Unknown stop and route for NSW Trains

I’ve noticed today that some trip updates are returning the value Unknown for stop_id and route_id. For example:

header {
  gtfs_realtime_version: "1.0"
  incrementality: FULL_DATASET
  timestamp: 1483802963
}
[...]
entity {
  id: "2"
  trip_update {
    trip {
      trip_id: "KN2W.1483801260"
      schedule_relationship: SCHEDULED
      route_id: "Unknown"
    }
    [...]
    stop_time_update {
      stop_sequence: 4
      arrival {
        delay: 118
      }
      departure {
        delay: 99
      }
      stop_id: "Unknown"
    }
    stop_time_update {
      stop_sequence: 5
      arrival {
        delay: 19
      }
      departure {
        delay: 51
      }
      stop_id: "Unknown"
    }
    [...]
  }
}

The trip_id matches correctly, and other stop_time_update have correctly matching stop_id. My best guess is that there’s been a platform change and the feed doesn’t correctly match these stops.

Any insights into this quirk?

Hi @jxeeno, we’re currently investigating this. Will let you know what we find.

Thanks,
Alex

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Hi @jxeeno,

NSW Trains got back to us. What happened was that the issue occurred due to a configuration oversight when the new route and shape information was created last weekend. The unknown stop_id data is related to the way GTFS Realtime processes GPS point information. This has now been rectified for these instances and changes will be put in place to prevent this from happening again.

If you do encounter this again in the future please let us know.

Thanks,
Alex

1 Like

Hey @alejandro.felman,

Was there an update to the nswtrains feed overnight? After around 03 Feb 12:33 AM, the format of the trip IDs were changed from NT34.1486024200 to NT34.300117.31.1930.

The static schedule data doesn’t appear to have been updated to use the new trip IDs yet.

ah, looks like the static schedule has now been updated with the new trip ID format!

Hey @jxeeno, yes it should be all good now. We’re confirming that’s what happened with the relevant teams but it looks like there was just a bit of a delay with the static schedule.

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@alejandro.felman noticing another problem with the recent feed update. The static schedule is now reporting the same departure and arrival times, however, real-time delay data appears to be based on two separate arrival and departure times.

See this service. The departure occurs before the arrival for some stops (e.g. Sawtell, Kempsey, Taree).

Hi @jxeeno, let me look into this and I’ll get back to you. Thanks

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@jxeeno for your first point, only the arrival time is published to customers (tickets, posters, website, etc). Regional trains can depart on or before the scheduled time if all station tasks are completed.

Your second point will need to be investigated further, I’ll let you know.

Thanks,
Alex

1 Like

jxeeno,
Are you able to post a sample of the proto buffer that you are processing to get these results?
I assume the trip_id is NT36.060217.31.0515?

Mark

Hey @mwood,

Thanks for looking into this. Looks like it was an issue on my end with arrival delays not being processed on the NSW Trains feed because arrival delay is no longer reported for the first stop.

Shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions! Sorry about that.

Cheers,
Ken

1 Like

Ken,

Good to hear it is sorted.

Mark

1 Like