I’ve just pushed a new update to RailMiles which makes use of a couple of new features from the Realtime Trains upgrade over the weekend.
New geographical engine
As detailed in the Realtime Trains update over the weekend, there’s a new geographical engine and database as part for Realtime Trains. There should be a general improvement in distance values and a reduction in the number of services that are unable to resolve the distance values. Journey distances will be more closely aligned with those listed on Realtime Trains.
This functionality will be available from 22nd January once the overnight maintenance jobs have run.
Update to Realtime Trains link
RailMiles links into a private Realtime Trains API for historical journey information. A number of you have recently reported sluggishness or an inability to locate journeys. A number of alterations have been made to that API recently and it should now return results within a few seconds.
There is now a six month journey history available - at the time of writing the furthest you can search back is the 21st July 2019.
Pricing update
Prices for RailMiles subscriptions are frozen for 2020 at the 2019 levels. The subscriptions are currently priced as follows:
- 1 month: £5
- 3 months: £10
- 6 months: £17.50
- 12 months: £25
The cost of the text messaging bundles are currently under review.
Mileage Engine (Public)
The RailMiles Mileage Engine at rmme.railmiles.me currently runs an older set of mileage data and harks from an earlier era. It is currently supported by our former hosting provider, Bytemark. Realtime Trains has taken ownership of the geography engine and now controls the maintenance schedule of the mileage database. In order to keep RailMiles and Realtime Trains on a closer footing, the mileage engine in its present form will be closing at the end of April 2020.
It will be replaced by a freely accessible page on My RailMiles, and details will be shared closer to the time, with a daily usage limit. You will be able to have a greater usage limit by registering to My RailMiles. Unlimited requests to the mileage engine will be possible for users with an active RailMiles journey subscription. A small yearly subscription will be available for anyone wanting unlimited queries who does not have an active subscription.
