Bus Open Data
The Bus Services Act 2025 builds on the open data regime the 2017 Act created – widening what operators can be asked to provide, and bringing registration and open data closer together. We build the tools that make producing high-quality, compliant data a routine part of the job rather than a scramble.
The Bus Services Act 2025
The Bus Services Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. Alongside new powers for franchising and enhanced partnerships, it widens the information bus operators can be asked to provide – and it does so by extending the open data power that the Bus Services Act 2017 created, rather than starting again.
Registration and BODS, brought together
The Department for Transport plans to fully digitise the registration, variation and cancellation of local bus services, and to link that system with BODS so operators can provide registration and open data in one place. Its consultation on the proposals closed on 23 September 2026.
We support the idea: the same timetable should not have to be prepared twice, in two different ways. But it will only work if acceptable provision is made for smaller operators and community transport, who rarely have the specialist staff or software that larger groups rely on.
Richer, service-level data
The Secretary of State can require further information about local services and their operators – including passenger numbers, vehicle features and equipment, mileage and journeys run, and the cost of operating services and the staff engaged.
Registration data, shared
Information given when a service is registered, varied or cancelled can be required to go to prescribed bodies, not only the traffic commissioner, and passed on to the Secretary of State.
Historic statistics, published
Operator statistics collected in confidence since May 2015 – vehicles, passengers, revenue, costs and staff – can be published, after 30 days’ public notice.
Most of the detail will be set in regulations, and some provisions are not yet in force; no implementation dates have yet been set.
What the 2017 Act established
The Bus Services Act 2017 required operators of local bus services in England to publish timetable, real-time location and fares information in open electronic formats.
To make that practical, the Department for Transport established the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) in January 2020 as the central portal for operators outside London. Data published through it must meet defined format and quality expectations – including the TransXChange 2.4 Bus Open Data profile for timetables. Those obligations remain the baseline the 2025 Act builds on.
Compliance is a data-quality problem
Meeting a deadline is one thing; publishing data that is genuinely accurate, consistent and useful is another. Our tools were built for the second problem – and the 2025 Act raises the stakes, because when registration, open data and operational data are all expected to agree, one controlled record matters more, not less.
We launched TransXChange Studio in early 2022 to help operators view, validate and visualise timetable data and check it against the BODS profile. The same thinking runs through our Timetable Management Platform, which adds stop data, contracts and controlled publishing.
- View, validate and visualise timetable data
- Check against the TransXChange 2.4 BODS profile
- NeTEx fares data creation
- Improve data quality and consistency
- Support internal compliance as well as BODS
Talk to us about Bus Open Data
To find out more about Bus Open Data, what the 2025 Act means for your data, and how we help operators create high-quality, compliant data, get in touch.