departureboard.io API
★ 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.
Use for: I want to see the next departures from a UK station, Find arrivals at a station by CRS code, Get the fastest train from one station to another, List the next services running between two stations
Not supported: Does not handle ticket purchase, fares, season tickets, or non-UK rail networks — use for live UK rail departures, arrivals, and service details only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for departureboard.io API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. departureboard.io is a high-performance Golang service that fronts the legacy National Rail SOAP feeds with a clean JSON API. It exposes departures, arrivals, fastest and next services by CRS station code, plus deep service detail by service id, making it a good fit for travel apps, dashboards, and station signage that need live UK rail data without dealing with SOAP. Use is free for non-commercial purposes.
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.
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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 | sh2
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 instanceJentic 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}
Find the fastest next service to a destination from a starting station
Find the next service running between two stations
Retrieve full information for a specific train service by its service id
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
GET
/getServiceDetailsByID/{serviceID}
Get full details for a specific service
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.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
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.
GET STARTED