BusTimes.Org

[geoffk]

Stagecoach in Exeter seems to be tracking as normal on my route but some buses are "missing" elsewhere.

 

[M60lad]

What's with all the times coming up on the map page when tracking a bus? Its only started to happen recently, every dot on the map now has a time stamp on it now.

 

[PeterC]

Living in a small village I always check bustimes before leaving the house. Its not perfect but most issues are down to the operators.

One feature which could be confusing is on "banjo" routes. I don't know if that is down to bustimes or the data feed but where a service uses the same road in both directions it doesn't distinguish inbound and outbound stops. If I look at the comparison between the schedule and actual times it tells me that the bus is almost back 30 minutes early despite the map showing it still outbound.

 

[Teapot42]

Living in a small village I always check bustimes before leaving the house. Its not perfect but most issue sare down to the operators.

One feature which could be confusing is on "banjo" routes. I don't know if that is down tobustimes or the data feed but where a service uses the same road in both directions it doesn't distinguish inbound and outbound stops. If I look at the comparison between the schedule a actual times it tells me that the bus is almost back 30 minutes early despite the map showing it still outbound.

I would suspect this is because bustimes is just checking the location of the bus against the location of the stop. It would be possible to improve the algorithm to match direction of the bus against direction expected, but that would take a fair bit of development time and testing to get reliable and, unless some body is prepared to fund the site, that won't happen quickly.

I'd guess a simple 'mask' which either ignores or otherwise highlights as likely incorrect the passing of a stop more than say 5 or 10 minutes early and 30 minutes late would be easier to implement.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

One feature which could be confusing is on "banjo" routes. I don't know if that is down tobustimes or the data feed but where a service uses the same road in both directions it doesn't distinguish inbound and outbound stops. If I look at the comparison between the schedule a actual times it tells me that the bus is almost back 30 minutes early despite the map showing it still outbound.

Even the buses themselves get tricked by this, the next stop announcements on some Bee Network routes break where the route loops.

 

[PeterC]

With regard to vehicle details it is helpful to know what colour I am looking out for in a busy environment. The rest is irrelevant geek stuff to the general public.

 

[Robertj21a]

With regard to vehicle details it is helpful to know what colour I am looking out for in a busy environment. The rest is irrelevant geek stuff to the general public.

Many companies use various colours, allover adverts etc...

 

[wildcard]

Some time ago the forum pointed me to bustimes.org - which I had confused with an iOS app - which appears on the phone as Bus Times but was actually titled London Live Bus Times . It only showed TfL services . Their phone logo is a red wristwatch over a single decker silhouette . This app now appears to be updated to include UK wide services - renamed to London & UK Live Bus Time - same logo as before. I find this update very useful living in Hertfordshire just north of Watford . It now shows the totality of services I can use . Personally I found the web based bustimes rather difficult to use ( on a phone ) , the new iOS app is easy to use by comparison. I appreciate the app may not have comprehensive UK coverage - maybe only services close to larger towns & cities . Also I have yet to test its accuracy . Edit - It's TfL accuracy is/was spot on.

 

[ricoblade]

Some time ago the forum pointed me to bustimes.org - which I had confused with an iOS app - which appears on the phone as Bus Times but was actually titled London Live Bus Times . It only showed TfL services . Their phone logo is a red wristwatch over a single decker silhouette . This app now appears to be updated to include UK wide services - renamed to London & UK Live Bus Time - same logo as before. I find this update very useful living in Hertfordshire just north of Watford . It now shows the totality of services I can use . Personally I found the web based bustimes rather difficult to use ( on a phone ) , the new iOS app is easy to use by comparison. I appreciate the app may not have comprehensive UK coverage - maybe only services close to larger towns & cities . Also I have yet to test its accuracy . Edit - It's TfL accuracy is/was spot on.

Thanks - I'll check that out and see if it's comprehensive on my patch of North Notts/South Yorks.

 

[LUYMun]

It appears this morning that most buses in England aren’t tracking, with the exception of Stagecoach and CT4N. Buses in Wales and Scotland track unaffected, so perhaps some data feed issues are bugging up Bustimes?

 

[PeterC]

It appears this morning that most buses in England aren’t tracking, with the exception of Stagecoach and CT4N. Buses in Wales and Scotland track unaffected, so perhaps some data feed issues are bugging up Bustimes?

I just spotted that too. Its not the first time, I did not check further but it certainly lost all Carousel and Red Group services for a while recently although on that occasion TfL routes were tracking.

 

[Twingo37175]

I just spotted that too. Its not the first time, I did not check further but it certainly lost all Carousel and Red Group services for a while recently although on that occasion TfL routes were tracking.

Just looking around yorkshire and most now seem to be back (was just stagecoach earlier)

 

[pepperpot80]

Looks like an issue at source with Ticketer, as most of the bus companies' apps and a few other sources weren't showing live times or tracking. Seems to be resolved now though.

 

[LUYMun]

London buses aren’t tracking so far today.

 

[PeterC]

Carousel's new route 1C doesn't track on bustimes despite tracking on their own website and counting down on the timer in Chesham Broadway.

 

[Wuggie Norple]

For some time now, Stagecoach South Wales buses (eg 122, 124, 132) show duplicated entries when you look at the list of departures from a particular stop.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

It appears that in the last few days, bus stop information at certain locations has disappeared - for example, at Victoria Bus Station in London, every stop is now showing as "Victoria Bus Station (Stop)" as opposed to, say, "Victoria Bus Station (Stop A)".

Quite disappointing as it makes planning a journey a lot more difficult, particularly at bus stations with lots of stands. I hope this is merely an issue which will soon be fixed rather than something intentional.

 

[markymark2000]

For some time now, Stagecoach South Wales buses (eg 122, 124, 132) show duplicated entries when you look at the list of departures from a particular stop.

Stagecoach South Wales seem to have duplicated the trips on some of their routes.

It appears that in the last few days, bus stop information at certain locations has disappeared - for example, at Victoria Bus Station in London, every stop is now showing as "Victoria Bus Station (Stop)" as opposed to, say, "Victoria Bus Station (Stop A)".

Quite disappointing as it makes planning a journey a lot more difficult, particularly at bus stations with lots of stands. I hope this is merely an issue which will soon be fixed rather than something intentional.

Bustimes get it's stop information from the NAPTAN database and according to the NAPTAN site, the last time London uploaded NAPTAN data was 27th August (https://beta-naptan.dft.gov.uk/last-updated). Did the issue come about before or after that date?

 

[miklcct]

It appears that in the last few days, bus stop information at certain locations has disappeared - for example, at Victoria Bus Station in London, every stop is now showing as "Victoria Bus Station (Stop)" as opposed to, say, "Victoria Bus Station (Stop A)".

Quite disappointing as it makes planning a journey a lot more difficult, particularly at bus stations with lots of stands. I hope this is merely an issue which will soon be fixed rather than something intentional.

I think there is something recently broken in the Bus Open Data Service. The station / platform relationships have broken recently that our app no longer displays the two directions of a tube stations as within a single station.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Bustimes get it's stop information from the NAPTAN database and according to the NAPTAN site, the last time London uploaded NAPTAN data was 27th August (https://beta-naptan.dft.gov.uk/last-updated). Did the issue come about before or after that date?

I think there is something recently broken in the Bus Open Data Service. The station / platform relationships have broken recently that our app no longer displays the two directions of a tube stations as within a single station.

Thanks both for the information, hopefully it's resolved soon enough.

@markymark2000, that date sounds just about right with when the issue started, as I seem to remember first noticing it just over a week ago.

 

[johncrossley]

It appears that in the last few days, bus stop information at certain locations has disappeared - for example, at Victoria Bus Station in London, every stop is now showing as "Victoria Bus Station (Stop)" as opposed to, say, "Victoria Bus Station (Stop A)".

Quite disappointing as it makes planning a journey a lot more difficult, particularly at bus stations with lots of stands. I hope this is merely an issue which will soon be fixed rather than something intentional.

This is as a result of he cyber attack on TfL. However, other apps still supply real time info, such as the Bus Times London app.

 

[borage]

This is as a result of he cyber attack on TfL. However, other apps still supply real time info, such as the Bus Times London app.

The cyberattack (probably) hasn't changed the "Indicator" field in a bunch of bus stop data from "Stop A" to "Stop" – as @markymark2000 says, that's the NaPTAN (national public transport access nodes) database. But it is why red London buses aren't tracking on the bustimes.org map – as per this post in the TfL Tech Forum:

• Live bus location data (from BODS) is unavailable

 

[PeterC]

Twice today it has simply stopped updating for 15 or 20 minutes on on both my outbound ind inbound trips.

Normally I would use it to decide when to leave the house

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Sep 2024 ==

Twice today it has simply stopped updating for 15 or 20 minutes on on both my outbound ind inbound trips.

Normally I would use it to decide when to leave the house

Edit 12 September
I was looking my local services today and noticed that tracking dropped for about an hour on a number of operators.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Sep 2024 ==

Looks like an issue at source with Ticketer, as most of the bus companies' apps and a few other sources weren't showing live times or tracking. Seems to be resolved now though.

All the same companies have dropped out again.

 

[markymark2000]

Twice today it has simply stopped updating for 15 or 20 minutes on on both my outbound ind inbound trips.

Normally I would use it to decide when to leave the house

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Sep 2024 ==


I was looking my local services today and noticed that tracking dropped for about an hour on a number of operators.

Bus Open Data is having issues and the BODS teams are aware. Remember, bustimes is a 'garbage in, garbage out' site, in that they only display information given to them by others.

 

[ricoblade]

Thanks - I'll check that out and see if it's comprehensive on my patch of North Notts/South Yorks.

Hi @wildcard - I normally use my "home" Stagecoach East Midlands app but was out of area today in Sheffield and found the app really useful as it was the Sheffield 10K and routes and services were subject to changes.

The app found the bus stop I was at and showed me the live departures.

The one downside is that there isn't a map to "see" the buses but I corrborated the live information with the bustimes.org map and it was accurate.

 

[PeterC]

Bus Open Data is having issues and the BODS teams are aware. Remember, bustimes is a 'garbage in, garbage out' site, in that they only display information given to them by others.

I see a lot of GIGO if I follow my local Red Rose routes. Routes set before runnng out of service to the start point is common while some journeys never track, presumably because no route is set in the machine. Add in the drivers' cavalier attitude to the actual routes (wrong way round a circular being the least of it) and i am just grateful that I don't have to rely on the bus stop timetables.

 

[Vexed]

I see a lot of GIGO if I follow my local Red Rose routes. Routes set before runnng out of service to the start point is common while some journeys never track, presumably because no route is set in the machine. Add in the drivers' cavalier attitude to the actual routes (wrong way round a circular being the least of it) and i am just grateful that I don't have to rely on the bus stop timetables.

Another GIGO issue is the ticket machine staying on the previous journey when starting a new one. It's less common than it used to be but does still happen on Red Eagle near me.

 

[nw1]

Just noticed the "predict the rest of the duty" feature on Bustimes for Bluestar seems to have returned, having been missing of late: presumably the block info is now included again.
Checked a couple of vehicles currently on the 1.

 

[Strathtay 260]

Bustimes.org seems to have stopped tracking Stagecoach buses which aren't in service.

 

[Hyebone]

Bustimes.org seems to have stopped tracking Stagecoach buses which aren't in service.

This will be an update to the VIX ticket machines they use.

You'll notice Ticketer and others have never tracked whilst "dead". VIX are just really old!