Rail CLI

UK National Rail CLI — live departures, arrivals, station search, destination filtering, batch station search from stdin, and lightweight field selection for agents. Use when checking UK rail boards, resolving station names/CRS codes, filtering departures or arrivals, or when an agent needs machine-friendly station search via rail search --stdin or rail search --select.

Use rail for UK National Rail data: live departures, arrivals, station search, destination filtering, and agent-friendly batch search.

Setup

• npm install -g @shan8851/rail-cli
• Get a free Darwin access token: https://realtime.nationalrail.co.uk/OpenLDBWSRegistration/Registration
• export DARWIN_ACCESS_TOKEN=your_token or add to .env
• Station search works without a token. Departures and arrivals require one.

Departures

• From a station: rail departures KGX
• By station name: rail departures "kings cross"
• Filter to destination: rail departures "edinburgh" --to "york"
• Include calling points: rail departures KGX --expand
• Limit results: rail departures KGX --limit 5

Arrivals

• At a station: rail arrivals "leeds"
• By CRS code: rail arrivals LDS
• Filter from origin: rail arrivals "leeds" --from "london"
• Include calling points: rail arrivals LDS --expand
• Limit results: rail arrivals LDS --limit 5

Station Search

• Search by name: rail search "waterloo"
• Return only CRS codes: rail search "waterloo" --select crs
• Return only names: rail search "waterloo" --select name
• Return explicit name + CRS projection: rail search "waterloo" --select name,crs
• Batch search from stdin: printf "waterloo\nvictoria\n" | rail search --stdin
• Batch search as JSON: printf "waterloo\nvictoria\n" | rail search --stdin --json

Output

• All commands default to text in TTY, JSON when piped
• Force JSON: rail departures KGX --json
• Force text: rail departures KGX --text
• Disable colour: rail --no-color departures KGX
• Success envelope: { ok, schemaVersion, command, requestedAt, data }
• Error envelope: { ok, schemaVersion, command, requestedAt, error }

Agent Notes

• rail search --stdin is pipeline-only and expects newline-delimited queries on stdin
• rail search --select is intentionally narrow: name, crs, or name,crs
• rail search --stdin and a positional query cannot be used together
• Search output stays stable unless projection flags are explicitly used
• Errors are structured and suitable for agent retry/self-correction

Configuration

• DARWIN_ACCESS_TOKEN — required for departures/arrivals (free registration)
• RAIL_API_URL — optional, override Huxley2 instance URL (default: public instance)

Notes

• Accepts station names ("kings cross", "leeds") and CRS codes (KGX, LDS, EDB)
• CRS codes are 3-letter station identifiers
• Covers every National Rail station in Great Britain
• Data powered by National Rail Darwin via Huxley2
• Exit codes: 0 success, 2 bad input or ambiguity, 3 upstream failure, 4 internal error
• When a station name is ambiguous, the error includes candidate suggestions