Visualising Britain’s railways with timelapses of our Live Train Map
Earlier this year, we released a new version of our live train map that gives users more useful information at a glance. To showcase these improvements to the live train map, we put together a timelapse of passenger rail traffic in Great Britain, creating a snapshot of the network on an ordinary day.
The response was overwhelmingly positive. And we’ve discovered that timelapses are a great tool for visualising Britain’s railways and providing all sorts of insights about the network. There is little more we like at Signalbox than maps and trains, so these visualisations have quickly become something of a passion project. We’re happy to share some of them below.
24 hours of passenger trains in Great Britain, February 2022
Timelapse of passenger rail traffic in Great Britain on 22-23 February 2022.
The original and perhaps the best, we put together a timelapse of passenger rail traffic in Great Britain on 22-23 February 2022.
This timelapse of our Live Train Map shows around 24 hours of passenger trains in Great Britain in real time, revealing the main arteries that underpin our rail network, and exposing some notable gaps too.
You’ll note the absence of trains, in either direction, on the Heart of Wales Line (between Shrewsbury and Swansea). That’s because this timelapse was captured in the aftermath of storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, so some train services were not yet back to normal. It was looking quiet in North Devon towards Barnstaple, too.
The impact of strikes on the GB rail network, June 2022
Timelapse shows impact of strikes on the GB rail network, 20 and 21 June 2022.
These timelapses show the impact of strikes on the GB rail network in June 2022, revealing changes to routes, frequency, and timetables nationwide on consecutive days, Monday (no strike) and Tuesday (strike).
Whatever your political persuasion, we think it’s fascinating to visualise changes to passenger rail services as a consequence of industrial action. And if nothing else, it demonstrates the impressive capacity of our network when it is firing on all cylinders.
A few interesting things to look out for in the video: the near-total shutdown of services in Wales and in Scotland north of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the Island Line on the Isle of Wight, operating between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin - the first and last mover during the strike!
Timelapse of trains on the new Elizabeth Line, May 2022
Timelapse of trains on the Elizabeth Line, 24 May 2022.
On Tuesday 24 May 2022, it was great to watch the new Elizabeth line come to life on Signalbox’s live train map.
Stretching more than 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, the Elizabeth line, or ‘Crossrail’ for many, opened to much fanfare in the early hours of Tuesday morning. And by lunchtime, the Signalbox team was delighted to have it up and running on our live train for the first time.
This visualisation was also the soft launch of a new feature of our live train map - letting users view trains from a single rail operator on the map. For now, you can view live trains on the Elizabeth Line in real time. We’ll be releasing this feature to our map in the coming weeks.