Revision as of 17:57, 13 October 2012

Can I take a cycle on this train?

We'd like to be able to determine if

Yes, I can take a bicycle on board
No, I can't or
I need to book my bike in advance

This information has recently been collated for the UK at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/cyclists/2012CyclingbyTrain.pdf.

As part of LOCO2's Off the Rails hackday we began to codify the information in this PDF into a format that can be used to programatically determine which restrictions apply to carrying my bike. The idea is that you only use the information in a train's SCHEDULE record and the information in this Google Fusion Table:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmGNdVG13yM4dFl5aV9nZXdRdEtrZEhibWhDR3B0QlE

Pseudo-code

function CanCarryBike()
{
  SELECT * FROM BikeRules WHERE Operating_Co IS atoc_code

  foreach rule in rules {
    if (joining station or leaving station in rule.Stations
       AND eval(rule.Logic)) {
      return rule.Bike;
    }
  }
  return 'Yes';
}

Use-case

Our goal is to enable a route-finder like http://www.opentraintimes.com/ to have a

 [x] with a bike

checkbox that would avoid routes and times where bikes are not allowed.

Folding bikes

Please note that you can always carry a folded-up folding bike inside a bag on any train in the UK.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 * https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmGNdVG13yM4dFl5aV9nZXdRdEtrZEhibWhDR3B0QlE
-== Use-cases ==
+== Pseudo-code ==
+ <nowiki>function CanCarryBike()
+{
+  SELECT * FROM BikeRules WHERE Operating_Co IS atoc_code
+  foreach rule in rules {
+    if (joining station or leaving station in rule.Stations
+       AND eval(rule.Logic)) {
+      return rule.Bike;
+    }
+  }
+  return 'Yes';
+}</nowiki>
+== Use-case ==
 Our goal is to enable a route-finder like http://www.opentraintimes.com/ to have a
@@ Line 19: / Line 34: @@
 checkbox that would avoid routes and times where bikes are not allowed.
+== Folding bikes ==
+Please note that you can '''always''' carry a folded-up folding bike inside a bag on any train in the UK.