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Choose a Better Train With Web Scraping (hackaday.com)
szczys writes: Tired of his trains being constantly late, Eric Evenchick headed to the Via Rail (Canada's communter train service) website to find which trains had a better on-time rate. Unfortunately they only offer three days worth of data through the dropdown selections — but a bit of investigating showed the GET requests were open for about the last six months. Evenchick built a web-scraper with Python, along with a web interface that queries the resulting SQL db. The harvested data shows system-wide delays that average more than twelve minutes (mostly due to commercial rail having the right-of-way). The good that comes of this? You can now choose your train based on smallest likelihood of delay..
>> Canada's communter train service
But do they have anything for commuters?
VIA Rail is NOT a commuter train service. It offers "intercity passenger rail services", not commuter service, which Wikipedia defines better than I can: "Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city centre, and the middle to outer suburbs...". Again, not what VIA Rail primarily does.
Examples of agencies which offer commuter rail service in Canada include Greater Toronto's GO Transit trains and Montreal's AMT. These do, indeed, offer service between communities forming part of a greater metropolitan area and said area's city centre. At least in Montreal, the AMT has some exclusive tracks and agreements on shared tracks which prioritize commuter trains over other scheduled trains at rush hour.
See the National Rail Enquiries APIs. Loads of information on train timetables, delays, maintenance schedules, and almost all for free.
http://www.programmableweb.com/api/national-rail-enquiries