simplexml_load_file() Connection timed out trying to parse remote xml - php

Question

I am trying to parse an xml file from this url
http://87.102.127.86:8081/kwiktext/kwiktext.exe?Page=52&compid=33&refnum=ICE2-1713464-220
The ref number expires daily so you may see almost no content by the time you look into it. But this is urelated with the issue.
I am trying to parse it with simplexml_load_file() using
<?php
$xml = 'http://87.102.127.86:8081/kwiktext/kwiktext.exe?Page=52&compid=33&refnum=ICE2-1713464-220';
$xml= simplexml_load_file($xml) or die("Error: Cannot create object");
echo urldecode($xml->hoteldescription); ?>
Unsuccessfully it returns 'Connection timed out'.
But when I try to do the same with a random xml url I found on the net the action completes just fine:
<?php $xml=simplexml_load_file('http://cloud.tfl.gov.uk/TrackerNet/PredictionSummary/V') or die("Error: Cannot create object");
echo $xml->Time['TimeStamp']?>
Why I am getting the Connection Time Out? The providers of the link said that it is a simple task. If I download the xml source from the url on a local file on my server I can fetch it with no problems. So there must be something with the remote request.
Needless to say that I am a php newbie... especially on server requests.
Thanks!
EDIT
I have also tried file_get_contents() and it didn't work for me. Also the last thing I tried again with no success was this
function load_file_from_url($url) {
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_REFERER, 'mydomain');
$str = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
return $str;
}
function load_xml_from_url($url) {
return simplexml_load_string(load_file_from_url($url));
}
$xml = load_xml_from_url('http://87.102.127.86:8081/kwiktext/kwiktext.exe?Page=52&compid=33&refnum=ICE2-1713464-220');'
EDIT 2
Apparently the 8081 port that was required from the service was closed on both the servers I was attempting connection by the hosts.

Answer 1

This works fine for me. I copied and pasted your code and ran it locally without any problems. If you encountered a connection timeout error it would seem to be a temporary error. The only error I noticed was when you are printing the hotel description the property name was incorrect:
echo urldecode($xml->HotelDescription);