Providing Data to BODS for Flexible Bus Services

The current data profile for supplying data to BODS supports standard bus services. There are an increasing number of flexible bus services operating and providing sometimes the only public transport provision in an area. There are a multitude of approaches to the specification and promotion of flexible bus services unlike fixed route and timetable services where there are fewer opportunities for divergence from a common approach.

The current TransXChange PTI Profile (TXC-PTI) document specifying how to supply data to BODS provides some headline advice but leaves the detail to a future version.

Following the consultation process that took place earlier this summer an update to the TXC-PTI document is now available.

This updated section of the PTI-TXC profile sets out how the majority of flexible bus services registered as flexibly routed with the OTC can be specified within a BODS compliant manner, enabling data to be provided to BODS and for data consumers to present data in a manner that the operator would expect. The Services supported:

• Do not have a fixed timetable.
• Have a route which may be determined by the requests made by passengers.
• Include those where passengers may need to book in advance of using the service.

A new section of the profile has been produced and updates to a few other sections to reflect flexible services have been made to ensure that it provides the advice necessary for suppliers to provide tools, and bus operators to understand what they need to provide to enable the information to be accurately reflected to the public by data consumers.

Questions should be emailed to txcpti@timrivett.co.uk 

We webinar was held on 14 September 2023 explaining the background to the flexible service document and what is data is required for flexible service data to be provided to BODS.

https://youtu.be/1vvm---W71o