Train Positions

Real-time train positions and support methods.

Live Train Positions

Description

Returns uniquely identifiable trains in service and what track circuits they currently occupy. Will return an empty set of results when no positions are available.

Data is refreshed once every 7-10 seconds.

Please refer to this page for additional details.

Response Elements

Element Description
TrainPositions Array containing train position information (TrainPosition).
TrainPosition Elements
CarCount Number of cars. Can sometimes be 0 when there is no data available.
CircuitId The circuit identifier the train is currently on. This identifier can be referenced from the Standard Routes method.
DestinationStationCode Destination station code. Can be NULL. Use this value in other rail-related APIs to retrieve data about a station. Note that this value may sometimes differ from the destination station code returned by our Next Trains methods.
DirectionNum The direction of movement regardless of which track the train is on. Valid values are 1 or 2. Generally speaking, trains with direction 1 are northbound/eastbound, while trains with direction 2 are southbound/westbound.
LineCode Two-letter abbreviation for the line (e.g.: RD, BL, YL, OR, GR, or SV). May also be NULL in certain cases.
SecondsAtLocation Approximate "dwell time". This is not an exact value, but can be used to determine how long a train has been reported at the same track circuit.
ServiceType Service Type of a train, can be any of the following Service Types
TrainId Uniquely identifiable internal train identifier.
TrainNumber Non-unique train identifier, often used by WMATA's Rail Scheduling and Operations Teams, as well as over open radio communication.
Service Types
NoPassengers This is a non-revenue train with no passengers on board. Note that this designation of NoPassengers does not necessarily correlate with PIDS "No Passengers". As of 08/22/2016, this functionality has been reinstated to include all non-revenue vehicles, with minor exceptions.
Normal This is a normal revenue service train.
Special This is a special revenue service train with an unspecified line and destination. This is more prevalent during scheduled track work.
Unknown This often denotes cases with unknown data or work vehicles.

Try it

Request URL

Request parameters

string

Returns response in the specified format. Currently supported formats include json and xml.

Request headers

string
Subscription key which provides access to this API. Found in your Profile.

Request body

Response 200

Default return code.

{
   "TrainPositions":[
      {
         "TrainId": "100",
         "TrainNumber": "301",
         "CarCount": 6,
         "DirectionNum": 1,
         "CircuitId": 1234,
         "DestinationStationCode": "A01",
         "LineCode": "RD",
         "SecondsAtLocation": 0,
         "ServiceType": "Normal"    
      },
      {
         "TrainId": "200",
         "TrainNumber": "XY1",
         "CarCount": 6,
         "DirectionNum": 2,
         "CircuitId": 4321,
         "DestinationStationCode": null,
         "LineCode": null,
         "SecondsAtLocation": 25
         "ServiceType": "Special"
      }
   ]
}
<TrainPositionResp xmlns="http://www.wmata.com" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<TrainPositions>
    <TrainPosition>
        <CarCount>6</CarCount>
        <CircuitId>1234</CircuitId>
        <DestinationStationCode>A01</DestinationStationCode>
        <DirectionNum>1</DirectionNum>
        <LineCode>RD</LineCode>
        <SecondsAtLocation>0</SecondsAtLocation>
        <ServiceType>Normal</ServiceType>
        <TrainId>100</TrainId>
        <TrainNumber>301</TrainNumber>
    </TrainPosition>
    <TrainPosition>
        <CarCount>6</CarCount>
        <CircuitId>4321</CircuitId>
        <DestinationStationCode i:nil="true"/>
        <DirectionNum>1</DirectionNum>
        <LineCode i:nil="true"/>
        <SecondsAtLocation>25</SecondsAtLocation>
        <ServiceType>Special</ServiceType>
        <TrainId>200</TrainId>
        <TrainNumber>XY1</TrainNumber>
    </TrainPosition>
</TrainPositions>
</TrainPositionResp>

Code samples

@ECHO OFF

curl -v -X GET "https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}"
-H "api_key: {subscription key}"

--data-ascii "{body}" 

using System;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web;

namespace CSHttpClientSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            MakeRequest();
            Console.WriteLine("Hit ENTER to exit...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
        
        static async void MakeRequest()
        {
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);

            // Request headers
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("api_key", "{subscription key}");

            var uri = "https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}&" + queryString;

            var response = await client.GetAsync(uri);
        }
    }
}	
// // This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public class JavaSample 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        HttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();

        try
        {
            URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder("https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}");


            URI uri = builder.build();
            HttpGet request = new HttpGet(uri);
            request.setHeader("api_key", "{subscription key}");


            // Request body
            StringEntity reqEntity = new StringEntity("{body}");
            request.setEntity(reqEntity);

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(request);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            if (entity != null) 
            {
                System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>JSSample</title>
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function() {
        var params = {
            "api_key": "{subscription key}",
            // Request parameters
        };
      
        $.ajax({
            url: "https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}&" + $.param(params),
            type: "GET",
        })
        .done(function(data) {
            alert("success");
        })
        .fail(function() {
            alert("error");
        });
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    
    NSString* path = @"https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}";
    NSArray* array = @[
                         // Request parameters
                         @"entities=true",
                      ];
    
    NSString* string = [array componentsJoinedByString:@"&"];
    path = [path stringByAppendingFormat:@"?%@", string];

    NSLog(@"%@", path);

    NSMutableURLRequest* _request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:path]];
    [_request setHTTPMethod:@"GET"];
    // Request headers
    [_request setValue:@"{subscription key}" forHTTPHeaderField:@"api_key"];
    // Request body
    [_request setHTTPBody:[@"{body}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    
    NSURLResponse *response = nil;
    NSError *error = nil;
    NSData* _connectionData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:_request returningResponse:&response error:&error];

    if (nil != error)
    {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    }
    else
    {
        NSError* error = nil;
        NSMutableDictionary* json = nil;
        NSString* dataString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:_connectionData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"%@", dataString);
        
        if (nil != _connectionData)
        {
            json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:_connectionData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
        }
        
        if (error || !json)
        {
            NSLog(@"Could not parse loaded json with error:%@", error);
        }
        
        NSLog(@"%@", json);
        _connectionData = nil;
    }
    
    [pool drain];

    return 0;
}

<?php
// This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
require_once 'HTTP/Request2.php';

$request = new Http_Request2('https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}');
$url = $request->getUrl();

$headers = array(
    // Request headers
    'api_key' => '{subscription key}',
);

$request->setHeader($headers);

$parameters = array(
    // Request parameters
);

$url->setQueryVariables($parameters);

$request->setMethod(HTTP_Request2::METHOD_GET);

// Request body
$request->setBody("{body}");

try
{
    $response = $request->send();
    echo $response->getBody();
}
catch (HttpException $ex)
{
    echo $ex;
}

?>
########### Python 2.7 #############
import httplib, urllib, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'api_key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('api.wmata.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}&%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################

########### Python 3.2 #############
import http.client, urllib.request, urllib.parse, urllib.error, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'api_key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection('api.wmata.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}&%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.wmata.com/TrainPositions/TrainPositions?contentType={contentType}')

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
# Request headers
request['api_key'] = '{subscription key}'
# Request body
request.body = "{body}"

response = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, :use_ssl => uri.scheme == 'https') do |http|
    http.request(request)
end

puts response.body