German Regional Train Monitor

A WordPress plugin that shows the next regional train departures at a German station of your choice and records punctuality statistics per direction, using the official Deutsche Bahn Timetables API.

Source language is English; a complete German translation (de_DE) is bundled. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Deutsche Bahn.

Features

• Free choice of station and regional line (everything except long-distance: RE, RB, S-Bahn, IRE, RS …), selected in the admin area.
• Two-step picker: search a station, then choose from the regional lines that actually stop there (discovered by scanning the timetable).
• Both directions detected automatically and labelled with the destination station (labels are editable).
• Front-end display of the next departure per direction (green = on time, red = delay/cancellation) via the shortcode [train_monitor].
• Punctuality statistics per direction with a period filter (7 / 30 / 90 / 365 days or the entire recorded period); cancellations counted separately.
• Year / month picker on the front end: inspect a specific month or whole year to compare e.g. winter vs summer punctuality.
• Data collected every 5 minutes via WP-Cron.

Installation

1. Install and activate the plugin.

2. Get free credentials for the Timetables API at the DB API Marketplace and add them to wp-config.php:

   define('DB_TIMETABLES_CLIENT_ID', 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID');
   define('DB_TIMETABLES_API_KEY', 'YOUR_API_KEY');

3. Go to Settings → Train Monitor, search a station, choose a line, save, then click Fetch now.

4. Add [train_monitor] to a page or post.

Set the WordPress timezone (Settings → General) to your local German time (e.g. Berlin); the API returns local times.

Shortcode

[train_monitor]
[train_monitor period="7"]
[train_monitor period="30"]
[train_monitor period="90"]
[train_monitor period="365"]
[train_monitor period="all"]

Default is period="30".

External service

The plugin calls the Deutsche Bahn Timetables API (apis.deutschebahn.com) using your own credentials to retrieve schedules and delays. No data about your site's visitors is sent. See the "External services" section of readme.txt for the full disclosure.

Development

• Source strings are English and wrapped for i18n (text domain german-regional-train-monitor).
• build_lang.py regenerates the translation files: it extracts the msgids from the PHP sources, validates them against its EN→DE table (extend the table when you add strings) and writes .pot, .po and .mo under languages/. This script is a dev tool and is not part of the distributed plugin.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.