Class program project?

Question

So for one of my classes, we're working on making convenience or improving aspects of the Amtrak website. (http://www.amtrak.com/home) What my group is doing is basically wanting to make a program/query that will display prices for the day you indicate you wish to depart, including the day before and after. This is so that they have the ability to see the three prices.

We are allowed to use any type of languages and tools. If need be, we can change the project entirely. I need suggestions in what to do, what programming language should I attempt to do this in or should I change the project completely?

Answer 1

I don't think that the three day fare is going to be useful for 99% of passengers at all. It's not like an airline where there is more flexibility in demand and fares, and multiple competing airlines. There's a train every day and it's not hard at all to find the information. Besides, Amtrak is not very keen on publishing their various fares without requiring them to do some research. That maximizes Amtrak's revenue because they are not competing with themselves, they only have to compete with other methods of transit (driving, planes, bus). Amtrak takes advantage of the fact that early planners need incentive to book early, and that last minute travelers have to fork over a little bit more money.



Taking the train, regular people know when and where they have to be and likely don't have enough flexibility to travel over three days. But if they absolutely do, they can just click two times over and look fairly easily. Again, the only experience I usually have with the fare calendar on airfare is when trying to compare different airlines, not when comparing Amtrak today with Amtrak tomorrow.



If you want advice for your project, I guess you could make the amtrak site more user friendly with interactive maps such as the ones on the airlines and megabus pages. The amtrak site requires you to type the exact name of a station, and results in errors if you don't. I think it would be improved if typing "Albany, NY," would result in a valid search instead of forcing the user to spell Renneslauer (sic). Same with San Francisco. The improved map could help the user pick and choose stations on the line based on their starting point.

Answer 2

They have soft-ware at the Amtrak stations on their computers to do just that. I have been there and saw how they work. Their software package can do every thing that you want, much more sophisticated than the Amtrak site. Go there, that should be a good starting point for your research.

Answer 3

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