Creeping ever closer

[Peter Corlett]

On 23 Aug 2006, at 11:08, Nicholas Clark wrote:
[...]
> The old Railtrack planner back in the mid 90s did that. (Both the  
> online
> version, and the Windows version). I suspect that they all can, unless
> they're also programmed with the fare rules.

I suspect some of these sites just use the timetable database and  
don't consult the Routing Guide.

There's three databases involved: The timetable, the faretable, and  
the Routing Guide which contains just enough of the faretable to do  
the "fare check".

Access to the database is via push-FTP from ATOC to your servers, and  
the charges depend on how frequently you take updates and which  
databases you pick. A more cost-conscious route search engine may  
well opt to take more infrequent updates of fewer databases and  
accept the risk of picking some duff routes occasionally.

There's also no reason to believe that the database is 100% correct.  
It's probably not like the BT Price List which, where it differs from  
reality, it is reality that is wrong.