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International Travel Data Scraping in Transportation

Railways, buses, car rentals, and marine carriers
International Travel Data Sources

Do you want to manage a data project effectively in the transportation industry? You must know the possible international travel data scraping applications and the best web data sources worldwide.

Transportation carriers can use international travel data scraping to extract information related to various modes of transportation, including airlines, railways, buses, car rental companies, and marine transportation carriers. It enables data collection on routes, schedules, fares, availability, and other relevant details from multiple sources.

This guide will dig into the global transportation industry and teach you all the data types and websites in each region and country.

International Travel Data Applications

A travel data scraper for transportation carriers allows businesses, travellers, or travel agencies to gather comprehensive information about different modes of transportation.

For railways, the scraper can collect data on train schedules, departure and arrival times, seat availability, and ticket prices. This information helps you plan the train journeys, book tickets in advance, and optimise your travel itineraries. It also assists in analysing train route popularity and demand patterns.

Bus travel data scraping involves gathering data on bus schedules, routes, stops, and fares from various bus companies. This information helps travellers determine the best bus options, view the amenities, and book tickets. Bus data scraping is particularly useful for frequent travellers seeking affordable transportation options.

Car rental data scraping focuses on extracting information from car rental companies, including vehicle availability, pricing, rental policies, and locations. This data allows travellers to compare car rental options, view different vehicle types, and make reservations based on their needs.

Last but not least, travel data scraping for marine transportation carriers can find and extract a massive quantity of data (from vessel to port information). Here are see some examples.

  • Vessel Information

    It includes data about the vessel name and type (e.g., container ship, tanker, cruise ship, ferry), size, flag, year built, and owner

  • Route and Schedule Information

    As data research, marine carrier or transportation user, it includes all the data on where a vessel is travelling to and from, departure and arrival times, and specific routes frequency. This can also include information about different merchant ships’ route popularity.

  • Stay updated on industry-related news, emerging trends, and market developments to make informed decisions and adapt business strategies.

  • Real-time and Historical Location Data

    Using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, you can get real-time and historical data on a vessel’s geographical coordinates, course, and speed.

  • Cargo Information

    It can include data on the cargo type, amount, origin, destination, and owner. Please note this data might not be readily available for commercial and security reasons.

  • Passenger Information

    For passenger ships, data can include the number of passengers, ticket prices, and cabin types. Due to privacy laws, the passengers’ personal information will not be accessible. Port Information: It refers to data on the ports where the vessel docks, including location, facilities, services available, and port congestion.

  • Environmental Data

    It includes information on weather conditions that affect marine transportation, such as wind speed and direction, wave height, visibility, and current.

  • Safety and Incident Data

    This information involves records of safety inspections, incident reports, and other safety-related data.

By using international travel data scraping for transportation carriers, businesses and travellers can access accurate and up-to-date information, compare options, and make informed decisions about their transportation choices or marketing and pricing strategy. It streamlines the data-gathering process from multiple sources, saving time and effort while improving travel experience.

Now that you know the transportation data types, it’s time you learn the best data sources and URLs for the transportation industry.

Are you interested in airlines and flights? We are going to talk about that extensively in the next episode. Stay tuned!

International Travel Data Sources for Transportation Carries

Transportation carriers operate in many travel and tourism sectors with dozens of web data sources you can use to extract valuable data for your web scraping and data mining and analytics project or your business strategy.

We found the top travel data sources for each transportation category. Some data can be public, while others may require subscriptions or API access agreements.

Railways Travel Data Sources

Railway data varies from country to country, and you can often find it from national railway companies or transport authorities. Here are some data sources for railway information segmented by continent.

RegionRailways Data SourceWebsite
AsiaIndian Railways: Offers data on train schedules, routes, and fareswww.indianrail.gov.in
China Railway Corporation: The state-owned railway system of the People’s Republic of China.china-railway.com.cn
EuropeDeutsche Bahn (Germany): Offers train schedules, routes, and fares for Germany and other European destinations.bahn.de
SNCF (France): Offers information about train schedules, fares, and routes across France.sncf.com
Realtime Trains (Great Britain): An independent provider of real-time information about railways services in the UK.realtimetrains.co.uk
North AmericaAmtrak (USA): Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in the United States.amtrak.com
VIA Rail (Canada): Offers data on train schedules, routes, and fares in Canada.viarail.ca
South AmericaSatélite Ferroviario (Argentina): Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in Argentina.sateliteferroviario.com.ar
HOTOSM Brazil Railways: it provides train transportation data sets in West, North, East, and South Brazil. You can download them for use in GIS applications.data.humdata.org
AfricaHOTOSM South Africa Railways (OpenStreetMap Export): Offers OpenStreetMap exports for use in GIS applications.data.humdata.org
AustraliaTransport for NSW: Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in New South Wales.transportnsw.info
DataVic: The Victorian Government’s open data platform where you can find data sets on the train transportation service.discover.data.vic.gov.au

It’s important to note that many of these websites may not offer open data APIs, and the data usage is subject to their terms and conditions. You might need to contact the railway companies or transport authorities directly for more details or specific information,

Bus Companies Travel Data Sources

You can often find data about buses on local transit authority websites or national bus service providers. Here are some resources segmented by continent.

RegionBus Data SourceWebsite
AsiaRedbus India: The largest Indian online bus ticket booking service. You can find schedules and routes for various bus operators throughout India.redbus.in
BusMap (Vietnam): A service offering real-time tracking and routes for buses in major Vietnamese cities.busmap.vn
EuropeFlixBus: This service offers bus schedules and routes across different European countries.flixbus.com
National Express (UK): Offers bus schedules and routes across the UK.nationalexpress.com
North AmericaGreyhound (USA): Provides bus schedules and routes across the USA.greyhound.com
Trailways (USA): Offers bus schedules and routes in select regions of the USA.trailways.com
South AmericaRecorrido (Chile): Offers information about bus schedules and routes in Chile.recorrido.cl
Omnilineas (Argentina): The website provides online booking, bus schedules and ticket prices for regular bus services in Argentina.omnilineas.com
AfricaIntercape (South Africa): Provides bus schedules and information across South Africa with 155 coaches, 110 routes, and 30 sales offices.intercape.co.za
AustraliaGreyhound Australia: Provides bus schedules and popular routes across Australia with over 180 stops.greyhound.com.au

Again, please be aware that using these websites and their data should respect their terms and conditions. Many of these websites do not offer open data APIs. So, you might need to contact the bus service providers or local transit authorities directly for more specific information.

Car Rental Companies Data Sources

Car rental data sources can vary significantly, and many companies are not likely to openly share their detailed data due to competitive reasons. Anyway, here are some general data sources and some of the top car rental companies in the world.

Data SourceDescriptionWebsite
Global Car Rental DataProvides car rental data and market research.globalcarrental.nl
Auto Rental News:Offers news and industry research on the global car rental industry.autorentalnews.com
HertzAn international rental company offering services in 150 countries.hertz.com
Enterprise Rent-A-CarA global company with more than 7,600 locations worldwide.enterprise.com
Avis Car RentalOperates one of the world’s best-known car rental brands with approximately 5,500 locations in more than 165 countries.avis.com
Budget Car RentalAn industry leader providing vehicle rental services through its network of approximately 3,350 locations in more than 120 countries.budget.com
Alamo Rent A CarA car rental agency in the United States. Based in Clayton, Missouri, it has branches across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.alamo.com
National Car RentalAn international car rental company that serves the daily rental needs of frequent airport travellers.nationalcar.com
Sixt Rent a CarAn international car rental company with over 4,000 locations in over 105 countries.sixt.com
EuropcarA car rental company owned by Volkswagen Group. The company operates in 140 countrieseuropcar.com
Thrifty Car RentalA subsidiary of The Hertz Corporation with headquarters in Estero, Florida and many offices around the world.thrifty.com
IBISWorldProvides market research reports which include key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants, and more. Note: The data comes at a cost.ibisworld.com

Marine Transportation Carriers

Marine Data SourceDescriptionWebsite
MarineTrafficA platform that provides real-time data about the movements of ships globally (also through an API).marinetraffic.com
VesselFinderSimilar to MarineTraffic, it provides real-time and historical AIS data.vesselfinder.com
VesselTrackerOffers real-time and historical vessel and port data.vesseltracker.com
Direct FerriesThe website provides data about ferry schedules, ticket prices, and routes worldwide.directferries.com
Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO)It contains data and information about the maritime sectorbimco.org
Clarksons ResearchProvides a wide array of shipping and maritime data. Most of it is accessible through subscription.clarksons.net
World Port SourceProvides information about ports worldwide.worldportsource.com
International Maritime Organization (IMO)Offers data and statistics on multiple maritime topics.imo.org
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)Provides access to the SafeSeaNet data, Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) data, and historical vessel tracks.emsa.europa.eu

Your Next Step

International travel data in the transportation industry is diverse, massive, and dynamic by nature. Efficient data monitoring, extraction, and management with optimum results is challenging. You must also understand how to gather them without breaking the rules.

A data scraping company can help you find and design the right data solution optimised around your company’s needs, workflow, IT resources and infrastructure.

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Disclaimer: Always respect user privacy and copyright, follow ethical data scraping practices, and abide by the terms and conditions of the websites or platforms you’re scraping data from, as unauthorised data extraction may lead to legal or privacy issues. Therefore, ensure that your data collection and analysis methods are compliant. Furthermore, data can be noisy, unstructured, and constantly changing. Therefore, use a tool or service that can handle the volume and variety of data from multiple web sources. This article is for information purposes only and not intended as legal advice. Consult a lawyer for complete knowledge of the local and international laws.


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