Journey Radar’s live disruption sections come from National Rail Enquiries and TfL open data and update automatically every few minutes; nobody checks them by hand. Our guides are written with AI assistance and compared against the official operator, National Rail and TfL pages listed on each guide, and every guide shows the date of that last check. This page explains each part, including what happens when the data is missing or late.
Where does the live data come from?
A small program collects data from three official open-data services every five minutes:
- National Rail disruption data, published by the Rail Delivery Group through the Rail Data Marketplace: notices for live incidents, planned engineering works and, once an operator publishes a revised timetable, industrial action.
- National Rail live departure boards for around 20 of the busiest stations. We use them only to count how many departures in the next hour are on time, delayed (expected five or more minutes late) or cancelled. We don’t show individual trains or platforms.
- TfL’s open data service for the status of Tube, Elizabeth line, London Overground and DLR lines.
The program combines them into one data file stamped with the time it was made. Our pages read that file on the server, so the information is part of the page itself rather than loaded later in your browser. Every live section shows “Last updated” with the UK time.
What happens when the data is late or missing?
If the data file is more than 15 minutes old, or one of the services didn’t respond, the affected section shows “No confirmed disruption data right now” and links to National Rail or TfL. We never show old figures as if they were current. An automated check fetches our live pages and fails if the “Last updated” time is too old, or if the number of notices on the page doesn’t match the data file.
Why don’t you show the full disruption text?
National Rail’s data licence lets publishers change the format of its information but not its content, and we don’t reuse other organisations’ wording. So we show the structured facts (operator, route, times and type of disruption) and link to the full notice on National Rail Enquiries.
How are the Delay Repay guides checked?
Each guide is based on the operator’s own Delay Repay pages and the National Rail Conditions of Travel. Where sources disagree, for example on whether the 28-day limit starts on the day you travel or when your journey ends, we say so and give the safer reading. The “Last checked” date at the top of a guide is the date its facts were last compared against the sources listed at the bottom. An automated monthly check also looks for changes to the key figures and for broken claim links on the operators’ sites, and flags any it finds for an update.
The operator’s own terms always take precedence for your claim.
How are strike dates added?
The data feeds don’t announce strikes weeks ahead, so the Journey Radar team adds strike dates from announcements by train operators, unions and TfL. Each entry links to its source and the list shows when it was last checked. Past strikes drop off the upcoming list automatically.
Who writes the guides?
Guides are published under the “Journey Radar Team” byline and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on each page. We don’t claim personal experience we don’t have, and we don’t say a page was checked by hand unless it was.
Attribution
Live rail information: Powered by National Rail Enquiries. Live London information: Powered by TfL Open Data. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2016 and Geomni UK Map data © and database rights [2019].
Sources
Checked 25 October 2026.