On Friday, my real-time MTR train schedule page doesn’t work except for the light rail, and I received a user report yesterday. I checked out the network connections from my browser and found that MTR data server removed cross origin header setting, therefore my MTR Train real time service page and hkbus.app are also no longer display the real time schedule properly. Therefore I wrote 2 complaints to Hong Kong Government’s data.gov.hk and MTR Corporation Limited.
Open Data – Real-time MTR train information
https://data.gov.hk/en-data/dataset/mtr-data2-nexttrain-data
Subject: Urgent: Issue with Cross-Origin Access to MTR Real-Time Train Service Data
Dear Data.gov.hk & MTR open data Team,
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my concern regarding the recent changes to the MTR open data concerning real-time train services [1]. It appears that access to this data has suddenly restricted cross-origin requests, which significantly impacts developers and organizations relying on this data for various applications.
The ability to access real-time train service data is crucial for creating tools that enhance public transportation experiences for users. This change not only disrupts existing applications but also hinders innovation and the development of new solutions that could benefit the community and improve the overall efficiency of public transport.
I kindly ask for clarification on this issue and any potential steps that can be taken to restore cross-origin access. Ensuring that developers can freely access this data is essential for fostering a collaborative environment that promotes the use of public data for the common good.
I will also follow up this situation on my blog [2] and social network.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your prompt response.
Best regards,
Sammy Fung
President, Open Source Hong Kong.
[1] Real-time MTR train information: https://data.gov.hk/en-data/dataset/mtr-data2-nexttrain-data
[2] Follow up blog post on sammy.hk: https://sammy.hk/en/urgent-issue-with-cross-origin-access-to-mtr-real-time-train-service-data/
Update on 10 Mar: Issue is solved
🚨 Update: Great news! This afternoon (10 Mar), MTR gradually reinstated the Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header, allowing cross-origin requests once again. This change will facilitate innovation and help developers create better public transport applications, enabling real-time MTR train schedule updates to work again. Let’s continue to support open data! #OpenData #MTR
