KnowledgeBase

About

Knowledgebase is RDG’s Content Management System providing customer friendly information on the railways and associated products. It contains a wealth of static and real-time information about traveling by train on the GB rail network, such as information about station facilities, service disruption, and engineering work.

Data is available on the National Rail Data Portal through two subscription types:

• Real Time incidents - for new, modified and deleted Incidents
• Knowledgebase API - for requesting the latest information on the following static data
  • Companies (TOCs)
  • Incidents (Service Disruptions and Engineering Works)
  • National Service Indicator (NSI)
  • Promotions (Public)
  • Stations
  • Ticket Restrictions
  • Ticket Types

Accessing the Knowledgebase Feeds

To access the RDG Knowledgebase feeds, you must have an account on the National Rail Data Portal (NRDP) at http://opendata.nationalrail.co.uk. By creating an account, you can register for a subscription to the Knowledgebase API and the Knowledgebase Real Time Feeds.

To receive Knowledgebase Real Time Incidents, select Knowledgebase (KB) Real Time Incidents under the Knowlegebase (KB) subscriptions. The connection information required to start receiving Real Time Incidents is located on the My Feeds page.

To receive Knowldegebase static data, select Knowledgebase (KB) API under the Knowledgebase (KB) subscriptions. The My Feeds page will then display details about accessing the latest versions of Ticket Restrictions, Companies, Incidents, National Service Indicator, Promotions (Public), Stations and Ticket Types files from Knowledgebase.

Important - Please note NRDP accounts expire after an extended period of inactivity. The unused account expiry period is currently set to 30 days. If you create an account and do not consume any of the feeds during this time your account will be deleted. If your account has been deleted, you will receive a notification email, and you will be able to re-register for a new account.

RDG Knowledgebase APIs

Knowledgebase API

After selecting the Knowledgebase (KB) API checkbox subscription type on NRDP, you can receive the Knowledgebase xml files in two steps via a REST client.

Generate Authentication Token

Using a REST client, make an HTTP POST call to https://opendata.nationalrail.co.uk/authenticate. This step requires using your email address and password registered on NRDP and will produce a token key.

An example request is as follows:

  POST https://opendata.nationalrail.co.uk/authenticate

   Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   username=jane@doe.com&password=password```

A successful response will produce the following:

   {
    "username": "jane@doe.com",
    "roles": {
      "ROLE_STANDARD": true,
      "ROLE_KB_API": true
    },
    "token": "jane@doe.com:1491312310772:56c56baa3e56d35ff0ede4a6aad1bcfb"
   }

The token is valid for an hour, and includes the time at which it will expire, in UNIX seconds.

An unsuccessful response will produce an HTTP 401 Unauthorized response with an error, such as:

   {
     "error": "Invalid username/password"
   }

Make a call for each file

Once you have a valid authentication token, you can make an HTTP GET request. Supply the authentication token in a header named `X-Auth-Token`:

  GET https://opendata.nationalrail.co.uk/api/staticfeeds/4.0/ticket-restrictions

   X-Auth-Token: jane@doe.com:1491312310772:56c56baa3e56d35ff0ede4a6aad1bcfb

A successful response will result in the requested file:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <TicketRestrictions
   ...

If authorization failed, the response will be an HTTP 401 Unauthorized:

   {
       "timestamp": "2019-02-13T11:50:16.048+0000",
       "status": 401,
       "error": "Unauthorized",
       "message": "Unauthorized",
       "path": "/api/staticfeeds/4.0/ticket-restrictions"
   }

If you are not subscribed to the Knowledgebase API, the response will be an HTTP 403 Forbidden:

   {
       "timestamp": "2019-02-13T11:51:29.992+0000",
       "status": 403,
       "error": "Forbidden",
       "message": "Forbidden",
       "path": "/api/staticfeeds/4.0/ticket-restrictions"
   }

Stations

In the stations data, London St Pancras and Ashford International both have have two entries each, intended to correspond to domestic services and facilities (STP and AFK), and those dedicated to international facilities (SPX and ASI). These second entries are not maintained, and these CRS codes, derived from underlying Network Rail data, are not recognised by LDB, or in the Darwin push port reference data, which mantains the National Rail convention of one CRS code per station (here STP and AFK). These entries bear confusingly similar names to the more canonical ones, and may be sorted before them, something to consider if you're allowing a user to search stations.

Real Time Incident Feed

After selecting the Knowledgebase Real Time incidents checkbox subscription on edit account page, connection details will appear on the My Feeds page. You can receive the Knowledgebase real time incidents via a STOMP or Apache MQ OpenWire client.

The setup of the client is very similar to that needed to subscribe to the Darwin PushPort feed. In particular, your client must support STOMP v1.2. Connect to the Message topic host using the credentials and topic name shown on My Feeds/ Knowledgebase Real Time Incidents Information. Note that unlike Darwin PushPort, the body of the Knowledgebase messages are not compressed.

Please note: topic advisory messages are disabled on the KB Real Time Incidents messaging host, so you must also connect with this facility disabled. E.g. set the connection property watchTopicAdvisories=false.

Upon successfully connecting to the feed, you will start receiving each real time incident message, with its respective incident number and other message information. The feed is relatively low volume with typically only 1-2 messages per hour and often gaps of several hours overnight, so any monitoring of message volumes should be configured appropriately.

Headers

Real time incidents messages contain the following headers:

INCIDENT_MESSAGE_STATUS

Each message will contain a INCIDENT_MESSAGE_STATUS header, with the possible values:

• NEW: This status represents new incident message information
• MODIFIED: This status represents modifications to existing incidents message information
• REMOVED: This status represents deleted message information

KNOWLEDGEBASE_DATA_TYPE

Each message contains a KNOWLEDGEBASE_DATA_TYPE detailing that the message is an INCIDENT_MESSAGE.

INCIDENT_ID

The ID of the Knowledgebase Incident message.

Example Real Time Incidents Bodies

The following are examples of Real Time Incidents which include new, modified and deleted incident messages. Please note that these bodies are unzipped, real messages contain gzipped data.

New Incident message

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<uk.co.nationalrail.xml.incident.PtIncidentStructure xmlns:ns2="http://nationalrail.co.uk/xml/common" xmlns:ns3="http://nationalrail.co.uk/xml/incident">
<ns3:CreationTime>2017-03-21T16:17:00.000Z</ns3:CreationTime>
<ns3:ChangeHistory><ns2:ChangedBy>SPimperton</ns2:ChangedBy>
<ns2:LastChangedDate>2017-03-26T07:01:00.000+01:00</ns2:LastChangedDate></ns3:ChangeHistory>
<ns3:ParticipantRef>73913</ns3:ParticipantRef>
<ns3:IncidentNumber>214453059CDC4017A0E32F3A6ECA0D45</ns3:IncidentNumber>
<ns3:Version>20170326070125</ns3:Version>
<ns3:Source><ns3:TwitterHashtag>#SouthernStrike</ns3:TwitterHashtag></ns3:Source>
<ns3:ValidityPeriod><ns2:StartTime>2017-03-21T16:17:00.000Z</ns2:StartTime></ns3:ValidityPeriod>
<ns3:Planned>false</ns3:Planned>
<ns3:Summary>Possible industrial action to affect Southern services on Saturday 8 April</ns3:Summary>
<ns3:Description>
<p>The RMT Union have announced they are planning to take industrial action on Saturday 8 April.</p>
<p>It is not yet known how Southern services will be affected, if this industrial action goes ahead.</p>
<p><strong>Twitter:</strong><br />
If you would like to follow this incident on Twitter, please use <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SouthernStrike?f=tweets">#SouthernStrike</a></p>
</ns3:Description>
<ns3:InfoLinks>
<ns3:InfoLink><ns3:Uri>http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/160174.aspx</ns3:Uri>
<ns3:Label>nationalrail.co.uk</ns3:Label></ns3:InfoLink></ns3:InfoLinks>
<ns3:Affects><ns3:Operators><ns3:AffectedOperator><ns3:OperatorRef>SN</ns3:OperatorRef>
<ns3:OperatorName>Southern</ns3:OperatorName></ns3:AffectedOperator></ns3:Operators>
<ns3:RoutesAffected><p>Various Southern routes</p></ns3:RoutesAffected></ns3:Affects>
<ns3:ClearedIncident>false</ns3:ClearedIncident>
<ns3:IncidentPriority>2</ns3:IncidentPriority></uk.co.nationalrail.xml.incident.PtIncidentStructure>
...

Modified Incident Message

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<uk.co.nationalrail.xml.incident.PtIncidentStructure xmlns:ns2="http://nationalrail.co.uk/xml/common" xmlns:ns3="http://nationalrail.co.uk/xml/incident">
<ns3:CreationTime>2017-04-24T17:22:00.000+01:00</ns3:CreationTime>
<ns3:ChangeHistory><ns2:ChangedBy>bives</ns2:ChangedBy>
<ns2:LastChangedDate>2017-04-24T17:32:00.000+01:00</ns2:LastChangedDate>
</ns3:ChangeHistory><ns3:IncidentNumber>8B3B4C1F358A45A186F6F95984F52F4F</ns3:IncidentNumber>
<ns3:Version>20170424173219</ns3:Version>
<ns3:Source><ns3:TwitterHashtag>#CrystalPalace</ns3:TwitterHashtag></ns3:Source>
<ns3:ValidityPeriod><ns2:StartTime>2017-04-24T17:22:00.000+01:00</ns2:StartTime></ns3:ValidityPeriod>
<ns3:Planned>false</ns3:Planned><ns3:Summary>Delays in theCrystal Palace area expected until 20:15</ns3:Summary>
<ns3:Description>
<p>Due <span>to trespassers on the railway at Crystal Palace trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines.
<br /><br /><strong>Impact:</strong>
<br />Train services running through this station may be cancelled or delayed by up to20 minutes. Disruption is expected until 20:15 24/04.<br />
<br /><strong>Customer Advice:</strong>
<br />Owing to a passenger forcing the doors open and exiting the train onto the trackin the Crystal Palace area trains are obliged to run at a reduced speed.<br/></span></p>
<p><strong>Twitter:</strong><br />If you would like to follow this incident on Twitter, please use
 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CrystalPalace?f=tweets">#</a><span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CrystalPalace?f=tweets">CrystalPalace</a> </span></p>
 <p><strong>Check before you travel:</strong><br />Please use the National Rail Enquiries real-time
 <a href="http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/planjourney/search">Journey Planner</a> to check your journey before you travel.</p>
 <p><strong>Compensation:</strong><br />You may be entitled to <a href="http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/121354.aspx">
 compensation</a> if you experience a delay in completing your journey today.
 Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.</p>
 <p><strong>Feedback:</strong><br />We want to make information better - tell us how! Fill out this online
 <a href="http://survey3.accent-mr.com/D4/(S(dtxglkj3ksyum52j0j01qpio))/2908m.aspx?urn=opensurveyNRwebsite">Disruption Survey.</a></p></ns3:Description>
<ns3:InfoLinks><ns3:InfoLink><ns3:Uri>http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/162083.aspx</ns3:Uri>
<ns3:Label>nationalrail.co.uk</ns3:Label></ns3:InfoLink>
<ns3:InfoLink><ns3:Uri>http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/maps/Crystal2404.pdf</ns3:Uri>
<ns3:Label>Additional Maps</ns3:Label></ns3:InfoLink></ns3:InfoLinks>
<ns3:Affects><ns3:Operators><ns3:AffectedOperator><ns3:OperatorRef>SN</ns3:OperatorRef>
<ns3:OperatorName>Southern</ns3:OperatorName></ns3:AffectedOperator></ns3:Operators>
<ns3:RoutesAffected><p>Routes through Crystal Palace</p></ns3:RoutesAffected></ns3:Affects>
<ns3:ClearedIncident>false</ns3:ClearedIncident>
<ns3:IncidentPriority>2</ns3:IncidentPriority></uk.co.nationalrail.xml.incident.PtIncidentStructure>
...

Removed Incident Message

Removed messages contain empty bodies.

Support

KnowledgeBase documentation and schemas:

• RSPS5050