DfT Bus Open Data Service

[Nathan]

I only just found about about this.

The DfT are requiring all bus operators to provide timetable and location tracking data for their services - www.gov.uk/government/collections/bus-open-data-service

There is even a Twitter account where they announce the latest operators to publish data to the shared service - twitter.com/busopendata

You could in theory create a service to track all vehicles (like LBH or LVF). I'm not sure if TfL have published their data yet. I know they're in the process of migrating some of their API systems and decommissioning legacy software which might be for this (started work in July and was supposed to be only a few weeks, but it still seems to be happening).

[danorak]

It's been in the pipeline since before the Bus Services Act in 2017. I know some of the people who came up with the original concept. Once the data's out there then I'm sure there's all sorts of interesting things you can do with it. The release of fares data should be particularly interesting when it happens as operators have always had a slightly odd attitude to making that widely available.