eightolives' Trains Quick Hints

Trains is tested using Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers.

When you first start Trains, it may take a minute for data to display. You may be prompted to acknowledge cookies and to permit the use of your geolocation (recommended). You may also see a "sound" button in the upper right. Clicking the "sound" button will enable Sound Mode. You can always enable or disable Sound Mode from the tri-bar (hamburger) menu.

The word "Update" may appear in light red near the upper left. This indicates a software or schedule update is available on next download. Clicking "Update" will reload immediately.

All actions only use left mouse clicks or touches. Most things on the display are clickable. (Only the time display is not.)

The tri-bar (hamburger) button in the upper left gives you various menu options.

Clicking the "eightolives.com" at the top displays the Help menu. The language selector is in the Help menu.

Use the "Find Connections" button at the top to display the Find Connections menu. Use it to find travel itineraries from point A to point B.

The display shows the time, the station or stop selected, and real time predicted or schedule data as selected by the radio buttons in the "Timetable" menu. The time represents the time at the selected station. If the time zone differs from your settings, the time is displayed in light red and the name of the time zone is shown.

The Show / Hide Alerts button toggles the display of any weather or travel alerts.

Clicking the station name gives you a popup menu or returns to the default "Timetable" display list. Clicking a station name with an asterisk shows multiple platforms or nearby stops which are within walking distance at that station.

Predicted or schedule data is a list of all trips arriving/departing from the stop. Times in blue are real-time predictions. Times in black are published schedule times. Times in purple are dynamic estimates. Times in orange have been adjusted by you.

Clicking a trip lists all the stops for that trip or Trip View. Clicking a trip's stop changes the selected station to that stop.

Clicking the refresh icon next to the title "Timetable" will refresh the Timetable data.

Clicking the question icon (?) next to the title "Timetable" will display What's Nearby, a list of stops within walking distance.

Clicking the left arrow icon next to the title "Timetable" will display the last results set of Find Connections.

Clicking the title for the Trip View shows a popup menu. You can refresh the Trip View data or plot the trip on a map. Vehicle positions may be displayed if data is available.

Most data is retrieved from the internet. This requires you to be on-line and the data servers to be available. If you are offline, you can access schedules you saved, built-in train schedules and estimate data for subway schedules. You must be on-line to access most bus data, certain train lines or detailed maps. Downloaded data is usually cached.

"Here" tries to locate the nearest station or stop. "Here" normally requires your browser's Location Services to be enabled. You may be asked to allow Trains to use your geolocation data when you first start Trains.

You can Select a Stop From a List either by clicking the current stop name in the display or using the tri-bar menu options. Rail and Subway stops can be selected from the list.

You can also Search for a Stop. Enter part of a street, stop or station name, select type of stop (Train, Subway, MBTA Bus or All), then Search. A list of possible matches are shown for your final selection. Partial names might be "mall" to find all mall stops or "york" to find New York. Search for a Stop can be used to find bus, subway or rail stops. Bus stops can also be selected from the Maps.

"Home" is a shortcut to a stop you can select and save. Once you have selected a stop, use the Ops menu to save it as your "Home".

List entries with a green background are future scheduled events. List entries with a red background are within 5 minutes of arrival/departure or now boarding. List enties with a grey background are completed. List entries with a purple background occur on an upcoming day. List entries with an orange background have a delay indicated. Check alerts for details on the delay. (If there is no alert and the delay seems large, it could be a software bug. Plot the trip to see where the vehicle actually is.)

The top Map button or the tri-bar menu item "View Map" displays a map in a popup window. Clicking on the map gets a list of nearby stops. The nearest train or subway is listed first. Other nearby stops are listed by distance. Choosing Select centers the stop on the map and sets it as the location in the main window. The simple EO Map is useable when offline.

The top Bus button or tri-bar menu item Find Bus Number gets a schedule list for MBTA, NJ, Chicago, Rhode Island, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City bus routes. Clicking one of the routes loads bus data and displays the schedule by stops for that trip.

Since bus stops and bus stop names may be unfamiliar, you can open a map, point to a spot, see the location of the nearby stops and select one. Clicking "Plot Bus" highlights the approximate route of a bus.

If occupancy data is available, a trip will have an image of one, two or three people. One person indicates many seats available. Two people indicates few seats available. Three people inicates full.

You can save and retrieve schedules using the tri-bar menu's File submenu. Saving schedules lets you use the tool with minimum functionality when you are offline, not connected to the internet, or when key servers are down. You can use Local Memory (the browser's cache memory) or your platform's file system if your mobile device supports it. It is best to save schedule data rather than predicted data. File suffix is ".sk0" for schedule at a stop and ".sk1" for schedule of a trip.

Real-time data when online is available for MBTA trains, subways and buses, Metro North Rail, Long Island Railroad, MTA subways, Metra rail, CTA L trains and buses, LA Metro trains and buses, Caltrain, BART, and SF Muni trains and buses. Schedule data is available for NJ Transit trains and buses, Shore Line East, CT Rail VIA and AMTRAK. Schedule data is also available for certain bus lines and ferries.

The Find Connections feature supports most rail and subway and many bus stops at this time. You specify the From and To locations, the earliest start time and the day within the upcoming week. The tool will use schedule data to determine possible itineraries for that trip. Selecting an itinerary displays the details of the trip. Clicking the title Connection Details pops up a menu which lets you redisplay the itineraries list, stick plot the route on a map or save or print the itinerary. You can retrieve the itinerary list from the Find Connections' menu "Show Last" option. The left arrow icon above the table lets you go back to the Connections Details, the Connections Itinerary list or the Strategies list.

If Find Connections fails to find any itineraries, it will display a "Strategies" list indicating the strategies it was considering. The left arrow icon above the table toggles between the Connections Itinerary list and Strategies list. Strategies may fail if schedule data is unavailable for one of the legs or if it's too late to start the journey.

Distances shown in various places are "as the crow flies" estimates.

A map can be displayed either from the Map button, the tri-bar menu, clicking the selected station for its popup menu or by plotting a trip or connections list. When plotting a trip, the position of vehicles on that route may be displayed if the data is available. Green vehicle icons represent vehicles on a route. A red vehicle icon represents your selected trip's vehicle. A purple vehicle icon represents one you have "Marked" via the vehicle's popup menu.

The default online map is Open Street Map. When offline, eightolives' EO Maps, a simple graphic which is used to display routes and vehicles or select stops. Use the + / - zoom buttons and the arrow "move" buttons.

The menu bar above a map includes a compass which can help you orient the map to the street layout. Clicking the compass toggles it on/off.(Caution: the compass may not be accurate or functional on all platforms.)

For quick recall or offline access, you can easily save data for 2 favorite ("Fav") stops, trips and itineraries. The tribar menu lets you select those items for viewing or save your favorite stops. Clicking the trip title in the Trip View gives you a popup menu with options to save your favorite trips. Clicking the title "Connections Details" when viewing an itinerary from a Find Connections search gives you a popup menu with options to save your itinerary. Data is saved in Local Memory.

Boston's Green Line is "unscheduled" even though schedule data exists. Predictions and map plots of trips provide the most accurate data. Best display of Green Line data is still evolving.

Real time data for a trip may not be available until after the trip actually starts.

What's Nearby selected from the Tri-bar menu or the Question Mark icon to the left of "Timetable" lists nearby stops, routes served and any upcoming activity for that stop. This is useful when there are several stops nearby that may service different routes at different times. Also useful when you are unfamilar of what stops are nearby. Useful when stops are on both sides of a street.

Stop times are in the timezone of the stop. If a selected stop is in a timezone different from the one you are in, the time is displayed in light red with the timezone name displayed.

If geolocation (Here, Lat, Long) doesn't seem to work in Firefox, check the Firefox about:config setting for "geo.wifi.url". Change its value from "https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=%GOOGLE_API_KEY%" to "https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/geolocate?key=%MOZILLA_API_KEY%"

If SeviceWorkers don't load in Firefox reporting "operation is insecure", make sure Preferences > Privacy and Security > History has Keep until "they expire" set and Clear history when Firefox closes unchecked.

Software and schedule data are frequently updated on the server. Software on your platform may be updated when you start the app and you are on-line. You can always force a complete update by clearing cache, cookie and offline web site data using your browser menu controls.

Browsers which support the Web Speech API and have voices available will display a sound "Stat / Yes" button in the upper right for a limited time upon loading. Pressing the "Stat / Yes" button will enable sound and display four other floating buttons. Sound can be enabled or disabled at any time using the tri-bar menu and then checking "Enable Audio". The "Stat / Yes" button is then used to announce the time and current selected stop. During any list announcement, pressing the "Stat / Yes" button selects the current list item for action. Use the "List / No" button (upper left) to step through a list or announce upcoming events from the current display. Use the Menu/Edit button to step back in a list, The "Quiet / Reset" button (lower left) terminates an announcement and "resets" the audio button state machine. The "Menu / Edit" button allows the announciation of the main menu items list. It is also used to navigate back in a list or to edit the search command.

Audio Mode also has a "Search By Sketch" option in which you can draw the block letters of your stop search phrase one letter at a time. Only straight horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines are recognized. The letter "O" has 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines, but other guesses are A, P, and D. Guesses of the letter are announced and you can accept a guess using the Yes button, click the No button if you want to hear each of the other guesses or just continue drawing your character.

Note: Audio Mode is not compatible with Voice Over. Tell Siri "Turn off Voice Over".

Eightolives Trains supports seven languages - English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. The language selector is located on the Help menu which you can access by clicking "eightolives Trains" or globe icon at the top of the page or from the Tri-bar menu. Language affects menus and audio mode functions. Stops are only provided in their English names. Not all platforms may support all languages.

Monitor Mode can be enabled for any selected trip. One minute updates on vehicle status are displayed on the map or in the report window or announced if sound is enabled.

Speech recognition is experimental and subject to changes. (It doesn't seem to be useful.) If Preference "Use Recog Std" is checked and you are online, Chrome browsers will send speech data to Google for processing and Safari will send speech data to Apple for processing. Otherwise, if offline or "Use Recog Std" is unchecked (or you are using Firefox), all processing is done on your platform. See separate note on the topic.