SEPTA API Bug: Zombie Trains

[dmuth]

I saw this tonight:

https://www.septastats.com/train/9212

At first, it looked like a train was horribly late. But while digging around in the data, something didn't look right, as the train had been in that state for HOURS.

I then looked at the schedule for the Newark Line (http://www.septa.org/schedules/rail/w/WIL_1.html) and saw that the train was scheduled to arrive at Temple University over 12 hours prior!

My next step was to check SEPTA's API, and well... this happened:

$ curl -s http://www3.septa.org/hackathon/TrainView/ |jq .[21]                                                                                                                                                                                                      
{
  "lat": "39.89061",
  "lon": "-75.30364",
  "trainno": "9212",
  "service": "LOCAL",
  "dest": "Temple U",
  "nextstop": "University City",
  "late": 38,
  "SOURCE": "Newark",
  "TRACK": "",
  "TRACK_CHANGE": ""
}

So it looks like we have a "zombie train". For whatever reason a train failed to finish its journey, but still shows up on the API as being in service.

Once I get a contact a at SEPTA, I'll be sure to let them know about this particular failure mode.