Chicago HN'ers: I made an iPhone/Android version of Metra's train schedules

[brandnewlow]

Awesome.

Just this posted this to Windy Citizen. Vote it up: http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/technology/2009/10/13/ip...

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...

[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?

[sachinag]

Stellar.

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

[rguzman]

Since organizing a get-together is off-topic on this post, I made a google group to organize it: http://groups.google.com/group/hn-chicago/browse_thread/thre...

[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?

[ccg]

+1. If you wanted to geek out or maybe demo something you're working on, Sully's Pub near North and Halsted might work. Chicago's Python and Android groups have met there a few times. They have a room upstairs with wifi and a projector, although I'm not sure if you can use that room unless you have a ChiPy-size group to buy enough food and drink.

[rguzman]

+1 on the meetup. We should pick the venue in the loop (or not too far from it) to make it easiest for everyone to attend. I do love the hopleaf, however... Count me in either way.

[cpher]

I'm in! Edit: uh oh, Thursday doesn't work for me (watching the kids), but I'll be there in spirit. Looking forward to meeting you all some day!

[I_I]

I'm down. Thursday evening, anyone?

[spanktheuser]

Very much in. Although trying to find space at Hopleaf these days is impossible. Map Room?

[biotech]

Good idea. By the responses, it looks like there are several Chicago HN'ers!

[wglb]

Count me in.

[antidaily]

/raises hand

[req2]

I'm interested.

[danielzarick]

I'm on board.

[od]

Sounds good

[guitarjunkie]

I'm down

[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.

[agripa]

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

[there]

sorry about that, i just checked all of the lines and everything should be fixed now. please let me know if anything else looks odd.

[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.

[brandnewlow]

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

[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?

[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.

[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.

[wglb]

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

[there]

i will certainly be adding delay information soon. i just need to write something to poll metrarail.com periodically.

[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.

[wglb]

Works very nicely on my ancient blackberry. Thanks much.

Later, will try it on my hp200lx.

[durin42]

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

[spanktheuser]

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

[hikari17]

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

[lukesandberg]

Great Site, even looks good on my Blackberry Curve!

[dschobel]

Excellent. Thank you.

[tptacek]

Thanks!

[Shamiq]

Thanks.