Rail Planner Live

[Guest Paul]

Welcome to 'Paul's App of the Day', where I pick one of my favourite apps as featured app of the day! Today's app is...

Rail Planner Live

What they say

This App (approved by National Rail Enquiries) is from Thales, supplier of services to the NRE website
· Journey plans, live delays, cancellations
· Real time trains
· Train times
· Platforms
· Live departure boards
· Return Fares
· SMS Alerts
· London Underground Status
· Homepage widget
· Special Price £3.49 (usual £4.99)

What we say

If you get the train (in the UK), you NEED this app. Simple. :) A bit steep at £4.99, but currently reduced to £3.49!

Permissions

ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION / ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION / ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE / INTERNET / READ_PHONE_STATE / com.android.vending.CHECK_LICENSE

Download

View at AppBrain

Direct Market Link (for on device)

View on Android Market

QRcode

To use, install 'Barcode Scanner' from the Android Market.



Price

£3.49

Market star rating at time of writing

4.42 (210 ratings)

Version at time of writing

1.5.2

Similar / Alternative apps

Train Times UK is another official app. Also check out London Journey. Finally, Journey Pro looks promising!

Suggested improvements for the next version

I'd like to see underground / DLR covered too. Alerts for planned journeys?

Have your say

Fan of Rail Planner Live? Found something better? Just wanna share your experiences? Post below! :)

[Guest bakedecake]

Free Live Departures App here: http://www.nationalrail.ktbm.com/

Edited November 4, 2010 by bakedecake

[Guest Paul]

Looks interesting... not on the Market because of licensing issues?

P

[Guest muzens]

I use "Train Times UK" with the features mentioned. Good but pricey :)

[Guest meinnit]

I wouldn't endorse this app one bit after reading that National Rail ordered a developer to take down his free train times app stating that the data is for non commercial purposes even though he wasn't profitting in any way. Very hard to believe that National Rail want to restrict data in this way but it's true.

See article here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/03/ld...hewson_mystery/

and see his blog post here:

http://mocko.org.uk/b/2010/11/02/national-...app-still-dead/

[Guest banksie]

I use "Train Times UK" with the features mentioned. Good but pricey :)

Check out Railnavigator - the official app of Deutsche Bahn, it also gives all train info for the UK and presumably the rest of Europe. Got some excellent extras too like station info & maps and ability to add journeys to your calender. Its in English too! I don't know how Thales have the cheek to charge for their app when this is available for free!

[Guest yodablair]

Yep I got Rail Planner Live for that reduced price. Excellent for planning journeys which 'UK National Rail Departures' doesn't do. But both are worth having

[Guest camdenhandbrake]

This looks worth a look:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/journey-pro-by...time.journeypro

As they describe it:

Planning domestic journeys within the UK has never been easier!

-Journey planning with London tube, DLR, Overground, Tramlink, River Service and National Rail

-Live service updates and tube departure boards

-Search nearest station

-Tube status and Last service alert widgets!

All free too.

[Guest camdenhandbrake]

Free Live Departures App here: http://www.nationalrail.ktbm.com/

Anyone else having issues with this?

Seemed to stop working sometime yesterday and has not worked since.

[Guest seg]

Anyone else having issues with this?

Seemed to stop working sometime yesterday and has not worked since.

Same here - stopped working sometime last week.

P.S. There are discussions on the net (see post by meinnit above) indicating that the 'National Rail' quango stopped the feed on 23 Nov, for those who have not negotiated a licence. This might explain why it stopped working on the 24th.

P.S.S> In fact, this is the quote from the NRE site:

With effect from Tuesday the 23rd of November, National Rail Enquiries will be introducing tokens in to SOAP header of the Darwin Webservice for licenced users of the system. For more information on licencing and obtaining a token, please contact [email protected]

(see http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ldbws/)

seg

Edited November 29, 2010 by seg

[Guest choccy]

Same here - stopped working sometime last week.

P.S. There are discussions on the net (see post by meinnit above) indicating that the 'National Rail' quango stopped the feed on 23 Nov, for those who have not negotiated a licence. This might explain why it stopped working on the 24th.

P.S.S> In fact, this is the quote from the NRE site:

With effect from Tuesday the 23rd of November, National Rail Enquiries will be introducing tokens in to SOAP header of the Darwin Webservice for licenced users of the system. For more information on licencing and obtaining a token, please contact [email protected]

(see http://www.livedepartureboards.co.uk/ldbws/)

seg

Can anyone get holdof any of the newer versions as even the national rail official ones not working any more.

[Guest DominicA]

I bought Rail Planner Live mainly for the ease of the widgets and must say it's a pretty good app all round and worth the £3.50.