How easy is it to make the current free AI assistants produce interesting graphics? Apparently quite easy.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 wrote the entire visualisation you can start below from about 350 words of instruction. The core functionality and style were ready after only 100. The rest were used to make minor tweaks, request that actual timetable data from seat61 was used, and add the recently launched sleeper-esque twiliner bus routes.
The 'cartographic animation', attempts to show where (roughly) the night trains of Europe are over the course of the night (to help my own holiday planning), and it does a decent job.
Routes and times are absolutely not guaranteed - e.g. good luck finding the Renfe Trenhotel in Spain, it never returned after Covid. You'll have to catch me on the Bar to Belgrade instead.
Entirely produced by AI beyond this point. Data sources: naturalearthdata.com | seat61.com | nightjet.com | back-on-track.eu | nightride.com | europeanrailtimetable.eu | sbb.ch | oebb.at | twiliner.com
February 2026
2026 Timetable · Real Scheduled Departures