun 3 Nov 07:36
Life of leisure now, but first job saw me running up to Rosyth Halt in the morning. That started in 1965.
If it was a cold winter day the old guy in the ticket in the ticket office had a coal fire to keep latecomers and victims of cancelled services warm.
Got a job over here after 4 years, back to the rail commute 18 years after that, and could swear the rolling stock hadn’t changed at all
Even now getting a train up there any time of day is a matter of not just when it will turn up but if.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Sun 3 Nov 10:30
I do feel slightly for Scotrail. They don't own the trains or maintain the lines. They also don't set the ticket prices.
In the past decade or so the Fife trains have gotten worse at the expense of shaving a few minutes off the Edinburgh-Glasgow trains. It's fairly clear that the Scottish Government couldn't care less about anywhere outside the Edinburgh-Glasgow central belt. Still, they'll keep approving rejected planning applications in Dunfermline.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Topic Originator: LochgellyAlbert
Date: Sun 3 Nov 15:27
Never changed since I worked in Edinburgh in 68/69, never any seats, used to get on train from Inverness and end up sitting on floor playing cards in the guardsvan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
