Your views

We have already agreed and set in primary legislation that regulations can be drafted that will require bus operators to openly share the following information:

• Information about routes, stopping places, timetables, fares and tickets,
• Information about changes or proposed changes to routes, stopping places, timetables, fares and tickets,
• Information about the operation of services including real time information about the location of vehicles operating the services and the times at which they stop, (or are expected to stop), at stopping places, and information about the operation of services in the past.

The Regulations will specify the manner and format that this information must be provided in, who it is to be provided to, and how often. This consultation is intended to provide an opportunity to gather views on these details and to provide comment on any other information which you feel would be useful to include but is not listed here.

 We also intend to progress guidance that supports bus operators in complying with the new legislation in a way that avoids any delays in the practical implementation of the new requirements. We are therefore keen to hear views from all interested parties on the following topics;

• What we mean specifically by ‘information’ in the above list
• What information bus users want to know, and where they would look for it
• The types of service that the new Regulations should apply to.
• The overall timetable for bringing in the new Regulations, for example, should there be a single date after which all new requirements are mandatory, or should the requirements be phased in over a period?
• When the data should be submitted, e.g. yearly, monthly, or some other period.
• The form and content of any guidance. Specifically for this area we are seeking views from the bus sector on what support would be most useful, however we are keen to hear from any interested party with views to share.

And finally, we are also seeking views on the data format that bus open data should be submitted in by operators. We appreciate that the views of users of public transport on what information they would like to see is not likely to extend to the technical data format it would be provided in, and there is unlikely to be wide public interest in the more technical questions on IT capability. For this reason, you have the option to ‘skip’ any question that you would like to move past without answering.

This consultation will close on 21 June 2025.