departureboard.io API

Name: departureboard.io API
Brand: departureboard.io API
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMaps GeolocationPlaces Searchnone6 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Look up live UK rail departures, arrivals, fastest and next services by CRS station code, and fetch detailed information for a specific service.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the departureboard.io API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the departureboard.io API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.

Step 1: Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with departureboard.io API.

Get arrivals and departures for a UK station by its CRS code

List arriving services at a station via /getArrivalsByCRS/{CRS}

List departing services at a station via /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

GET STARTED

Start building with departureboard.io API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use departureboard.io API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Live Station Departure Board

Render a live departure board for a UK station by calling /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} on a short polling interval. The endpoint returns the same data National Rail's SOAP feed exposes, formatted as JSON for direct rendering in web dashboards, kiosks, or station signage.

Poll GET /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} for the requested station and render the response as a live departure board UI.

Journey Planner Helper

Power a lightweight journey planner that suggests the fastest option between two stations using /getFastestDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} and the next viable services with /getNextDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}. This is well suited to chat assistants and embedded widgets where a full route planner is too heavy.

Call GET /getFastestDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} with the origin and a destination filter, then return the platform and time.

Service Disruption Lookup

When a user mentions a specific service, look up its full detail via /getServiceDetailsByID/{serviceID} to see calling points, delays, and operator. This lets a travel assistant respond with concrete information about that train rather than generic advice.

Call GET /getServiceDetailsByID/{serviceID} for the train the user named and summarise calling points and any reported delay.

AI Agent Integration via Jentic

A travel assistant can use Jentic to answer station and service questions in real time. Searches such as 'next trains from Paddington' map to /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}, and the agent receives a typed response without writing SOAP or scraping National Rail.

Use Jentic to search for 'next departures from a uk station', call GET /getDeparturesByCRS/PAD, and summarise the top three trains.

Key Endpoints

6 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for departureboard.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/getArrivalsAndDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get arrivals and departures at a station

GET

/getArrivalsByCRS/{CRS}

List arriving services at a station

GET

/getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

List departing services at a station

GET

/getFastestDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get the fastest next service to a destination

GET

/getNextDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get the next service between two stations

GET

/getServiceDetailsByID/{serviceID}

Get full details for a specific service

GET

/getArrivalsAndDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get arrivals and departures at a station

GET

/getArrivalsByCRS/{CRS}

List arriving services at a station

GET

/getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

List departing services at a station

GET

/getFastestDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get the fastest next service to a destination

GET

/getNextDeparturesByCRS/{CRS}

Get the next service between two stations

Why Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

departureboard.io's documented endpoints require no credential, so Jentic's role is consistent operation discovery and execution rather than secret handling. If commercial keys are introduced, they would be stored in the Jentic vault.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g. 'next departures from a uk station') and Jentic returns the matching CRS-based operation with its full input and response schema, removing the need to read the legacy National Rail documentation.

Time to first call

Direct integration: a few hours to wire the six endpoints and CRS code lookups. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes to render a live departure board from search to first response.

FAQs

Specific to using departureboard.io API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for departureboard.io API?

departureboard.io does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call departureboard.io API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the departureboard.io API use?

The endpoints in this OpenAPI spec do not declare a security scheme — the API is publicly accessible and free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires checking the latest terms on api.departureboard.io.

Can I get live UK train departures with this API?

Yes. GET /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} returns live departures for the station identified by its three-letter CRS code (for example PAD for London Paddington). Combine with /getArrivalsByCRS/{CRS} for an arrivals board.

How do I find the fastest train between two stations?

Call GET /getFastestDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} with the origin CRS in the path and the destination as a query parameter. The response includes the fastest next service and its scheduled platform.

Can I get full details for a specific train service?

Yes. GET /getServiceDetailsByID/{serviceID} returns calling points, operator, and delay information for the named service id, suitable for showing the user the full journey of the train they care about.

How do I render a departure board through Jentic?

Run `pip install jentic`, search for 'next departures from a uk station', execute GET /getDeparturesByCRS/{CRS} for the station you want, and feed the response straight into your UI. No credential is required for the public endpoints.