About the Network Rail feeds

Available Feeds

The following feeds are available from Network Rail:

Feed	Type	Rate	Details
RTPPM	Real-time	1 per minute	Real Time Public Performance Measure. This shows the performance of trains against the timetable, measured as the percentage of trains arriving at destination on time, and is updated every minute
Train Movements	Real-time	Up to 600 per minute	Messaging from the TRUST system, containing reports of train movements past timetabled calling and passing points. Note: Messages are batched to reduce network overheads.
TD	Real-time	Up to 6000 per minute	Berth-level data from the Train Describer system, showing raw data with train movements in more detail than the Train Movements feed. Note: Messages are batched to reduce network overheads.
VSTP	Real-time	Low volume	Late-notice train schedules which are not available through the SCHEDULE feed
TSR	Updated Weekly	Very low volume (11 per week)	Temporary Speed Restriction data as published in the Weekly Operating Notice. Published at approx. 0600 UTC on Fridays
SCHEDULE	Static	Daily	Extracts of train schedules from ITPS in CIF or JSON formats
Reference Data	Static	Infrequent	Reference data which can be used to help analyse other data feeds
Stations Experience API	Dynamic	Unknown	Status of lifts fitted with electronic monitoring units

How do I get the data?

First, register for an account by visiting https://publicdatafeeds.networkrail.co.uk/. You will receive a confirmation email. Follow the instructions to log in and change your password. When your account is active, you can connect to the service. Your account may be in one of three states - the system will send you an email when your account is activated and able to access feeds.

Passwords

There's a documented issue in the registration process, a user may be given an unhelpful error message when setting a password deemed insufficiently secure. A password must:

• Be at least 8 characters long
• Include a number
• Include "special" characters
• Include uppercase letters
• Include lowercase letters

Accessing the data feeds

The real-time feeds are accessed using Stomp - details are on the Network Rail connection details page.

The static feeds are available via authenticated HTTP GET requests.

Status Page

There is a status page provided by CACI for the publicdatafeeds platform.

Good Practice

Please bear in mind the following points when you use the service - they're here to make sure everyone gets a good service:

• Sign up with one account - it gives an accurate reflection of how many people are actually using the service.
• Connect to the service once - you can receive multiple feeds in a single connection. If you need to access the data more than once, you can do so - but be sensible!
• Don't leave a failed client running - if you can connect but get an authentication or authorization error - stop your client - don't leave it continually trying.
• Make sure your client handles failures - if your client fails to connect or is disconnected, use an exponential backoff and wait 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 16s etc. before trying to reconnect. Service problems sometimes occur, and if everyone tries to reconnect every second, the service will not recover quickly.
• Use a durable subscriber - if you want data to be queued in case you disconnect, request a durable subscription when you connect.
• Use Stomp heartbeats to detect network problems that may otherwise leave your client hanging with no data.

Examples

Code examples for various languages are available from the Example Code page.

The advanced usage page contains examples of some advanced applications for the data feeds, including bridging the ActiveMQ feeds to your own messaging server.

Support

If you are having problems with the feeds:

• First, read this wiki - there's a lot of material here that will help you
• Check the FAQ to see if you have a common issue
• Check the status page to see if an issue has been reported
• If you want to discuss your problem with other people working with the service, the openraildata-talk group on Google Groups will be useful
• Finally, if you're still having a problem, email dsg_nrod.support@caci.co.uk

Releases

For further information on the content of releases please see the release notes.