Find current location of running trains in India – Live train tracking Free

Indian Railways, one of the largest railway networks in the world allows users to track current location of any train in India with a special service called Rail Radar. This tracking service is live and almost real-time and is integrated with Google maps for a nice visual experience.

RailRadar is a live tracker of Indian Railways passenger trains traffic in real time. This live tracker is shown on an interactive map and allows users to watch the movements of trains which are currently running in entire India.

Just visit http://railradar.trainenquiry.com/, and enter the train number, and you are good to go. The service displays various information like the train’s route, whether the train is on-time or delay, the direction of the train, number of trains active, next halt/station and more.

The service is also available without Google maps integration at http://enquiry.indianrail.gov.in/ntes/, and here the data is represented with a table with all stations listed and other detailed data like Expected time of arrival, Expected time of departure, Actual time of arrival, Actual time of departure, delay, distance etc.

This information is definitely a plus to the commuters. Users can use this information for scheduling a trip, choosing a train, understanding time delays and more.

Although the tracking data is termed “Live”, there actually exists a time delay. The data in the map are not updated in real-time. This is due to the complexity that exists between getting the actual position of the train and processing enormous data and updating it. RailRadar doesn’t deploy any GPS, but relies on the data that comes from the station. Moreover RailRadar claims that this delay is for security and regulatory reasons and also is due to the processing time. The information published on RailRadar will always be 5 or more minutes delayed.

This data is more than you need

Does, this delay have a serious effect in tracking real-time data? probably, the answer is “No”. Although there is 5 or more minutes of delay, that doesn’t matter much because you don’t come across important stations within five minutes. So, this data can be taken as almost real-time. And its a nice thing to watch current location of trains.

If you figure out other useful ways to use this data, kindly let us know in the comments below.

Update: Indian Railways has updated the tracking system and discontinued Google Maps Integration. Now you can see the train’s location only in a table