mere SEPTA: Regional Rail Schedules with Train View
Besides my daily commute on SEPTA’s R5 line, I sometimes take the train at odd hours at night and on the weekend, so I was thrilled when iSepta was released about a year ago. It is a model of good design and is by far the nicest of several third-party schedule apps out there.
Eventually I noticed that iSepta didn’t support trips that required a connection. I don’t need to make connections that often, but when I do, it involves juggling two SEPTA schedules. Another nice-to-have would be data from “Train View,” which reports each train’s on-time status. (Train View is annoying to use as is, because status is reported by train number, which makes it a pain to figure out which status applies to your train.)
I thought it would be fun to try creating a web app that supported connections and integrated Train View data. And it was, um, “fun.” So, while it’s not very pretty or full-featured, it does what I need. I hope others find it useful as well.
Although I am still tinkering with it, today seemed like a good time to make it public since SEPTA just updated five of its regional rail schedules. I’ll call this version the “beta.” I hope to have a final release ready for National Train Day on May 9. Meanwhile, please let me know if you have any suggestions or find any bugs.
To use: Go to merecat.org/septa/, pick a start and then an end station. That’s it. You will see a list of trains for the next three hours or so. If a train’s scheduled time (plus any delay from Train View) is a couple minutes in the past (meaning you can probably still catch it), then it will still show up, too. Train View delays (if any) show up in red right next to the scheduled time.
Standard Disclaimers: While it should work on any web browser, the app was tested primarily on iPhone. I am not affiliated with SEPTA in any way.
Comments
This is GREAT!
I've complained a couple of times that iSepta doesn't work on my Windows Mobile Opera browser. For whatever reason, it doesn't keep my "to" selection after I click it. Also, it's way prettier than functional.
Your app works on my phone AND does transfers. Very well done.
The only adjustment I'd suggest is playing with your alphabetic index. It shows up at the bottom of my phone's interface.
Nice!
Posted by Owen on April 21, 2009 at 8:45 PM
Thanks! I moved the index to the top since it wasn’t working the way I wanted it to on iPhone anyway. That should make it more compatible as well.
Posted by Tony Green
on April 23, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Nice work Tony! I like the features you add over iSepta. And the ui is easy to read and speedy.
Posted by Dave Konopka on April 28, 2009 at 6:55 AM
Thank you very much! Much better than isepta!
Posted by yh on March 1, 2011 at 9:46 AM