Elsewhere in the UK

As many of the bus operators in Scotland operate services elsewhere in the UK, we are broadly seeking to align with England and Wales to provide a consistent approach to the publication of data across the UK, where possible, to reduce the regulatory burden on such companies. A consistent approach is also expected to be of value for developers of digital products such as apps and websites which are likely to operate in multiple regions, as well as members of the public who expect to have the same access to quality information regardless of their location.

The UK Government has introduced “The Public Service Vehicles (Open Data) (England) Regulations 2020” which came into force in July 2020. In response, the Department for Transport set up the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) as the central service for publishing information for all local bus services in England. Operators of local bus services in England publish data via the Bus Open Data Service. There are three types of data that operators must publish in certain data formats: timetables, bus location and fares, and there are additional requirements for transport authorities in terms of information about bus stops.

The Welsh Government is progressing legislation similar to the Scottish 2019 Act, which will apply to Welsh Transport Authorities. In 2023, Transport for Wales procured the Welsh Bus Data Service (WBDS) to provide better quality information on services around Wales. This has two purposes:

To receive, store, process and share operational and financial data about buses in Wales, […] and to manage public service messages, real time information and other content for transmission to display boards”