choo 0.1.3

UK train times from your terminal

choo

UK train times from your terminal.

Install

uvx choo

Or install permanently:

pip install choo

Quick start

# 1. Get API credentials
choo auth

# 2. Set up your commute
choo config alias.home HIB
choo config alias.work LBG

# 3. Go
choo              # next trains home → work
choo choo         # reverse: work → home
choo KGX YRK     # King's Cross to York

Commands

choo / choo next [FROM] [TO]

Show next trains between two stations. Defaults to home → work aliases.

choo                                 # home → work, now
choo --on tomorrow                   # home → work, tomorrow
choo PAD BRI                         # Paddington to Bristol
choo next PAD BRI --at 08:30         # departing around 08:30
choo next PAD BRI --on monday        # next Monday
choo next PAD BRI --count 10         # show 10 results

No trains running? Choo automatically shows tomorrow's first services.

choo choo

Reverse commute — next trains from work → home.

choo choo                            # heading home
choo choo --on friday                # Friday evening trains

choo board [FROM] [TO]

Departure board for a station. Same arguments as next, but shows all services in a table.

choo board KGX                       # all departures from King's Cross
choo board KGX YRK                   # filtered to York
choo board KGX --arrivals            # arrivals instead
choo board --on tomorrow             # defaults to home station

choo service UID

Full calling pattern for a service. Get the UID from board output.

choo service C41053
choo service C41053 --on 2026-03-16

choo config

Get/set configuration, like git config.

choo config alias.home HIB           # set station alias
choo config alias.work LBG
choo config next.count 10            # default number of results
choo config alias.home               # get a value
choo config                          # list all
choo config --unset alias.home       # remove

choo auth

Guided setup for RTT API credentials. Walks you through registration at api-portal.rtt.io and verifies your credentials.

choo stations update

Fetch the latest station data from GitHub (2,599 UK stations).

Flags

Flag	Short	Description
--at	-t	Time filter (HH:MM)
--on	-d	Date filter (today, tomorrow, day name, or YYYY-MM-DD)
--count	-n	Number of results (default: 5, configurable via next.count)
--arrivals		Show arrivals instead of departures
--json		Output JSON for scripting
--verbose	-v	Enable debug logging

Station resolution

Stations can be specified as:

• CRS codes: KGX, PAD, BRI (3 uppercase letters)
• Aliases: home, work (see choo config)
• Fuzzy names: "kings cross", paddington — matched against 2,599 stations with suggestions for ambiguous input

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/choo/config.json (XDG via platformdirs)

Key	Example	Description
alias.home	HIB	Station alias
alias.work	LBG	Station alias
alias.*	any CRS	Custom aliases
next.count	5	Default result count

Environment variables (override config):

Variable	Description
CHOO_AUTH	API credentials (user:password)
RTT_AUTH	API credentials (fallback)
CHOO_ALIAS_*	Station aliases (e.g., CHOO_ALIAS_HOME=HIB)

traintimes SDK

Choo is built on the traintimes Python SDK, which wraps the RealTimeTrains Pull API.

from traintimes.sdk import Location, Service

# Departures from Highbury & Islington
response = Location("HIB").get()
for svc in response.services:
    print(svc.service_uid, svc.location_detail.gbtt_booked_departure)

# Full calling pattern for a service
service = Service("C41053", datetime.date.today()).get()
for loc in service.locations:
    print(loc.description, loc.gbtt_booked_departure)

The SDK provides Pydantic models for all API responses — see traintimes/models.py.

Credits

• Train data from the RealTimeTrains API
• Station data from davwheat/uk-railway-stations, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL)