Hyperdia discontinues timetable search

[bill937ca]

As of April 1, 2022, the popular timetable search service Hyperdia has ceased offering timetable details on its route search service, which comes as a big shock to the many people who have relied on the free web service to plan their train journeys since the early 2000s. Hyperdia has been particularly liked by overseas tourists for its option to exclude Nozomi trains from its search results, allowing them to look up connections that are fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass (which does not cover Nozomi trains).

 

https://www.japan-guide.com/news/0057.html?fbclid=IwAR143EPJxpgk5sIz-fF7ndYVMARkCiGcl8WxlGkxg_cYb2Gqd6-FmZbmewo

 

April 1st is the start of the new fiscal year in Japan.

 

As the article says Jorudan is an alternative.   https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/

 

Another alternative is Navitime (aka Japan Travel by Navitime)   https://japantravel.navitime.com/en/area/jp/route/

[JR East]

31 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

As of April 1, 2022, the popular timetable search service Hyperdia has ceased offering timetable details on its route search service, which comes as a big shock to the many people who have relied on the free web service to plan their train journeys since the early 2000s. Hyperdia has been particularly liked by overseas tourists for its option to exclude Nozomi trains from its search results, allowing them to look up connections that are fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass (which does not cover Nozomi trains).

 

https://www.japan-guide.com/news/0057.html?fbclid=IwAR143EPJxpgk5sIz-fF7ndYVMARkCiGcl8WxlGkxg_cYb2Gqd6-FmZbmewo

 

April 1st is the start of the new fiscal year in Japan.

 

As the article says Jorudan is an alternative.   https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/

 

Another alternative is Navitime (aka Japan Travel by Navitime)   https://japantravel.navitime.com/en/area/jp/route/

 

is that a April 1st joke ? Unfortunately not. Sad …really. For a good serviçe like hyperdia I’m really in favor of pay option. 

Edited April 2, 2022 by JR East

[bill937ca]

9 minutes ago, JR East said:

 

is that a April 1st joke ? Unfortunately not. Sad …really. For a good serviçe like hyperdia I’m really in favor of pay option. 

Probably not because the Japan Guide article is dated April 2nd.  The shutdown could be because of reduced demand with Covid and travel restrictions.

[disturbman]

No, it's written on the website too. They still provide service, but not to the same level.

 

http://www.hyperdia.com/

[JR East]

What I said…unfortunately not a joke

[disturbman]

Sorry, I completely misread your post. Don’t know where my mind was.

[katoftw]

They deleted the best feature. Lame.

[katoftw]

Actually they have killed it.  I thought they just took out the interval times etc.  But I did a search and there is no times attached.  Hyperdia is now useless.

[JR 500系]

Sad it is... Hyperdia has always been my go to for trip preparations... There are still options available, just need to get used to their interface since i am so used to Hyperdia....  X_X

[katoftw]

navitime seems to be glitchy.  i get this message even though i have entered stations.

 

Point of Departure and  Destination are not properly selected. For each, please select a spot from the list that is presented during input.

 

It doesn't give me a said selection to choose from.

 

---

 

Jorudan seems on the near useless side without paying money.

Edited April 3, 2022 by katoftw

[HankyuDentetsu]

What an absurd decision. To remove the actual timetable element of the service, but retain all the costs of running a website that only provides "average times"? What on earth are they thinking? Shut it down if you can't offer schedules.

 

Very sad, had been a staple resource of mine before the smartphone generation.

[bikkuri bahn]

Free services proly lost too much revenue due to nosediving inbound tourists numbers.  Jorudan English (which is decent in the Japanese language version) is as noted above pretty useless unless you take only shinkansen.  Zairaisen schedules require the paid service.  

 

As an aside, my favorite (and a favorite of other Japanese railfans) online timetable service, Ekikara, shut down a few years back b/c the parent site, which was a restaurant info/review site, couldn't make money on that segment, and shut down Ekikara as that was pretty much a freebee addon. 

[miyakoji]

pours some green tea on the pavement for Ekikara

[Lumbago]

One can always buy the JR paper format timetable, as thick as an old telephone book used to be in a large city. Then again…

[katoftw]

1 hour ago, Lumbago said:

One can always buy the JR paper format timetable, as thick as an old telephone book used to be in a large city. Then again…

I don't think they do those anymore.

 

But then you woud still need one of for over 100 railway companies. Then you need to buy the updated timetable every 12 months.

[railsquid]

6 hours ago, katoftw said:

I don't think they do those anymore.

 

They do, e.g.: https://www.kotsu.co.jp/products/details/112209.html

 

But not in English, which I presume is the problem with Hyperdia discontinuing its service.

[JR East]

Back to this topic again, something that 9 months it's discontinued. 

 

Does anybody found something reliable to replace Hyperdia ? 

 

I've tested google (less criteria, cannot exclude Nozomi): here .. once more GAFAM but I've not found better. Japan Travel by Navitime is sometimes fine but not easy to type source & destination

 

Any other hints ? 

 

JM. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by JR East

[katoftw]

Nothing so far has been as good as Hyperdia

 

I've been using a mixture or JR Odekake, Jorudan or Navitime.

[chadbag]

The Navitime thing (Japan Travel on iOS) worked for me this time around plus Apple Maps directions using "transit" type.  It shows times and next times (Ie you miss the 9:54am subway it tess you the next ones re 10:00am and 10:07am) but you don't ave control over JR Pass routes only or to influence it in any way.  It does nice things like tell you what exits or platforms you should busing for the next step etc.

Edited December 31, 2022 by chadbag

[Aleks]

I used just Google Maps, it seemed to be working very well. For example, I used it to build my route from Miyajimaguchi (across the straight from Miyajima near Hiroshima) to Nagasaki - which involves four legs (to Hiroshima, to Shin Tosu, to Takeo Onsen, to Nagasaki), or from Nagasaki to Kumamoto (three legs). It was easy to check alternatives - e.g. the Shinkansen line actually goes by Miyajimaguchi, so I tried to see if it was better to get to the next station along the route vs. backtrack to Hiroshima, but it was easy to see the next station was too far away and Sakura's did not stop there anyway. I then used it to navigate within the city of Kumamoto by local Kumaden train/bus as well. Also within Tokyo, by bus, getting from Shinagawa Station to a spot about a mile away, and separately, from a train station to Tsukiji market by bus and later back - was too tired to walk.

 

When I was at Bungomori Roundhouse in Kyushu, Google Maps helped me identify when the next train would be passing (which was 40 minutes away), so I knew not to expect a train to photograph. Later I was at Jion waterfall near the same train line, and I could tell there would be a train coming within 5-10 minutes (checking timetable for a nearby station), so I just found a good position to take the photo of the train crossing the river over a colorful bridge and waited for it. And similarly later was aware of a coming train near Nogata Station so I could get to photograph it.

 

The only place where it did not seem to be accurate was on Chikuho Light Rail/Interurban line in Kitakyushu. The Google timetable did not seem to match reality at all. It did match the posted timetable on the stations, but the trains seemed to be operating on a somewhat different timetable. Locals apparently knew it, as people were coming to stations toward the train arrival time, but I ended up waiting for some minutes where a train according to Google should have passed.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Aleks

[JR 500系]

I'm finally going to embark on the planning phrase again!! 

 

However, without Hyperdia at my fingertips, i'm really quite stumped. The new Hyperdia really just hints you what train to take... there is no more departure and arrival timings, no more station train timing info, no more train arrival schedules, no nothing... It's really quite sad. 

 

How are you guys planning your trips? Able to share some? I've tried JR Odekake, Jorudan or Navitime and really, none is as simple and as easy as Hyperdia were...

[Yavianice]

I use the Navitime app on iPhone which works somewhat OK (and has the essential nozomi filters etc.) were it not that it has a crazy memory bug that drains the battery super fast even when it just runs in the background. 

[maihama eki]

I used jorudan / Japan Transit Planner for our last trip. I agree it's not as good as Hyperdia.