Darwin:Train Status Element

Overview

Each time an actual or forecast time for a train changes within Darwin, a 'TS' message is sent. This includes the RID, UID and date of the train and the set of elements that has changed.

'TS' messages do not alter changes to schedules - these will be sent in a 'schedule' element. They will, however, contain information regarding:

• Expected and actual arrival and departure times at calling points
• Expected and actual times at passing points
• Trains which are delayed without any further information
• Manually entered delays, where they are known in advance
• The source of an expected or actual time
• Platform numbers at calling points, including their source and whether they are confirmed or not
• Whether a platform number or entire service is suppressed and should not be displayed to the public
• Train length, in certain circumstances
• Whether a train that divides is running in reverse formation from the dividing location
• Whether a train that splits detaches stock from the front of the train
• Late running reasons

Detail

TS messages will normally contain an update for a single location with an actual time, followed by forecast times for the rest of the journey. However, earlier locations may be reported if there is a change to report - for example, a manual TRUST input for a previous location.

Actual times

Darwin will provide information about actual arrival, passing and departure times when it becomes known. This may be from TRUST, TD, CIS at a station or manual input.

There are several attributes on Location that can give you the planned arrival/departure times of the train in question:

• pta/ptd which refer to the public timetable for the service (arrival and departure). You should use these to display train times to users. These are given as HH:MM in 24-hour clock format.
• wta/wtd/wtp which refer to the "working timetable" for the service (arrival, departure, and pass). These should not be used for passenger information, but include an indication that a train will pass by a given station. These are given as HH:MM:SS in 24-hour clock format.

If no 'actual' time is received (for example, because it is not known), a client should consider this as a 'No Report'.

If an 'actual' time is reported in error, the 'atRemoved' attribute will be set to indicate the actual time has been removed

Forecasts

Darwin will supply forecasts on when a train will arrive, pass or depart a location in the schedule. Only updates to forecasts will be sent - if there are no changes to the forecasted times sent previously, they will not be re-sent with subsequent forecasts.

Forecast updates for a location will only be sent when the forecast differs significantly from the previous value by a minute or more.

Forecasts for locations with public activities are calculated with reference to the public times at locations. All other forecasts are calculated with reference to working timetable times.

NOTE: It is part of the terms and conditions for using the Push Port that, when using data from any part of the Darwin Push Port, that the forecasts made by Darwin are used. This will ensure consistency across all information systems supplied by Darwin and reduce customer confusion.

Platform numbers

Platform numbers may be provided in TS updates. Although platform numbers may be supplied, they are not always to be used when displaying data to the public.

To determine whether a platform number should be visible to the public, a platsup attribute is provided in the TS>Location>plat element. If this attribute is set to the value "true" then the platform number at that location should not be displayed to the public, regardless of other platform related flags.

Three other platform related flags are provided for information purposes within the Darwin push port data:

• If the cisPlatsup attribute is set to the value "true" in the TS>Location>plat element then the platform number at that location has been suppressed by a CIS or Darwin Workstation.
• If the TS>Location>suppr element has the value “true” then the service is suppressed at the location and the platform number at that location should not be displayed.
• If the TS>Location>plat>conf element has the value “true” then the platform for that service has been 'confirmed' by the local CIS

So to reiterate, a client that only wants to know whether platforms should be displayed to the public need only check the value of the platsup attribute.

Please ensure your systems adhere to these rules as suppressed platforms are often subject to change and displaying them to the public can be misleading or cause them to have to move from one part of a station to another, potentially causing crowd management problems on the ground or may even result in passengers missing their trains.

Example message

<TS rid="201411200059207" uid="C70164" ssd="2014-11-20">
  <fc:Location tpl="LOGHBRO" wta="09:41:30" wtd="09:43" pta="09:41" ptd="09:42">
    <fc:arr at="09:41" src="TD" />
    <fc:dep et="09:42" src="Darwin" />
    <fc:plat platsup="true" cisPlatsup="true">2</fc:plat>
  </fc:Location>
  <fc:Location tpl="LESTER" wta="09:51:30" wtd="09:53:30" pta="09:51" ptd="09:51">
    <fc:arr et="09:51" src="Darwin" />
    <fc:dep et="09:51" src="Darwin" />
    <fc:plat platsup="true" cisPlatsup="true">3</fc:plat>
  </fc:Location>
  <fc:Location tpl="STPX" wta="10:57" pta="10:59">
    <fc:arr et="10:59" wet="10:52" src="Darwin" />
    <fc:plat>2</fc:plat>
  </fc:Location>
</TS>