Amtrak's New Train Tracker Map

[TinCan782]

Pacific Surfliner #768 - 72 mph near Van Nuys at 11:35 AM. Next stop Solana Beach "on time" at 11:56 AM.

I guess its not stopping at LAUS, FUL and a lot of other stations. New "express" service?

 

[daveyb99]

Is anyone gettng the train marker actually moving? All mine remain stationary and some show "last updated" times of 20 minutes ago. Wonder what the standard is supposed to be.

Also ... how about a hover feature for each train name tag, giving you current next station arrival and early/late time - rather than having to click to see it.

 

[PerRock]

Here is a direct link to it.

http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/4/6035/2h/amtrak.download.akamai.com/6035/content/realtimetrainloc/rttl/index.html

peter

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Here is a direct link to it.

http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/4/6035/2h/amtrak.download.akamai.com/6035/content/realtimetrainloc/rttl/index.html

peter

All I get is "Currently, there are no active trains on this route." For every single route.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

What's happening with Amtrak? First an updated page for fares, e-vouchers becoming truly electronic next month, and now this?

Amtrak's getting their game on! And if you're asking me, I'm liking most of these changes.

(John Bobinyec, I still like your map as well...gives a better overview of the system, how late trains are, etc. It's also very nice for the other features such as tracking a train across its route and seeing times in one page, etc.)

I was curious about the timing myself so I did a little research and discovered something interesting.

Initial Story: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/06/patent-troll-that-sues-public-transit-systems-gets-hauled-into-court/

Settlement Followup: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/patent-troll-backs-down-agrees-to-stop-suing-public-transit-agencies/

Press Release from 8/21/2013...

APTA Announces Settlement with ArrivalStar​

Frivolous Patent Infringement Claims Against APTA Members Will Stop

I am pleased to announce that the lawsuit brought by APTA against ArrivalStar has been resolved, said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President and CEO Michael Melaniphy. ArrivalStar has agreed not to make any future patent infringement claims against any of APTAs public transportation agency members or any vendors providing goods and services to APTA public transportation agency members.

On June 25, 2013 APTA sued ArrivalStar on behalf of its more than 1,500 public transportation members. The lawsuit stated that ArrivalStars patents related to arrival and status messaging systems for the transportation systems were invalid and unenforceable. In addition, APTAs lawsuit asserted that the 11th amendment prohibits state and regional entities from being subject to such suits.

Previously, at least 11 public transit systems had been subject to frivolous lawsuits by ArrivalStar and had decided to settle rather than undertake expensive and time-consuming litigation, which would have cost millions of dollars.

This is a good day for the public transportation industry and now public transportation agencies and businesses can move forward with innovative technology without threat of baseless litigation, concluded Melaniphy.

# # #​

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 public and private sector organizations, engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne services, and intercity and high-speed passenger rail. This includes: transit systems; planning, design, construction, and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; transit associations and state departments of transportation. APTA is the only association in North America that represents all modes of public transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services and products. More than 90 percent of the people using public transportation in the United States and Canada ride APTA member systems.[/size]

I'm not sure if Amtrak is a member of the APTA or a party to the settlement, but if they are then this development may give us some indication as to the timing of the new functionality.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I love it!

It even shows the Cardinal moving along at 1 MPH! Isn't that a little fast for the Cardinal? :huh: :giggle:

And now showing 0 as of 2:45.It seems to be at CVS but shows CVS as the next station with the same scheduled arrival as Culpeper. I'd say they have some bugs to work out.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Well it works in the latest version of Chrome, but not in Firefox...interesting.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Well it works in the latest version of Chrome, but not in Firefox...interesting.

Works for me on Firefox?????? :unsure:

 

[Blackwolf]

I'm wondering if the inconsistencies people are experiencing are due to browser settings. Personally, I have an older computer (8+ year old Acer laptop) running the latest version of FireFox on a Windows XP SP-3 platform. I've had absolutely no issues using the new tracking website, including actively scrolling over the entire US map of the system and picking trains randomly for their detailed information.

I'm not a computer guy, but some suggestions to those having trouble:

Clear your cache.

Clear your cookies.

Completely close your browser, then reboot.

Check for browser updates.

Check for Java updates.

 

[NW cannonball]

Works for me partly in chrome, firefox, IE. Sometime glitches where the arrow things don't work, or the select train-station bar doesn't respond. Restart any browser usually helps.

Not ready for front-page.

But super-cool.

 

[Trogdor]

Not all trains are updated as often as you'd think, 161 is shown as sitting in OSB with its last update 27min ago.

EDIT: Whoops I meant NHV. Could be the engine change, so what exactly is being tracked? Cafe cars or engines?

It's tracking engines. Those are what Amtrak has equipped with GPS and communications equipment, which has been deployed for a few years now to monitor train and engine operating performance (the info Amtrak has available is far more detailed, and can even tell an Amtrak operations person in Wilmington what the throttle setting is on a locomotive somewhere else in the country, for example).

Where this will probably run into issues is when you have engine changes that aren't accurately reflected in the train's consist data. Then it could look like the train is sitting somewhere, because it's actually tracking the wrong engine.

 

[chakk]

Works for me in IE10 but not in Firefox. And in IE10, it shows the locations of the CZ in Wyoming but still provides the dreaded "service disruption" instead of reai information about when the trains will be arriving Denver and SLC.

 

[henryj]

I clicked on it but nothing happens.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I clicked on it but nothing happens.

I had the same problem earlier. Just keep clicking in different areas of the banner.

 

[Carolyn Jane]

Has anyone been able to bring it up on an ipad? Using Safari, I can get the regular Amtrak site, but no link to the map, as on my laptop. CJ

 

[bobnjulie]

I can use it on IE but not Chrome. There is a stupid message that Google has disabled the maps API??

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Has anyone been able to bring it up on an ipad? Using Safari, I can get the regular Amtrak site, but no link to the map, as on my laptop. CJ

My computer died, so all I've had is my iPad for the past year. I couldn't get the map to work from Alan's link or the icon on my home page, but if I go to Amtrak.com from google, it will work just fine.

 

[TinCan782]

I can use it on IE but not Chrome. There is a stupid message that Google has disabled the maps API??

Works on my Chrome on a Windows 7 machine...a few minutes ago.

 

[Nathanael]

Aha. Amtrak's tracker map doesn't like "https" connections.

 

[Nathanael]

And now, after disabling secure (https) connections, I'm getting the same bug as the other poster:

"All I get is "Currently, there are no active trains on this route." For every single route."

 

[The Journalist]

For me (Mac OS, Safari) it seems to work for a while, then randomly crap out. But if they can get this working well it's great.

 

[Carolyn Jane]

Has anyone been able to bring it up on an ipad? Using Safari, I can get the regular Amtrak site, but no link to the map, as on my laptop. CJ

My computer died, so all I've had is my iPad for the past year. I couldn't get the map to work from Alan's link or the icon on my home page, but if I go to Amtrak.com from google, it will work just fine.

When I click on Amtrak.com on my ipad mini, I don't get the option to track by map.

Oops, I discovered the Track a Train is below the booking section, rather than across the topof the page. CJ

 

[PerRock]

On my Android the map loads & I can wander around, pull up route info; but cannot get train status.

peter

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Was working in chrome earlier, now it's not. It seems to be rather unreliable.

 

[Texan Eagle]

Is this working for everyone else? I am getting this error:

​

The page at https://a248.e.akamai.net says:​

Google has disabled use of the Maps API for this application. This site is not authorized to use the Google Maps client ID provided. If you are the owner of this application, you can learn more about registering URLs here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/business/guide#URLs​