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MARTA realtime train API adds schedule data

It's rare that MARTA has changed the realtime train API. And this is definitely the biggest change I've seen in the decade I've been using it. A longstanding complaint I have gotten while maintaining marta.io is that it only includes active trips, or moving trains and their destination. On Friday I noticed that their new train API endpoint includes future, scheduled trips. I added some quick styling for them (faded pills, calendar icons), and am excited to give it a whirl next week!

1 comments

wesley

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@jakswa I wonder if this is also why when I was on the train last week, the departure signs starting showing upcoming trains 40+minutes in advance. It confused me at first until it showed there were earlier trains.

jakswa

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They have changed the station signs as well! They added little "signal" icons on the longstanding "realtime" entries, the non-scheduled ones. So if it's an undecorated entry on the station signs, my impression now is that it's a scheduled/future trip. I was excited that they made the same data available in the API!

I chose to de-emphasize the newly added data (which is valuable, but imo less valuable than the longstanding data if it's present). So I'm fading things out and marking scheduled entries, rather than changing the data that has always existed.

wesley

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@jakswa Interesting, sounds useful if not immediately obvious. I wasn't the only one that was confused. There was someone else at the station withe who checked the signs and was like "no way am I waiting 38 minutes" and I let her know there earlier trains coming