How a Student Used Open Data to Beat National Rail Enquiries at Its Own Game

Simon Rogers | The Guardian | April 2, 2012

How useful is open government data really? How much can you use to build things that make a difference to people's lives? It turns out that some of the most useful is the least dramatic. Recently, the Association of Train Operating Companies opened up its own data vaults to the world.

It effectively means that National Rail Enquiries - which requires a licence to use its data - no longer has a monopoly on rail enquiries. Something which Bristol chemistry undergrad Ian Shortman took advantage of to create trains.im - an open source train timetable service. Why bother? Shortman says it's easy to improve on the official site...