Using the site
Anyone can browse RailFeed. By creating an account or posting anything to it, you agree to these terms and to the privacy policy. You must be 13 or over to create an account. An account is for one person; keep your sign-in details to yourself.
Your logbook entries and photos
What you post stays yours. By posting it you give RailFeed permission to store it, resize and re-save photos, and show it on the site and through the RailFeed API while your logbook is public. That permission ends when you delete the entry or your account, apart from copies in our backups, which are gone within 14 days.
“On the site” means your logbook page, the pages of the units you logged, the latest sightings feed and, for photos, the home page. The feed and the home page show an entry only once the sighting in it is a few hours old, and give the place by its station or location name, never the exact spot. To keep your entries out of all of these, make your logbook private on your account page.
When you post, you confirm that:
- the photo is yours, or you have the right to share it;
- you were somewhere you were allowed to be when you took it. Never trespass on the railway or put yourself or anyone else at risk for a picture;
- it isn't illegal, and doesn't break anyone else's rights.
Don't post:
- anything sexual, violent, hateful, threatening or meant to harass;
- photos whose subject is an identifiable person who hasn't agreed to it (people in the background of a railway scene are fine), or anyone's personal details;
- advertising, spam, or anything that isn't a railway sighting;
- files that aren't genuine photos.
To stop the site being used to host other things, photos uploaded but never attached to a logbook entry are deleted after a day, and each account can upload up to 50 photos a day.
Keeping people safe
RailFeed is covered by the UK Online Safety Act. Here is how the site protects the people who use it.
From illegal content:
- every photo is checked by a person after it's uploaded, and anything illegal is removed and, where the law requires, reported to the authorities;
- everything anyone posts has a Report link, and illegal content is dealt with first;
- there are no private messages, so everything posted is public and can be reported;
- limits on uploads, comments and reports stop the site being flooded.
Children: you must be 13 or over to have an account, and we know younger teenagers enjoy the hobby too. So:
- others never see exactly where you were: the feed shows a sighting only after a few hours, and by its station or a rough area of about a kilometre;
- you can make your whole logbook private in one switch, so nobody else sees your entries;
- comments asking for contact details, someone's age, school or whereabouts are held back before anyone sees them;
- there's no messaging, no follower lists, and no way to search for people;
- photos that show trespass or risk-taking near the line are removed.
If you're under 18 and something on RailFeed has upset or worried you, report it or tell an adult you trust. You can also talk to Childline on 0800 1111, any time.
Reporting something
Every logbook entry and every comment has a Report link. Use it for anything that breaks these rules, and especially for anything illegal. You don't need an account. Reports come straight to the person who runs the site, are looked at as soon as possible, and illegal content is removed first. You can also email hello@railfeed.co.uk.
What we can do and complaints
We can remove any entry, photo or comment that breaks these terms, and suspend or close an account that keeps doing so or is clearly being misused.
You can complain by emailing hello@railfeed.co.uk if:
- something of yours was removed or held, or your account was restricted, and you think that was wrong;
- you reported something and nothing was done about it;
- you think RailFeed isn't doing what these terms or the Online Safety Act say it should.
Say what it's about (a link helps). Every complaint is read by the person who runs the site and gets a reply, usually within a week. If a decision was wrong, it's put right.
The data and the API
The timetables, live running and fleet information come from Network Rail, the Rail Delivery Group and other open data (see data sources). They are shown as received and can be wrong, late or missing, so don't rely on RailFeed for anything where that matters, including your own safety.
The API is free for personal, hobby and educational use within the limits on the docs page: one key per account, which you mustn't share or use to get round the limits. Please don't resell it, build a commercial product on it, or scrape the website instead of using it; automated traffic to the website's own pages is blocked. If you want to do something beyond that, get in touch first.
The small print
RailFeed is provided as it is, free, with no guarantee that it will be available, accurate or suitable for any purpose. As far as the law allows, we aren't liable for any loss from using it. Nothing here limits rights you have that the law says can't be limited.
If these terms change, the date at the top changes too, and a change that matters will be flagged on the site first. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
Comments and toots
When you're signed in you can give an entry a toot (RailFeed's like) and comment on it. Everything under “Don't post” above applies to comments too, and so does this:
Comments are public, like the entry they're on. You can remove your own comments, and any comment on your own entries. Blocking someone (from their logbook page) hides your entries and comments from each other, both ways, and stops them tooting or commenting on yours.
New comments, photos and the titles and notes on logbook entries are checked automatically, against a list of words and phrases and by an AI model (see the privacy policy). Anything it picks out is looked at by a person. A comment with a serious problem (slurs, sexual content, threats, or asking for contact details or someone's age or whereabouts) is held: only you can see it until it has been checked, and it then goes up or is removed. A comment with milder language goes up straight away but is sent for a look.