National Rail Enquires review

There are few things in life more excruciatingly annoying than rushing into a train station just in time to see your mode of transport sliding off the platform, condemning you to a long and lonely wait for the next suitable train.

Even the most organised individual can fall foul of this misfortune, as train timetables are unpredictable at best. Thankfully, the National Rail Enquires app for iPhone – officially sanctioned by National Rail itself – makes planning your journey that little bit easier.

The best way to describe this app is a streamlined version of the National Rail website. It offers the same kind of information regarding departures and arrivals but presents it in a more intuitive fashion – with some added tricks.

Arguably the most important element of the app is the departures and arrivals page, which apes the boards which appear in your standard railway station. Here you can see the latest information about services entering and parting from your station of choice. It’s possible to designate your “home” station from this page, which speeds up the process of finding the train you need.

Of course, you’re only as good as the information provided to you and thankfully this section of the app is bursting with additional data. As well as showing which platform each service is leaving from (or arriving at) it also warns you of any delays.

This aspect of National Rail Enquires is useful enough but the journey planner adds another level of functionality. Here, you can plan future trips to ensure you don’t get caught out by surprises. You’ll be informed of any transfers you might need to make, what stations you’ll be passing through and your estimated arrival time.

Naturally, some of this is subject to change on the actual day (what would our rail service be like without its beloved delays?) but it’s an incredibly useful tool – and it even stores your proposed travelling arrangements, so you can check your route even when you’re without a high-speed data connection.

One incredibly clever option is the ability to determine your closest station by GPS (should you find yourself in unfamiliar territory) and locate the next available train home. It takes some of the sting out of planning your trip, that’s for sure.

The biggest sticking point with this app is unquestionably the price. £4.99 seems very steep for something like this; even though it’s a very helpful piece of programming, it doesn’t really give you any info that can’t be gleaned from the National Rail website – albeit with a little more effort.

If money is no object and you use the railways on a regular basis then it’s worth considering. For heavy users, this app will pay for itself in the long run as it could potentially save you missing your train; however, for more causal day trippers, we’d advise that you approach with caution as you may not use it enough to justify the high price tag.