

Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules - there
http://metra.jcs.org/

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brandnewlow
Awesome.

Just this posted this to Windy Citizen. Vote it up:
[http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/technology/2009/10/13/ip...](http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/technology/2009/10/13/iphoneandroid-
version-of-metras-train-schedules)

Next time you or anyone else builds something cool and local, share it over
there, please.

On a related note, yesterday the WC hosted a discussion thread about Metra's
new $3.9 M site. Our commenters sussed out that the shop that won the bidding
process employs the son of a former Metra board member.

[http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/business/2009/10/12/chic...](http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/business/2009/10/12/chicago-
web-designer-american-eagle-says-politics-cost-them-metra-gig-me)

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pasbesoin
I just cited your first link on Facebook (where I keep in touch with a number
of Chicagoland friends). Doing so, I noticed that Facebook did not pick up a
"Windy City" graphic suitable for use as a thumbnail. Maybe an opportunity for
a branding optimization?

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brandnewlow
Awesome, thanks for the tip. Will look into that. And thanks for sharing the
link. We're building the smartest, sharpest conversation about Chicago on the
web over on the WC. Discussions like that are happening more and more.

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sachinag
Stellar.

OT: How many of us Chicago HN'ers are here? We should do a meetup sometime.

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brandnewlow
I tried a few months back. Enjoyed a tasty 312 by myself at Hopleaf for my
troubles. Perhaps someone with more clout needs to convene?

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sachinag
Going all the way up to Hopleaf for a 312 that you can buy anywhere in the
city is a big fail, Brad.

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brandnewlow
That's where people wanted to meet up! It's ok. I brought my trusty WSJ with
me to pass the hour in case anyone showed up.

We should meet at Saluki.

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kgermino
Umm either Metra has shut down the Southwest Service and Rock Island lines or
there's something wrong with your script because neither of them are showing
any trains from any of the stations or days that I checked. What works looks
great though. Thanks.

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agripa
Seconded. Clicking on numerous train lines/stations simply state there are no
available trains for almost the entire week.

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cubtastic71
This rocks - was so upset at the new Metra site and its inablity to be used on
any mobile phone platform! Thank you so much! So sad to see they spent 3.9m on
a site that you really cant use unless your home on your computer.

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brandnewlow
Read link #2 in my comment up top for some insight into why Metra's new site
sucks.

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cpher
Works great on my b-berry tour. I especially like the grayed-out stations when
the train skips the stop--nice touch. On another note, a while back I started
building an app for tracking the street cleaning schedule w/ respect to the
location you parked your car (including SMS message reminders to move your
car). Would any of you find use in that kind of app?

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phatboyslim
Awesome!!!

Just sent this link to quite a few people I know and posted to Facebook. Lots
of people I know will be thankful you made this.

Much appreciated.

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DougBarth
Awesome. This is so much better than Metra's own site.

A nice addition would be cross reference their service updates for any delay
information.

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wglb
Metra's site is much improved, but is a total pain on anything but a desktop.

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DougBarth
It's visually improved, but functionally, it's not much better and in some
ways, worse.

Besides the lack of mobile support, looking at train schedules is not more
difficult. My preferred stop is only in service on certain routes. Therefore,
depending on the time, I may need to use a different station. Determining my
options requires two tabs and mental comparing the departure times.

A coworker who rides the express trains out of the city noted that there is no
indication of which departures are express, leaving one to do the math to see
if their ride will be 20 minutes or an hour.

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truebosko
Mind if I ask how you got the data? Was it just screen scraping of the Metra
site or do they actually have an API?

~~~
there
i extracted all of the station information by screen scraping the website, and
then all of the per-station stop times and routes by writing some code to
parse the pdf2html output from the tables in each of the pdf files.

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wglb
Works very nicely on my ancient blackberry. Thanks much.

Later, will try it on my hp200lx.

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durin42
Thank you for saving me the trouble. Metra's new site is truly a disaster on
mobile devices.

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spanktheuser
Nice work. I take the El myself, but passed this along to everyone at my
company.

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hikari17
Nice... makes we want to spring for a smartphone just so I can see it in
action!

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lukesandberg
Great Site, even looks good on my Blackberry Curve!

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dschobel
Excellent. Thank you.

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tptacek
Thanks!

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Shamiq
Thanks.

