Trainbot: Sydney Transport Info by Instant Messenger

This is the home page for a tool I call trainbot. It is a chat-bot that lives on various instant messaging networks, which knows about public transport in Sydney, Australia. You can ask it simple questions about when your train is leaving, and it will answer very quickly.

Disclaimer: This site is in no way affiliated with CityRail, Sydney Ferries, or any official transport information service. The information provided by this service may be inaccurate, especially during trackwork or altered running times. Use at your own risk.

Trainbot is designed to be simple and fast. It is not a full trip-planner: it cannot plan your trip across multiple trains or multiple forms of transport. What it can do is answer the most common questions for would-be commuters: when's the next train?

Using Trainbot

Check the active networks below to find out how to contact Trainbot. You may need to get an account with an IM service. Doing this is pretty painless these days, all you need is an email address. Then, add Trainbot's handle (eg. "sydneytrains") to your contact list ("buddy list"). You can start a conversation with Trainbot as you would any other friend on your IM service.

You can type "help" for basic online help.

Trainbot understands only very simple queries. A query is made up of several fragments, which you can put in pretty much any order. These are:

from station
to station
on monday
arrive/depart before/after 10:23

At the very least, you will need to say which stop you're going from, eg. "from hornsby".

Stops are matched from their starting letters, so often you don't have to type the whole thing. You can run the words together too, so "Town Hall" can become "townhall" or just "town".

Here are some examples:

from hornsby
from hornsby to wynyard leave after 3pm on Saturday
to bondi from townhall arrive before 0900
from town to parra arrive after 10am
on sat from redf to circ after 6pm
from central to wollongong

If Trainbot can find a match for your source and optional destination, it will give you a list of the best trains.

There are a few things to remember when using Trainbot:

Always have a station you're coming from.
Trainbot only knows direct routes.
Currently, there is no information about trackwork!

Active Networks

Currently, Trainbot can be found on the following IM networks:

AIM (AOL Instant Messager): sydneytrains (train info)
AIM (AOL Instant Messager): sydneyferries (ferry info)
MSN Messenger: sydney_trains at caseyporn dot com (trains)
MSN Messenger: sydneyferries at caseyporn dot com (ferries)

Known Issues

There seems to be some issues with the Clyde/Carlingford line.
Ferries are not online yet.

Support and Contact

If you are interested in Trainbot, are having troubles using it, or would like to suggest changes or fixes, I can be reached at casey at caseyporn dot com.