RailChecker v1.0.0 - New features and changes

Hello, and welcome to the new RailChecker website! A lot of new features and changes have been added and made to the RailChecker app, and this blog post serves to give you a bit of guidance about how to use the new features to your advantage. The first half of this post will cover RailChecker Pro, with the second half covering the other features and changes made.

RailChecker Pro

This is a new premium subscription for users who want additional features and/or no in-app advertising, priced at £1.99. The current feature set includes:

• Mobile push notifications
• Access to RailChecker Web (this website)
• Per-carriage crowding information on select SouthEastern and Greater Anglia services
• Removal of all in-app advertising

Subscribing

There are multiple ways to subscribe to RailChecker Pro. The first option is to subscribe via the app. Go to Settings, then RailChecker Pro and press "Buy monthly subscription". You'll then receive a prompt from your app store, either Google Play or App Store, to confirm your purchase. iOS users: This prompt may take up to 30 seconds to show! This method does not require the creation of an account, but without it you will not have access to RailChecker Pro.

If you'd like to link your account to your subscription, there are multiple ways to go about doing this. One is to subscribe after signing up and logging in (which you can do both via the app or via this website). If you have subscribed before doing this, don't worry! Just log in with your account into the device with the subscription and your subscription will be automatically linked to your account! 

Once you are subscribed, you should receive an email from your subscription processor - this will be one of Google Play, App Store or Stripe (for web purchases).

In-app notifications

You can set notifications for both individual services and general operator disruption.

Services

Go to the service for which you wish to receive notifications, then press the bell icon on the top right of the screen. This will change the page to show various notification-related settings. Notifications are set on a per-location basis - tap the bell icon next to the location you are interested in to bring up the notification options for that location. You can set notifications for changes in forecast arrival times (these are rate limited to one every 2 minutes), actual arrival and departure times, platform changes/confirmations and formation changes. If any of these are selected for a given location, cancellation notifications will also be sent. Select your notification preferences and then press "Save".

Once you have set all your notifications for a service (you can set them for multiple locations), remember to press the "Save notification settings" button! If you do not do this, the server will not be notified about your notification preferences.

If you'd like to receive notifications for a given service on certain days of the week, scroll to the top of the locations list and set the "Receive notifications for this service on multiple days" checkbox. Then, you can choose on which days you wish to receive notifications - this works on the same principle as pinned services. If you select notifications, then save notification settings, then toggle the multiple days checkbox, you may receive duplicate notifications.

Operators

To set disruption notifications for a given operator, find your operator on the Disruption page, then press the bell icon in the top right. Tick the "Get notifications for unplanned disruption affecting [operator name] disruption" box and then select which days you wish to receive notifications for it (it isn't possible to select just today). Finally, press "Save" and you are done!

If notifications are active for a given service/location/operator, the bell icon will have a badge on it. You can also check your set notifications in Settings, by going to the Notifications tab there.

RailChecker Web

RailChecker Web is the all-new website version of the RailChecker app. To use RailChecker Web, you will need to be subscribed to RailChecker Pro - you do not need to subscribe twice. RailChecker Web also provides additional details in detailed mode, but is largely the same as the app, features wise. The only exceptions to this are the formation search and journey planner - they are coming to RailChecker Web soon.

Per-carriage crowding

On some SouthEastern and Greater Anglia/Stansted Express services, live crowding information is available. Up until now, this has been shown as an average on the service page. However, now with a RailChecker Pro subscription, you can view this on a per carriage basis to find quieter carriages. The per-carriage crowding is shown below each carriage.

Additional features/changes for all users

There are also some changes for everyone:

• Some icons have been changed to indicate more clearly/obviously their intended purpose.
• Advertising has been amended to better reflect operating costs.
• Pinned stations can now be re-arranged in the renamed Pinned Stations section of Settings.
• Previous and next services operated by a given service are now shown.
• Where a train reverses along its route (and this is indicated in the timetable data), this will now be shown, alongside carriages that are detached/attached at a certain location which do not form part of a dividing/joining passenger service.
• The "traffic light" delay dots have been changed to make them clearer.
• Saved services now no longer auto delete unless they are no longer in the database.
• New header designs on some pages (see below)

• Rearranged data shown in detailed mode (see above)
• All operators are now listed on the Disruptions page by default, under "Other operators".
• New Terms of Service have been introduced.

If you have any questions, comments etc. then please let me know! You can get in touch via Twitter or by using the contact form on my website.

- Robert Topolowski