I first found out about the UK trains updates service when I saw this tweet by @subutcher when stuck in the #uksnow.
The service which was put together by Ben Smith aggregates travel alerts for each train line from the BBC backstage travel feeds and other sources.
Users can then follow the twitter account that corresponds with the trainline that they usually use and can be updated to any travel issues. So for example I follow the account for National Express East Anglia.
A recent feature allows users to get delays retweeted by that account by using a '*' in their tweet.
I think that this is a fascinating project in 'real time' crowdsourcing. I've been comparing the unofficial feed provided by UK trains with the 'official' version from national rail and have found the unofficial feed to be much more up to date and helpful.
I'll be really interested to see how this service evolves over the coming months. At the moment there is a time lag between someone posting an update and the tweet arriving and hopefully that can be made quicker.
You can find a list of all the UK train twitter accounts to follow on the homepage. So if you are a regular train commuter like me or just interested in crowdsourcing projects its worth a look.
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