An NMBS open web service
I have to get this of my chest, I wanted to do a BarCamp presentation about it, but I can't wait ... So here is my small rant!
In Belgium we have a public transportation company, NMBS(trains). The NMBS has a pretty good website, so it's relatively easy to find the correct times of trains and since I'm an avid train traveler. It's really necessary being able to quickly check what time your train leaves or at what time you're going to arrive somewhere.
But mobility is strangled into our daily lives, strangled into our professional and private life. So why isn't it possible to integrate the mobility data of the trains in more life-managing-applications like Outlook, Google Calendar, ... But also more specific needs for example school lesson schedules, contact information of companies, ... So integration of relevant travel info with time data would be incredibly useful.
If you have a good database (which I hope nmbs.be has), it shouldn't be to difficult to build a web service on top of it. Or am I wrong? The data is already public, so you don't really have security issues.
These are the first 3 methods I would love to play with:
GetStationInfo
Parameters: Stationname & Time
Returns: all the trains on a certain time, different directions with all the stations which are reachable. Maybe station location info.
GetTravelRoute
Parameters: Start station name & Destination station name
Returns: route & possible times of departure.
GetStationList
Parameters: State
Returns: List of stations in a certain state.
Of course this is really basic, just to give you an idea how cool this could be.
I think it would really be an added value for a lot of applications. I'm just going to list a few example mashup/applications I'm thinking about: Decent mobile interface (do they currently have on?), iPhone interface, google maps mashup, integration on the contact information of company websites, school websites (integration in lesson schedule), integration on the website of Brussels airport, ... I really think the possibilities are endless.
So my message to the NMBS web staff, please guys ... open up your database, give us a nice web service to play with. The mashups will be stunning!
What would you make with the NMBS web service?
14 Comments
Take all that jazz mobile (perhaps even trough low-cost sms), and all you should say is: "Look, I'm here at street X, city Y and i wanna get at street Z, city Q asap. Do me!"
Now, that I would drool over for some weeks. :)
another more then usefull tool for frequent train travellers. Why doesnt the NMBS link their train-information, they re visualising on their screens at the stations to a site, widget or SMS-service (subscription by train). It is so frustrating running your lungs out of your chest to catch a train and than discovering a 15 minute delay. With a simple SMS you would have known.
Brussels airport is already showing their arrivals for more than 20 years, I think, on good old teletext...
a daily trainsurfer, guido
Probably you know this, but in Brussels, the MIVB is already one step down that road. You can send an sms while waiting at the bus stop and then you get informed about what time the next bus arrives.
Oh and by the way: the fact that De Lijn and the NMBS combine their data already, shows there shouldn't be any big issues technicaly speaken.
We should send an open letter to the NMBS, if they have some kind of interoperability between delijn en nmbs, it should be possible to get access between a limited amount of data.
They should let us play with it ... It's not a request of the customers, it is an opportunity for the nmbs.
there is been a netvibes-widget but it didn't work at all. This service is probably in a lot of minds for a long time now. Let's get to the action. Got my support
check out the UK mobile webpage done by some computer science student: themacboc.co.uk/iphone/trains/#_Search excellent site
Since I frequently use this service I decided to make a flash lite app that would take some of those issues away. Unfortunatly there is indeed no (known) api for the nmbs website :-(.
Since the nmbs has a contract with microsoft concerning mobile services, I doubt there will ever be one. Maybe they integrate it in there 'live' services (fingers crossed), but probaly not.
keep it up
Leave a Comment