Representing lines improperly synced into HAFAS data

[TheOneWithTheBraid]

Many trains and public transport lines all around Europe are actually present in HAFAS.

I sadly figured out that even though the individual trains are present, there often is no correct line provided in the data.

In my case, I was trying to figure out how to represent the Réseau Express Métropolitain Européen (REME) Strasbourg : Each train number in HAFAS is given an individual line id (e.g. ter30700 - ter30743 for the fluo A09 line).

I'm wondering whether for such cases we could implement a range description to accumulate invalid line numbers into one unified line.

An example of this could be the famous page ranges we know from printing dialogs. I could imagine using the following pattern to describe such a range of lines into one unified line :

*ter*(30700 - 30709; 30711; 30713 - 30718; 30720 - 30736; 30738 - 30741; 30743)

Whereas Strings in * represent a non-integer part of the line name and the descriptor in () indicates the numbers to match. This should a) not break existing implementations simply checking the String of the CSV column since the match should be false and b) is less overhead to implement than regular expressions.

Alternatively, well - one could simply add regular expressions to the line identifier column.

Example of invalid SNCF lines in the present CSV representation

With current duplication

sncf,A09,,ter30700,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30701,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30702,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30703,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30704,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30705,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30706,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30707,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30708,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30709,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30711,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30713,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30714,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30715,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30716,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30717,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30718,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30720,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30721,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30722,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30723,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30724,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30725,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30726,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30728,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30729,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30730,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30731,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30732,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30733,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30734,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30735,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30736,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30738,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30739,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30740,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30741,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30743,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,
sncf,A09,,ter30743,#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,

With a printer-like range description

sncf,A09,,*ter*(30700 - 30709; 30711; 30713 - 30718; 30720 - 30736; 30738 - 30741; 30743),#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,

Using regular expressions

sncf,A09,,ter307((0[0-9])|(11)|(1[3-8])|(2[0-9])|(3[0-6])|(3[8-9])|(4[0-3])),#0e3692,#ffffff,,rectangle,

Preview :

This issue is related to #208 .