NAME

WWW::NationalRail - Perl interface to the UK rail timetable

SYNOPSIS

  use WWW::NationalRail;

  my $rail = WWW::NationalRail->new({
    from        => "London",
    to          => "Cambridge",
    out_date    => "18/12/05",
    out_type    => "depart",
    out_hour    => 9,
    out_minute  => 0,
    ret_date    => "18/12/05",
    ret_type    => "depart",
    ret_hour    => 17,
    ret_minute  => 0,
  });

  $rail->search or die $rail->error();

  my $os = $rail->outward_summary; # array reference
  my $rs = $rail->return_summary;

  $os->[0]{depart}      # "09:06"
  $os->[0]{arrive}      # "10:25"
  $os->[0]{changes}     # "0" 
  $os->[0]{duration}    # "1:19" 

  my $od = $rail->outward_detail;
  my $rd = $rail->return_detail;

  $od->[0]->{duration}; # "1:19"

  my $legs = $od->[0]{legs} # array reference

  $legs->[0]{station}   # "LONDON KINGS CROSS"
  $legs->[0]{arrive}    # undef
  $legs->[0]{depart}    # "09:06"
  $legs->[0]{travelby}  # "Train"
  $legs->[0]{operator}  # "WAGN RAIL"

  $rail->ret_hour(19);  # change search parameters
  $rail->search();      # and search again

DESCRIPTION

WWW::NationalRail is a Perl interface to the UK national rail timetable at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney/

new()

The constructor accepts the arguments for the search as a has reference. The from and to fields are required, the rest are optional and will use a National Rail supplied default.

from

Departure station.

to

Destination station.

via

Via station.

out_date

Outbound date in the format "DD/MM/YY". Defaults to today.

out_type

Possible values are "depart" to search by outbound departure time or "arrive" to search by outbound arrival time. Defaults to "depart".

out_hour

Outbound hour, 0 to 23. Defaults to sometime in the near future.

out_minute

Outbound minute, 0 to 59. Defaults to sometime in the near future.

ret_date

Return date in the format "DD/MM/YY". Leave blank for one-way.

ret_type

Similar to out_type. Either "depart or "arrive". Defaults to "depart".

ret_hour

Return hour, 0 to 23. Leave blank for one-way.

ret_minute

Return minute, 0 to 59. Leave blank for one-way.

search()

Object method to run the search and parse the results.

outbound_summary() and return_summary()

Each returns a reference to an array of hashes. For journeys in one direction return_summary() will be undef. The hash representing a summary has four fields:

depart

Time of departure.

arrive

Time of arrival.

changes

Number of changes.

duration

Duration of the journey.

outbound_details() and return_details()

Each returns a reference to an array of hashes. For journeys in one direction return_details() will be undef. The hash representing a journey has four two fields:

legs

Reference to an array of hashes.

duration

Duration of the journey.

The legs hash has four five fields:

station

Name of the station.

arrive

Time of arrival at this station, undef for the first leg.

depart

Time of departure from this station, undef for the last leg.

travelby

Means of transport, will usually be train, but could also be foot, coach, or tube.

operator

The train operating company.

AUTHOR

Edward Betts, <edward@debian.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2005 by Edward Betts

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.4 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.