efa - Command line client for EFA-based public transit routing services

efa --from city stop --to city stop [ additional options ]

efa [ options ] from-city from-stop [ via-city via-stop ] to-city to-stop

version 2.24

efa is a command line client for EFA-based public transit routing interfaces, e.g. http://efa.vrr.de. efa requests connections between two points and displays the results.

By default, the EFA service at http://efa.vrr.de (operated by Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr) is used, which supports most places in Germany. A list of all supported EFA instances can be retrieved with -l and a custom instance can be selected using -s service or -u url. It is also possible to probe all known EFA services for a specific connection using the -A and -D options.

If available, efa shows the expected occupancy of each route part. It ranges from [ ] (low occupancy) to [!!] (very high occupancy). Occupation data appears to be limited to certain VRR trains at the moment.

--from city stop

Departure place

--to city stop

Arrival place

--via city stop

Travel via this place

In all cases, if you want stop to be an address or "point of interest", you can set it to 'addr:something' or 'poi:something'.

-a|--arrive hh:mm

Journey end time (overrides --time/--depart)

-A|--auto-url|--discover-and-print

Probe all known EFA entry points for the specified connection. Print the first result which was not an error.

Note that this may take a while and will not necessarily return the best result. Also, using this option by default is not recommended, as it puts EFA services under considerable additional load.

-b|--bike

Request connections allowing the passenger to take a bike with them. Note that this may cause efa to display no routes at all -- In that case, the backend was unable to find such connections or didn't know about their bike-support.

-B|--bike-info

Show information about bike support, but do not select routes based on it. In essence, this option simply changes the --ignore-info default. It is useful when --bike did not return any routes even though most of the route has bike support.

-d|--date dd.mm.[yyyy]

Journey date. Also accepts the shortcut tomorrow.

-D|--discover

Probe all known EFA entry points for the specified connection. No routes are returned in this case. Instead, efa will print the URLs and names of all entry points which did not return an error.

-u|--efa-url url

URL to the EFA entry point, defaults to https://app.vrr.de/vrrstd/XML_TRIP_REQUEST2. Depending on your location, some urls may contain more specific data than others. See Travel::Routing::DE::EFA(3pm) and the -l option for alternatives.

-e|--exclude transports

Exclude transports (comma separated list).

Possible transports: zug, s-bahn, u-bahn, stadtbahn, tram, stadtbus, regionalbus, schnellbus, seilbahn, schiff, ast, sonstige

-E|--extended-info

Display more than just the basic route information. At the moment, the following is displayed (if available):

* Route duration

* Ticket fare

* transfer duration and elevation changes (via stairs / escalators) at each stop

-f|--full-route

Display intermediate stops (with time and platform) of each train. Note that these are not always available.

-I|--ignore-info [ regex ]

Ignore additional information matching regex (default: /Fahrradmitnahme|Einstiegshilfe/)

If regex is not supplied, removes the default regex (-> nothing will be ignored)

-i|--include type

Include connections using trains of type type, where type may be:

* local (default)

only take local trains ("Verbund-/Nahverkehrslinien"). Slow, but the cheapest method if you're not traveling long distance

* ic

Local trains + IC

* ice

All trains (local + IC + ICE)

-l|--list

List supported EFA services with their URLs (see -u) and abbreviations (see -s).

-M|--maps

Output links to maps of transfer paths and transfer stations where available.

-m|--max-change number

Print connections with at most number interchanges

-n|--num-connections number

Return up to number connections. If unset, the default of the respective EFA server is used (usually 4 or 5).

-P|--prefer type

Prefer connections of type:

* speed (default)

The faster, the better

* nowait

Prefer connections with less interchanges

* nowalk

Prefer connections with less walking (at interchanges)

-p|--proximity [minutes]

Take stops close to the stop/start into account. By default, up to 10 minutes of walking to/from the route's first/last stop is considered acceptable. You can specify minutes to use a custom value.

-s|--service name

Shortname of the EFA entry point. See Travel::Routing::DE::EFA(3pm) and the -l option for a list of services.

-t|--time|--depart hh:mm

Journey start time

--timeout seconds

Set timeout for HTTP requests. Default: 60 seconds.

-v|--version

Print version information

-w|--walk-speed speed

Set your walking speed to speed. Accepted values: normal (default), fast, slow

-x|--accessibility types

Request connections satisfying all of the specified accessibility types (comma-separated list, option may be repeated). Please note that this may cause the backend to return no results at all, either because no such connection exists or because the required lines do not have the correct accessibility attributes set.

The following types are supported:

e / no-escalators

Transfers must be possible without taking an escalator.

E / no-elevators

Transfers must be possible without using an elevator.

i / info

Does not restrict the requested connections. However, this option causes efa to display additional accessibility information for each route part (where available). When -x w or -x l do not return any connections, using -x i might be more helpful (though it cannot guarantee that any of the results satisfy the respective type).

l / nf / low-platform

All vehicles must be low-platform ("Niederflur").

s / no-stairs

Transfers must be possible without stairs (e.g. via escalators/elevators or ramps).

w / wheelchair

All vehicles must be wheelchair accessible.

    0    Everything went well
    1    Invalid arguments, see error message
    2    Network error, unable to send request
    3    EFA did not return any parsable data
    4    EFA error: ambiguous input
    5    EFA error: no connections found
    10   Unknown Travel::Routing::DE::EFA error
    255  Other internal error

None.

efa Do Hbf MH Hbf

Look up a connection from Dortmund (Do) Hbf to Mülheim (MH) Hbf

efa --include ice Essen Hbf Hamburg Dammtor

Look up a connection with long-distance trains

efa --arrive 18:00 -e zug,s-bahn -M E Wickenburgstr D Oststr

Look up a connection from Essen Wickenburgstr to Düsseldorf Oststr. Do not use any trains, make sure to arrive around 18:00 and print links to maps of all interchange stations.

efa -s vvs Stuttgart Hbf Stuttgart Marienplatz

Use the VVS (Verkehrsverbund Stuttgart) EFA service to look up a connection.

This script requires perl 5.10 (or higher) with the following modules:

* Class::Accessor

* Exception::Class

* LWP::UserAgent

* XML::LibXML

The EFA backend is not able to calculate "two-way" routes, i.e. from -> via -> to routes with from == to. If from and to are the same stop, it doesn't even try to calculate a route ("we recommend walking instead"), if they are close to each other it may or may not work. Workaround: Request from -> via using the normal four-argument efa invocation, read the time, use efa -t time via via to to to request via -> to.

Copyright (C) 2009-2023 by Birte Kristina Friesel <derf@finalrewind.org>

This program is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.