What is NaPTAN?

National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN)

Local authorities are using NaPTAN to code information for every public transport access point in the country. This work is the foundation for public tranport database creation and most databases which were set up before NaPTAN have been converted to ensure that they use the NaPTAN numbers.

We think of NaPTAN as the bus stop database but there are many different types of node that should form part of the database for an area:

Main code	Sub code	Type of Stop
BCT	MKD	Marked (pole, shelter etc) on street Bus/Coach/Tram stop
BCT	HAR	Hail and Ride on street Bus/Coach/Tram stop
BCT	CUS	Custom (unmarked, or only marked on road) on street Bus/Coach/Tram stop
BCS	MKD	Bus/Coach bay/stand/stance within Bus / Coach Stations
BCE		Bus/Coach Station entrance
BCQ		Bus/Coach/Tram station variable bay
RSE		Rail Station entrance
TMU		Tram/Metro/Underground Station entrance
FTD		Ferry Terminal/Dock entrance
AIR		Airport entrance
TXR		Taxi Rank (head of)
STR		Shared Taxi Rank (head of)
RLY		Rail Station Platforms
PLT		Tram/Metro/Underground Platforms
FER		Ferry Berth
GAT		Airport Arrival/Departure Gate
MET		Light rail/Underground/Metro station

NaPTAN points appear in Transport Direct in several ways. If you search for:

"all stops" then you are accessing the names of the individual NaPTAN points
a location name or address, Transport Direct will identify the NaPTAN points that are near to the location selected and plan journeys for the bus stops it has selected.

The journeys solutions provided refer to the bus stops using the names for stops given in the NaPTAN data.

SMS text services, which give information about departures from each bus stop, use the NaPTAN records. Each stop has a specially formulated number which is optimised for entering on a mobile phone.

The traveline regional journey planners also use the NaPTAN codes. Some of them display the SMS code for the stop.

NaPTAN points are an important part of Accessibility Planning which is based on the distance between residential addresses and their surrounding bus stops, and the level of services at those bus stops to take people to vital activities. Accessibility is one of the performance measures taken account of in Local Transport Plans.

The DfT maintain a list of some of the software products and service implmentations that use NaPTAN.

Is NaPTAN complete?

There are over 346,000 NaPTAN points recorded across the UK and NaPTAN is thought to be 99% complete. Marked bus stops are complete. Some authorities still have to complete the following record types:

Hail and Ride stops
Custom stops, especially in rural areas where buses may stop at road ends to set down.
Taxi ranks

Delay in completing Hail and Ride or Custom bus stops will impact upon Accessibility Planning. If a bus stop is missing the accessibility process will assume that the nearest bus stop is much further away and the results will show poor accessibility.

Some areas still have only partially completed NaPTAN records and so whereas the quality of the NaPTAN Ordnance Survey Coordinates is very good, the consistency and completeness with which the points are named does vary. This is being tackled under a proposed revision to the specification which introduces NaPTAN2. This will allow the names used to be more precisely defined and the use of them controlled.

The files are placed in a zip directory and should be uploaded to the Thales ftp site. You will need to and further instructions.

Some regions are gathering the NaPTAN data at the regional level and then forwarding it to Thales. This ensures that the latest edition is available in the journey planner and gives some regional overview of the updating process.

Once uploaded Thales will check the data and send a report to the nominated person in each local authority area.

If there are no significant errors in the data it will be uploaded to form part of the national dataset.

It may take up to 14 days for the revised data to appear in Transport Direct and the Naptan Viewer.