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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Rhein Neckar (cont'd)

M. Soltau has followed on his previous contribution and has added the Mannheim bus lines as well as a few places of interest to the Rhein-Neckar database.

Copenhagen

C. Hindsgaul sent me a major update for the Copenhagen (Denmark) file.

He also improved the trip time estimations accuracy, by detailing the times on the S-Train lines to the minute.

Frankfurt

An error has been noticed in the Frankfurt (Germany) file. However it looks like the services have changed a lot since our last major update (about 18 monthes ago). If anyone wants to gather and send the data... you're welcome!

Wien (Vienna)

Some tram services have changed in Wien (Austria) on December 27th, with a new line added (sent by A. Nader).

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Paris (bus)

A new bus line seems to be operating in Paris: "la Traverse de Charonne". I still have very little details about it (except for its route) but I hope I'll get more information for the next release. Thanks to M. Cribier for his mail about the line existence!

Monday, December 27, 2004

London

C. Johnson notified me of a bug on the CSE Gillingham line in London: some comments on the Greenwich stop prevented any connection with the DLR...

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Hong Kong

Under some pressure from a few users, I have tried to solve a problem in the Hong Kong data (and it has been here since the beginning): the connections are now suggested at the most practical station (according to the MTR). More than ever you can trust MetrO to give you the fastest route from one point to another ;-)

Did I wish you a Merry Christmas?

Rhein-Neckar

Thanks to a contribution from M. Soltau, I have enhanced the Rhein-Neckar network (covering Mannheim, Ludwigshafen & Heidelberg in Germany). The database now contains the S-Bahn lines and the bus network for Ludwigshafen in addition to the trams that were previously included. I also added line icons and colors and operating times.

By the way, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Paris Grande Nuit

A special subway service will run on New Year's Eve night in Paris and I have built a MetrO database for the occasion, that you can download here.

It was also a chance to find a few errors in the existing Night Bus file (typos, mostly), which will be corrected in the next version.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Shenzhen

A new subway will start operation before the end of this month in Shenzhen (China, near Hong Kong). J. Leung sent the data in "english" and chinese (both traditional and simplified).

Now we just have to see how we can integrate the existing bus file (big5 chinese version only) with this new system (and the bus service appears to have changed as well).

Santiago

M. Toledo sent me a notice that one of the subway lines in Santiago (Chile) has been extended, with service starting tomorrow. Since the file was stripped of accents, I also corrected that shortcoming.

Monday, December 20, 2004

Köln (Cologne)

The S-Bahn system in Köln have slightly changed, including a new line going to the Köln-Bonn Airport and one of the Regionalbahn ("regional railway") lines has been added. All sent by J. Steinbrecher.

Hong Kong

The changes on the the KCR network are now ready in both the "english" and chinese (big5) versions (along with operation times).

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Denver

F. Yang notified me of wrong directions in the Denver database: on both Light Rail lines, the northbound /southbound indications are inverted... Sorry for the mistake!

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Subway extensions

Not happening as often as bus networks changes, three subway sytems are extended this month: one new line in Delhi and some line extensions in Milano (Passante) and Washington, DC (Blue line).

Friday, December 17, 2004

New York

The Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA) re-opens in Manhattan (and the Queens facilities are now closed).

Hong Kong

A new KCR line opens in Hong Kong on December 21st and the light rail service has also changed. Thanks to E. Hui for the notice!

It was a good opportunity to add operating times on the network (especially for the ferry lines).

Grenoble (last change?)

A small error remained on the Voiron-Crolles express line (a stop missing) because of contradictory information on the company web site... It will be corrected in the next version.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Paris

A new "transilien" line is operating since last week-end (I was focused on so many cities in Europe and I missed this one at home!). Two different users have already sent me the information (L. Freund & Marco ?) and it's ready to deliver.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Version 5.2.7 is out

The new version is now released and we'll start working on the next one right away.

I have already received some changes on the Hong Kong KCR lines (from E. Hui)...

Munich

Although many users have warned us that the network in München (Munich) has been completely redesigned, none has yet sent us the required data to update our database (reminder: the "instructions" for contributing are in the user guide).

Finally, P. Ehrensperger has started to work on the changes but it will not be ready for the December release. If you're willing to help him, I'm sure he won't refuse: drop me a mail and I'll notify him.

Arnhem

Following on the dutch cities, the database for Arnhem has been updated.

Monday, December 13, 2004

I'm late...

In order to update the maximum of networks where changes have occured this week-end, I prefer to postpone the new release by 1 or 2 days.

Amsterdam, Den Haag (The Hague) and Rotterdam are completed, thanks to K. De Bondt.

The most important changes in Berlin (on the subway lines U1 & U3) are done, with help from O.C. Spauka, but the new Metro Konzept, which has been provided by M. Ciesielski, will wait until next month.

Last changes before release

The recent updates on Bremen, Genève & Grenoble are fine-tuned before the version 5.2.7 is released (tonight or tomorrow, if all goes well).

I hope I will also be able to include the winter changes on other networks for which new data has been provided: Berlin and some cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam).

Friday, December 10, 2004

Out of office

In a few minutes, I'll be leaving for a 3-days workshop (for my job). It's likely I won't be able to connect too much on the Internet so don't worry if there are no news here during the week-end or if I don't reply immediately to your mails.

Have a nice week-end!

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Switzerland

Because of a mail from R. Pache, I could say I spent some time in Szitzerland today (they're changing their schedules on 12/12 there too).

Bern: the new Wankdorf-Bahnhof stop induced some changes on various lines. While I was on it, I checked the operating times and trip times (and changed almost everything) and added line colors.

Lausanne (that was the most complex): the new line 18 replaces the old 37 and minor changes have occured on lines 32 & 33. And since the database was quite old, I took the time to add line icons and colors and revise the trip times (which were quite understimated). The operating times are not (yet?) implemented.

Neuchâtel: the major change is the disappearance of line 1B. I checked and corrected the operating times and trip times for this file too.

Linz

In Linz (Austria) too there are winter changes, although not very extensive, compared to other cities. M. Faux sent the updates and they are in the box.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Grenoble (3)

Yes, we'll get there... A few more changes on the Grenoble database: I (with the help of L. Martin-Borret, as before) added the Express Campus line and the P+R ("Parking + Relais" or Park & Ride, in english) in the places of interest. I think it is still not the end of the story, though!

Paris (bus)

Willy reported an error here (please do not follow his example and send a mail for that purpose): the "Stalingrad" stop on line 76 (located in Bagnolet) is not the same as the stop with the same name on line 48 (located in Paris), generating an imaginary connection and wrong routes. This stop has been renamed "Stalingrad (Bagnolet)".

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Nuremberg

The last one for today will be Nürnberg (Germany), where the U1 line has been extended, construction works disrupt service on Tram 8 and a few other changes are planned on December 12th (again!)

Houston, TX

J.P. Lebarzic sent me one bus line to add to the Houston database, as a trial. Given the incredible complexity of what I have seen, I am not very optimistic about the chances of building a complete bus network file for this city. But let's wait and see...

Grenoble (continued)

Following on yesterday's update, I have added the new line 90 (with information from the same provider ;-) A few shuttle buses are still missing as well as some changes on the VFD lines, but this will come soon, hopefully.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Grenoble

A number of changes, recent and not so recent, were required on the Grenoble database. Some were done today (particularly on lines 3 & 34), with help from L. Martin-Borret, but there is still work to do... It was also an opportunity to improve the operating times and estimated trip times on this database...

Paris

I noticed quite by chance, that one line in the Paris (rail) database was in the wrong group (SNCF). All the "SNCF Transilien" lines will now appear in that group.

A more substantial change has also been made: I slightly increased the "wait time" on all the suburban lines so that the program will tend to prefer the subway instead of the railway on more routes. This will accurately reflect the fact that the suburban trains (being less frequent) induce a longer average trip time.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Genève

Genève (Switzerland) is one of those cities where they decided to change their network on December 12th... Apparently they also started a new web site as well (unireso). Well, R. Pache has sent me a detailed report of the changes and (if I did nothing wrong) this one will also be on time for the opening day :-)

Bremen

With the recent changes on the Bremen system, the MetrO database had suffered... Fortunately, with the help of C. Immler (from PDAssi, incidentally), it should now be much better. We have even introduced actual operating times for all the lines.

MetrO documentation

I have noticed lately that more and more users never even bother to open the software documentation. As a consequence, I tend to receive more and more mails with basic questions whose answers are in the user guides and this is getting on my nerves.

Since it appears some of them have trouble opening the documentation files provided in the MetrO package (mostly because they try to read the guide without unzipping first), I have decided to streamline things a bit.

From the next version, a single README.html file will give simple access to local or online documentation. Let's hope I will have a little more time to spend on development!

Saturday, December 04, 2004

MetrO web site

Since yesterday, I have spent (too much) time reorganizing some parts of the web site: you will now find a separate "Success" page where we shamelessly display the awards the software has received, excerpts of the best reviews and comments about MetrO and the partnerships we have with some "big" companies.

Incidentally this will lessen the clutter on the home page...

Friday, December 03, 2004

Kyoto

On November 26th, two new stations have opened on the Tozai line: Ishida and Rokujizo. The MetrO databases (Kyoto.pdb for the inner-city subway and bus system and Kyoto-Osaka.pdb for the area covering Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Nara) have been updated accordingly.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Tokyo... again!

This time it was only two little errors (reported by J. Gluch): wrong spelling for Musashi-Fujisawa on the Seibu Ikebukuro line and a missing connection between Asakadai (Tobu Tojo line) and Kita-Asaka (JR Musashino line).

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Problem in Tokyo

Ah, if all transport systems could be just as simple as the single line in Naha (beautiful place, by the way)!

Take the Ooedo line in Tokyo for example: it goes in some kind of an open loop from Tocho-mae to Tocho-mae and from there ends its route at Hikarigaoka. As for any "standard" line, MetrO gives the direction to take as "Tocho-mae" or "Hikarigaoka" (the end stops).

But this was too easy: the fact is that the directions displayed on the platforms are not always one of the the end stops, but are instead the closest of one of a few major stations along the line. This means that near the end of the "loop", the direction is Tocho-mae, but in the direction opposite to Tocho-mae (the one at the end of the line)!

You're lost at these explanations? So was I, until G. Montgomery took the pain to explain in long details. Now I understand the problem and I can see that the program "apparently" gives wrong directions. I'm still looking for a way to solve this problem but, in the meantime, be careful when MetrO tells you to "Take the Ooedo line, direction Tocho-mae": it just means the end of the line and not necessarily what you can see on the signs.

To be continued...