wiki:API/APIv1
Last modified 19 months ago

API v 1.0

Welcome to the iRail API! Before you start implementing this API, a lot of code has been written already! Feel free to look around on our WrapperCode page for more information on wrappers for your programming language of choice.

1. List all stations

Request

 http://api.irail.be/stations/

arguments

?lang= FR EN NL or DE

We also support &format=kml for the stationslist

Response

<stations timestamp="050810">
  <station locationX="4.038586" locationY="50.1345678" defaultname="Aalst">
    Aalst
  </station>
  ...
</stations>

2. Schedules

Request

 http://api.irail.be/connections/?to=STATION1&from=STATION2 (OPTIONAL:) &date=311210&time=2359&timeSel=arrive or depart&typeOfTransport=train;bus;taxi

date

dmy (day of month with leading 0, number of the month with leading 0, 10 or 11 (for 2010 or 2011))

time

Hours in 24 hour format concatenated with minutes with leading 0!

timeSel

Whether the date & time are for arrival or depart. Should be "arrive" or "depart"

typeOfTransport

Semicolon separated list of supported transportations

Response

(with random data) 

<connections>
  <connection id="0">
    <departure delay="xx"> <!--xx in seconds-->
      <station locationX="4.038586" locationY="50.943053">
        AALST
      </station>
      <time formatted="Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z"> <!-- time in iso 8601 -->
        U <!--(= unixtime)-->
      </time>
      <vehicle>
         Be.NMBS.P2000
      </vehicle>
      <platform normal="yes">
         3
      </platform>
    </departure>
    <vias number="1">
       <via id="0">
         <arrival>
            <time formatted="Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z">
               U <!--(= unixtime)-->
            </time>
            <platform>
               5
            </platform>
         </arrival>
         <depart>
            <time formatted="iso8601">
               U <!--(= unixtime)-->
            </time>
            <platform>
               6
            </platform>
         </depart>
         <timeBetween>xx</timeBetween>
         <station locationX="..." locationY="...">
           GENT SINT PIETERS
         </station>
         <vehicle>
            Be.NMBS.P2000
         </vehicle>
       </via>
    </vias>
    <arrival delay="xx"> <!--delay on arrival in seconds -->
      <station location="... ..." >
        HARELBEKE
      </station>
      <time formatted="Y-m-d\TH:i\Z">
        U <!--(= unixtime)-->
      </time>
      <vehicle>
         Be.NMBS.P2000
      </vehicle>
      <platform normal="true" >
          1
      </platform>
    </arrival>
    <duration delay="yes">
      seconds
    </duration>
  </connection>
  ...
</connections>

3. Liveboards

Request

liveboard/?station=STATIONNAME&fast=true or liveboard/?id=BE.NMBS.1

fast

Because of the recent changes in the internal system we were not able to link every station to a geolocation and internal id. Therefore we had to write a very slow workaround for this. If you don't need geocoordinates or the id, add: &fast=true to your URL.

station

Name of the station

id

id returned by a previous request

date

date of depart/arrival - mmddyy

time

time of depart/arrival -

arrdep

DEP or ARR for arrival or departure

Response

<liveboard version="1.0" timestamp="123456789">
   <station locationX="4.21485" locationY="...">
      GENT ST P [B]
   </station>
   <departures number="2">
      <departure delay="xx" id="0">
         <station locationX="..." locationY="...">
            STATIONNAME
         </station>
         <vehicle>
            Be.NMBS.P2000
         </vehicle>
         <time formatted="iso8601">U</time>
         <platform>X</platform>
      </departure>
      <departure delay="xx" id="1">
         <station locationX="..." locationY="...">
            STATIONNAME
         </station>
         <vehicle>
            Be.NMBS.P2001
         </vehicle>
         <time formatted="iso8601">U</time>
         <platform>X</platform>
      </departure>
   </departures>
</liveboard>

4. Vehicle

Request

vehicle/?id=Be.NMBS.P1234&fast=true

fast

Because of the recent changes in the internal system we were not able to link every station to a geolocation and internal id. Therefore we had to write a very slow workaround for this. If you don't need geocoordinates or the id, add: &fast=true to your URL.

id

specify the vehicle id. This should be according the iRail specification

Response

<vehicleinformation version="1.0" timestamp="1289951643">
   <vehicle locationX="0" locationY="0">
      BE.NMBS.P8080
   </vehicle>
   <stops number="2">
     <stop id="0" delay="0">
        <station id="BE.NMBS.429" locationY="50.854421" locationX="2.736304">POPERINGE</station>
        <time formatted="2010-11-17T15:12:00Z">1290006720</time>
     </stop>
     <stop id="1" delay="X">
        <station id="BE.NMBS.272" locationY="50.8474" locationX="2.876589">IEPER</station>
        <time formatted="2010-11-17T15:21:00Z">1290007260</time>
     </stop>
     ...
   </stops>
</vehicleinformation>

Error Response

When incorrect requests has been made or when an error occurs, we will provide an error message like this: 

<error version="1.0" timestamp="1289951590" code="1">
     You should ...
</error>

at this moment code = 1 is a user error. code = 2 is a server error.

Arguments on all functions

lang

if you add &lang=

NL, EN, DE or FR

to a function, the given station will be interpreted in that language, and the stationnames will be outputted in that language.

format

Currently we support 2 formats: xml and json

  • &format=xml will output the above examples
  • &format=json will output the xml-converted json
  • &format=jsonp&callback=foo will package the json string into a callback function.

Links