Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post - Irish Rail iPhone & Android apps available

ThomasJ · 27-12-2012, 15:25

dont get me wrong its not a bad add, its actually quiet good.

A few comments about it:

- The journey planner is good, but its a pity the customizable search for trains between times like the website is not there. If you are looking up evening trains in the morning it could be a long list and a couple of clicks on the later button. good though to see a show map option on it,

- The live trains search is not bad but i not overall keen on the whole +minutes business where a train is late. id rather see the ETA. Also a slight minor thing but the colours in some cases (ie yellow) clash a bit with the background, and unless you look up close you might miss this. Also its a pity that it doesnt show the platforms for all trains at connolly will serve but i presume its the same on the website and just a consistency issue. I like that you have an option to create a shortcut for that station on your phones homepage.

- I like the favourites and the history tab to use previous searches. nice!

- i like the "nearby station facility" but it might be an enhancement idea to add local services such as buses and taxis and maybe provide a link to all stations with a search option.

Overall its a good app to start with. Useful, no doubt but theres a few enhancements that would be nice.

Just to give an example, on the next train ireland (one of the widest used 3rd party irish rail apps in android) app i use. there are 2 versions that are available, free and paid.

There are 3 sections, Timetables, realtime and news

in the timetable section you put in the stations from and to and the date and click search and it brings back the results. There is a time customizable option but you need to have the paid app to use that. In the paid app, there is also an option to save the customizable timetable offline for future use.

in the realtime section it has the option of 6 options, all stations, favourites, DART, intercity, Commuter Dublin or Commuter Regional. when you select a station it gives you the option of northbound or southbound. when you select that option it lists services showing the countdown time and ETA. When you click on a service it will bring up the service details such as origin destination scheduled time, ETA and type of service. There is an information icon that will bring up the live itinery of that service and the scheduled time/actual times of all the stations it calls at. One advantage the irish rail app has over it is you can save the station as favourite on your phone. for this app you need the paid version to do that!

There is also a map that shows you the nearest stations to where you are just like the irish rail app which i like.

lastly there is a news section and what this shows is all the tweets sent from both irish rail and rail users ireland. there is also a setting to notify you when there are new tweets. I think the irish rail app could do with a news items section on the app showing maybe links to the tweets/news items. i doubt they would show RUI tweets though!

I like the irish rail dont get me wrong but i think its got competition in android circles from the next train ireland type of apps.

27-12-2012, 15:25	#4
ThomasJ Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Clonsilla Posts: 2,812	dont get me wrong its not a bad add, its actually quiet good. A few comments about it: - The journey planner is good, but its a pity the customizable search for trains between times like the website is not there. If you are looking up evening trains in the morning it could be a long list and a couple of clicks on the later button. good though to see a show map option on it, - The live trains search is not bad but i not overall keen on the whole +minutes business where a train is late. id rather see the ETA. Also a slight minor thing but the colours in some cases (ie yellow) clash a bit with the background, and unless you look up close you might miss this. Also its a pity that it doesnt show the platforms for all trains at connolly will serve but i presume its the same on the website and just a consistency issue. I like that you have an option to create a shortcut for that station on your phones homepage. - I like the favourites and the history tab to use previous searches. nice! - i like the "nearby station facility" but it might be an enhancement idea to add local services such as buses and taxis and maybe provide a link to all stations with a search option. Overall its a good app to start with. Useful, no doubt but theres a few enhancements that would be nice. Just to give an example, on the next train ireland (one of the widest used 3rd party irish rail apps in android) app i use. there are 2 versions that are available, free and paid. There are 3 sections, Timetables, realtime and news in the timetable section you put in the stations from and to and the date and click search and it brings back the results. There is a time customizable option but you need to have the paid app to use that. In the paid app, there is also an option to save the customizable timetable offline for future use. in the realtime section it has the option of 6 options, all stations, favourites, DART, intercity, Commuter Dublin or Commuter Regional. when you select a station it gives you the option of northbound or southbound. when you select that option it lists services showing the countdown time and ETA. When you click on a service it will bring up the service details such as origin destination scheduled time, ETA and type of service. There is an information icon that will bring up the live itinery of that service and the scheduled time/actual times of all the stations it calls at. One advantage the irish rail app has over it is you can save the station as favourite on your phone. for this app you need the paid version to do that! There is also a map that shows you the nearest stations to where you are just like the irish rail app which i like. lastly there is a news section and what this shows is all the tweets sent from both irish rail and rail users ireland. there is also a setting to notify you when there are new tweets. I think the irish rail app could do with a news items section on the app showing maybe links to the tweets/news items. i doubt they would show RUI tweets though! I like the irish rail dont get me wrong but i think its got competition in android circles from the next train ireland type of apps.