We have made some fixes to the VSTP feed on Rail Record.
We have fixed the sorting of Arrival and Departure stations on VSTP records on the VSTP search and VSTP summary tables, so that the correct stations are shown.
Services which run from one day late at night, into the next day, often showed incorrect stations, and in some cases, no departure/arrival times.
Example of problem:
Train departs Luton at 2359, and arrives Bedford at 0020. Previously we were sorting from smallest to largest in arrival/departure time, so Bedford was shown first because of smaller time, compared to its 2359 departure which is bigger number than 0020.
E.g Bedford (0020) to Luton (2359), when actually it should be Luton (2359) to Bedford (0020).
If a train left Luton at 1500, and arrived Bedford 1520, it would be fine because Luton has smaller time so come first. But when train leave late at night and arrive with a time that’s smaller than the departure time, arrival time came first.
How we fixed:
So to fix this, we have use a field called “Next Day” which has a higher number for each Next Day that the train runs.
The first day that the train runs, leaving Luton at 2359, this will be Next Day 0.
The next day that the train runs, because it runs into the following day, will be Next Day 1.
For the departure time, we will search for the earliest time on the service, on Next Day 0 so it gets the initial departure station and time.
Then for the arrival time, we search for the latest time on the service, with Next Day 1 or Next Day 2, so it get the latest time on the last day of the schedule.
So this will avoid midnight conflicts in a service’s timetable, and ensure that the correct arrival/departure stations and times are shown on VSTP records on Rail Record.
We also hope that this fixes the problem with some times not being shown, and that this resolution makes using the VSTP search and Latest VSTP Schedules feature better and easier for everyone.
Author: matt
Owner of Rail Record