Show HN: When is the next Caltrain? (minimal webapp)(erikschluntz.com) I was frustrated with the existing caltrain websites / apps, so I made a super minimalist one to answer the actual question I have: how long until the next train? If you're in SF it grabs the next southbound trains, otherwise, the next northbound. |
I wish there a maps app that would build entire itineraries taking into account that you have a bike with you, and ideally your average expected biking speed. It's so annoying to plan any sort of multi-transit itinerary in the bay, you always have to piece things together yourself or get stuck with some nonsense that takes 30% longer than it needs to.
Of course all of this could also be resolved if we had a sane transit system with short intervals.
That train schedule seems like a cool idea in and of itself though.
There may have been some special interface that the program being run was expected to conform to so the screensaver subsystem would invoke it, but (IIRC) a screensaver could do anything an ordinary program could do. (That was the big reason for being cautious about where/who you got your screensavers from.)
Another great similar solution is the Caltrain Companion iOS app. The main screen I use is "Arriving Trains" which uses your current location to tell you when the next trains arrive in each direction, how far along they are on their route, etc. The data is realtime.
copy and pasted into a spreadsheet from the website, then claude wrote a little script to convert it into js
<no commitment that this file will stay up to date, use at your own risk, etc etc>
I've explored this--you need 511 API access to obtain real-time data, and to conceal your API key you need to stand up a web application.
Cool proof-of-concept, need to take it to the next level!
GTFS-RT data isn't a lot of fun to work with directly, though, so I'd recommend that you use an intermediary like OneBusAway (OBA) to interpret the data and give you a nicer to use API.
You can find more about OBA here: https://onebusaway.org
and our GitHub organization is here: https://github.com/onebusaway
Our docker images repo has pretty good docs about running a server: https://github.com/OneBusAway/docker
And the SDKs can all be found here: https://developer.onebusaway.org/api/sdk
(n.b. I've been a volunteer on the project for years and am currently serving as the part time exec director of the nonprofit behind OBA.)
The schedule has been much more reliable since the electrification
But there are two SF stations