I'm sorry to hear that, how strange. Would it be possible to share a screenshot of this happening?
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BusTimes.Org
- Thread starter cambsy
- Start date
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RailUK Forums
Currently working fine for me using Firefox.
It's just a generic 400 error, if you really need to see how Firefox handles these:
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Had no issues up until today and am a regular user of the site.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Odd - what version are you on? I upgraded to 149.0.2 last week, but I'm fairly sure I've used it since then. Can't be anything else on the PC blocking it as it works in Edge, and in Chrome on another laptop and mobile.
Had no issues up until today and am a regular user of the site.
I am on 149.0.2 and not had any issues and actually just checking my version it said there was a new version which I have now updated too and seems fine on 150.0 also.
149.0.2
Statto
Established Member
One thing that still annoys me with bustimes.org, it's still quite vague as to what Town/City the route serves, like this Stagecoach East Scotland 99, it just has David Russell Apts - Dundee, why can it not just say St Andrews - Dundee, as it does at the top of the page, same with the timetable section were it just shows bus station, why not St Andrews bus station?
Except in a few cases where there's been intervention, bustimes is just putting information from Stagecoach and the Naptan database (where bus stop names are stored) into a presentable and useful form.One thing that still annoys me with bustimes.org, it's still quite vague as to what Town/City the route serves, like this Stagecoach East Scotland 99, it just has David Russell Apts - Dundee, why can it not just say St Andrews - Dundee, as it does at the top of the page, same with the timetable section were it just shows bus station, why not St Andrews bus station?
markymark2000
On Moderation
The route descriptions there are in the Stagecoach open data file. The specific ways of creating the descriptions seems to slightly vary slightly by data source, but in the case of this route, the headline description looks to come from the "standardservice" tags, and the smaller titles above the timetables come from the "outbounddescription" and "inbounddescription" tags. I will say though that largely Stagecoach commercial teams don't seem to care about the accuracy or usefulness of these descriptions and so that causes some issues. Some of the descriptions (if not all of them) are autogenerated by OmnibusOne thing that still annoys me with bustimes.org, it's still quite vague as to what Town/City the route serves, like this Stagecoach East Scotland 99, it just has David Russell Apts - Dundee, why can it not just say St Andrews - Dundee, as it does at the top of the page, same with the timetable section were it just shows bus station, why not St Andrews bus station?
Sidenote, I'll never understand too why so many Stagecoach commercial teams struggle to make layovers/dwells in bus stations work properly. They almost always set it up to a random arrivals stand/bus station entrance (sometimes with a set down only restriction) then another stop for the departure time, sometimes with pick up restrictions. West Scotland and Yorkshire seems to be do well at making it work most of the time, why can't most of the other areas learn how to set up the stops and times properly in Optibus.
pepperpot80
Member
Indeed, and the bus operators sometimes use the three different route description structures differently, e.g:
field with stop-level origin and destination "David Russell Apts - Dundee City Centre Bus Station", matching the
and
in the same structure. I'm guessing it's this field which bustimes uses to populate the timetable headers in each services page.
Critically, none of the above fields accept an ATCO or NaPTAN reference, they're free text fields, so there's not a trivial means for bustimes to instead reference the associated Locality from NaPTAN.
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is used to give the [Locality] level description, e.g. St. Andrews - DundeeCode:
<Routes><Route><Description>... -
are used to give a stop-level origin and destinationCode:
<Services><StandardService><Origin> and <Destination> -
is used to give a stop level description, often build from the origin, destination and (if provided) any via pointsCode:
<Services><StandardService><Description>... -
might be alternatively be used to instead provide the stop-level origin and destination (even though this is already implied by the JourneyPattern id).Code:
<Services><StandardService><JourneyPattern=><Description>...
Code:
<Services><StandardService><Description>
Code:
<Origin>
Code:
<Destination>Critically, none of the above fields accept an ATCO or NaPTAN reference, they're free text fields, so there's not a trivial means for bustimes to instead reference the associated Locality from NaPTAN.
TR673
Member
What's going on with the "map" column on the page which shows you which trips each vehicle worked?
Usually you can view the plotted line on the map for a couple of weeks before it gets deleted and is incredibly useful for seeing specifically where X vehicle was at Y time.
But at the moment I'm looking and for every vehicle I've checked across multiple operators, the "map" column is totally missing for all previous days, and in many cases this morning too, like the data has been wiped.
Example of TrentBarton 741 where all map/tracking data before 7am today appears to have been lost:
If they've started deliberately wiping the tracking info after a just a few hours that's pretty poor.
Usually you can view the plotted line on the map for a couple of weeks before it gets deleted and is incredibly useful for seeing specifically where X vehicle was at Y time.
But at the moment I'm looking and for every vehicle I've checked across multiple operators, the "map" column is totally missing for all previous days, and in many cases this morning too, like the data has been wiped.
Example of TrentBarton 741 where all map/tracking data before 7am today appears to have been lost:
If they've started deliberately wiping the tracking info after a just a few hours that's pretty poor.
I spotted that as well. I am on the committee of our local transport user group and we use thus to monitor route changes and verify the details of complaints from the public.
py_megapixel
Established Member
Not really. It's a free service provided by a hobbyist, and storing large amounts of data is expensive!
Has there been an update whereby overnight journeys are duplicated across days and show at the start and end of consecutive days? For example, a Tuesday service leaving at 25:30 (01:30 [+1]) will appear as such at the end of the day on the Tuesday service as well as 01:30 on the Wednesday service, and the Wednesday 25:30 (01:30 [+1]) will appear at the end of the day on Wednesday and first thing on Thursday.
Examples: Route 343 and Route m1
If that is deliberate, I can certainly understand the rationale, as if it’s early on in the day and the trips were associated with the day before then you couldn’t see them before the change. However, it would be ideal if it were clear which trips were associated with which day.
Examples: Route 343 and Route m1
If that is deliberate, I can certainly understand the rationale, as if it’s early on in the day and the trips were associated with the day before then you couldn’t see them before the change. However, it would be ideal if it were clear which trips were associated with which day.
joieman
Member
I noticed that this morning as well; irritatingly, the bus that I was trying to track, which was supposed to have taken me into Leicester, wound up taking a shortcut on account of lateness and missed my stop. In the rain.
Statto
Established Member
One thing using the live tracking map is that stupid disclaimer, which on a mobile device in mobile format, i finding annoying & quite intrusive. You used to be able to switch that disclaimer off, but seems you can't do that on a mobile device now.
What disclaimer? I don't see one when tracking buses.
Statto
Established Member
Well more banner than disclaimer which shows, @ Stadia Maps, @ Open Map Tiles @ Open Street Map banner, which is a sticky banner that can't be removed which i find annoying & intrusive.
BUS TIMES LTD filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
BUS TIMES LTD - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activityfind-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
How does bustimes.org make money? Seems to be quite a money-spinner!
CAPITAL AND RESERVES at 31 May 2025: £638,792
Dai Corner
Established Member
- Joined
- 20 Jul 2015
- Messages
- 6,989
pokemonsuper9
Established Member
Sorry, I'm not too familiar with reading these submissions, does that show they made ~£200,000 in 2025?
That's very impressive given the only monetisation is ads.
Glad to see it, it is a very useful resource and if advert income keeps it going I'm all for it.
Great. It’s a really useful source of information and if making this money means it continues to be available then that is great. Well done JG for finding the niche, making it work and monetising it.
MCR247
Established Member
- Joined
- 7 Nov 2008
- Messages
- 10,290
To be fair, once a site hits a large number of regular views, even a couple of mistaken clicks start to add up
I know that some websites, particularly newspapers and media, are getting tougher on advert blocking extensions and it’s ’pay or allow third party cookies and advertising’, though content blocking tools can usually override this restriction.
I often wether subscription options, say £3 or £5 a month would bring in more revenue than ads?
I often wether subscription options, say £3 or £5 a month would bring in more revenue than ads?
pokemonsuper9
Established Member
If everyone paid for subscriptions, they would (see YouTube Premium which makes more money for creators and youtube).
But not everyone will pay, you would make less money as a whole by restricting access to only payers, if you left ads avaliable people would use adblockers - the war by YouTube against adblockers still goes on today, the adblockers get blocked for about a day every few months before it gets fixed overnight by the developers.