A panel applet for the Cinnamon desktop. It shows the next train connections between two German railway stations, together with the delay, the platform and the number of transfers. You can change the direction with one click, and the list always starts at the current time.
The panel shows the next departure from your start station. The text starts
with ab, and the station name that follows is the station where you get on
the train. A delay of one minute or more appears after the time. Small delays
are amber, and delays above your threshold are red. A cancelled train gets a
warning sign.
A middle-click on the applet removes the text and leaves a train icon. A second middle-click brings the text back. The applet keeps your choice, also after a restart. The compact form is 28 pixels wide instead of 143, and it still tells you when a train is late: the icon takes the colour that the text would have. Point at the icon to read the full departure in the tooltip.
The menu shows the next connections in a table. Each row gives the scheduled departure, the real departure, the line, the scheduled arrival and the real arrival. A real time appears only when the train is late, and it is red. The column header names the station above both of its times, so you cannot confuse a departure with an arrival. The second line of each row gives the platform, the travel time, the number of transfers, and the time until departure.
The list is not tied to a fixed hour. Trains that have left drop out of the list every 20 seconds, without a new request to the servers.
The applet uses two independent services, and each one does what it is best at.
Transitous plans the journey. It finds the connections between the two stations, and it handles transfers. Transitous runs the MOTIS routing engine on open GTFS and GTFS-RT feeds. For Germany these feeds come from DELFI.
db-infoscreen supplies the departure data at your start station. It reads IRIS, which is the internal system of Deutsche Bahn. The delays there are more accurate and arrive earlier than the delays in the open feeds. The platform numbers are the numbers that you see at the station.
An arrival cannot be punctual when the departure is late and the journey is
too short to recover the delay. The departure delay comes from IRIS, and the
arrival prognosis comes from MOTIS, so the two can disagree. The applet
replaces the arrival only when the recovery is impossible, and it marks such a
value with the prefix ≈.
The applet keeps the platform number from db-infoscreen only. MOTIS gives
internal DELFI codes at some stations, for example 77 at Leverkusen Opladen.
No platform sign at that station shows this number. An empty platform column is
better than a wrong one.
If db-infoscreen does not answer, the applet continues with the Transitous data. You then see the connections without a platform, and with the delay from the open feed.
- Cinnamon 6.0 or later. The applet is tested on Cinnamon 6.6 (Linux Mint 22.3)
- Python 3.9 or later, for the
zoneinfomodule - An internet connection
The applet needs no API key and no account.
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/well0nez/cinnamon-commute.git
-
Link the applet directory into the Cinnamon applet path:
ln -s "$PWD/cinnamon-commute/commute@well0nez" ~/.local/share/cinnamon/applets/
-
Add the applet to a panel. Right-click the panel, select Applets, then find Commute in the list and add it.
A link keeps the applet and the repository in one place, and git pull updates
the installation. If you prefer a copy, copy the commute@well0nez directory
instead of the link.
Right-click the applet and select Configure.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bahnhof A / Bahnhof B | The two stations. Write the name as it appears in the timetable, for example Köln Hbf or Solingen-Ohligs. |
| Verbindungen im Menü | How many connections the menu shows. |
| Nur Symbol statt Text | The compact form. A middle-click on the applet does the same. |
| Panel-Text | The format of the panel text. Every format starts with ab, because the time is always a departure. |
| Verspätung ab dieser Höhe rot | The threshold in minutes for the red colour. Below it a delay is amber. |
| Abfrageintervall | The time between two requests. The lowest value is 60 seconds. |
The menu entry Richtung wechseln swaps the two stations. The applet keeps the direction until you change it again.
The applet answers three mouse buttons. The left button opens the menu, the middle button changes between the text and the icon, and the right button opens the Cinnamon context menu.
The station name goes to the geocoder once. The applet then keeps the result, and later requests use the stored identifier.
Both services are free, and volunteers operate them. db-infoscreen states its limits directly:
Bitte maximal 10 Anfragen pro Minute und insbesondere nur eine Anfrage pro Station und Minute.
The applet holds these limits, and it does so in three ways. The lowest interval in the settings is 60 seconds. A cache per station blocks a second request to the same station inside 60 seconds, even when you switch the direction quickly. The search for the correct station name stops at the first board that knows one of your trains.
Keep the default interval. A shorter interval gives you no new data, because the backend data has no better resolution.
If you need many requests, host your own db-infoscreen instance. The AGPL licence permits this, and the project documents the procedure.
The IRIS departure board covers about two hours. A connection that departs later shows no platform, and its delay comes from the open feed.
IRIS keeps two separate boards for some stations. Leverkusen Opladen is one
example: the board Opladen holds the RB48 and the RE7, and the board
Leverkusen Opladen holds the RE1, the RE5 and the S6. The applet compares
train numbers to find the correct board, and it stores the result.
The applet reads Deutsche Bahn data through IRIS. Deutsche Bahn does not license this interface for public use, but it tolerates db-infoscreen, which has operated since 2011. This is a risk that you accept when you use the applet.
The applet builds on these projects and data sources.
| Project | What it gives | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Transitous | The public routing service at api.transitous.org |
Code CC0-1.0 |
| MOTIS | The routing engine behind Transitous | MIT |
| db-infoscreen (Codeberg) | The departure boards from IRIS, through the version=3 JSON API |
AGPL-3.0 |
| Travel::Status::DE::IRIS | The IRIS client that db-infoscreen uses | AGPL-3.0 |
| DELFI via mobilithek.info | The German GTFS and GTFS-RT feeds | CC-BY-4.0 and CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
| Cinnamon | The desktop and its applet interface | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Two more projects belong in this list, although the applet does not use them.
db-vendo-client and
db-rest speak to the current Deutsche
Bahn APIs. The hosted instance at v6.db.transport.rest answered with HTTP 503
during development, and the project itself warns about irregular blocks.
db-hafas is the older client;
Deutsche Bahn shut the HAFAS interface down.
Please give attribution to DELFI and to db-infoscreen if you show this data in your own work. The CC-BY licence requires it.
This is an unofficial project. It has no connection to Deutsche Bahn AG, to DELFI e.V., or to any transport operator. The names and the marks belong to their owners.
GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.