Archive of bus open data

[Ken H]

There is a load of old paper bus timetables out there. Many are ending up on Timetable World.

But these paper timetables are a thing of the past
Yes we can capture the current timetables timetables

But there is a shedload of current data in the Government Open Bus Database.
I think that should be archived occasionally. Perhaps every 6 months to save for historians in the future.

What do people think? Any ideas how it could be achieved? Is it worth doing?

Its just xml data so should not be massive in disk space requirement.

 

[carlberry]

There is a load of old paper bus timetables out there. Many are ending up on Timetable World.

But these paper timetables are a thing of the past
Yes we can capture the current timetables timetables

But there is a shedload of current data in the Government Open Bus Database.
I think that should be archived occasionally. Perhaps every 6 months to save for historians in the future.

What do people think? Any ideas how it could be achieved? Is it worth doing?

Its just xml data so should not be massive in disk space requirement.

The Omnibus Society has been doing this for several years, since Traveline started publishing it's data.

https://www.omnibus-society.org/

 

[Ken H]

The Omnibus Society has been doing this for several years, since Traveline started publishing it's data.

https://www.omnibus-society.org/

Thanks

 

[shawmat]

Many people will be familiar with https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/, which harvests the public rail data continuously. The question is whether anyone is harvesting bus data continually, not just intermittently as Ken H is suggesting.

Real Time Trains can give away the "as-now" data free because the historical data is where they can make money. Organisations (local authorities, regulators, campaigners) will pay good money for analytics, such as time-keeping, frequencies, disruptions, etc over extended periods. That's why it is important to harvest continuously, store, and come back to the data in a couple of years' time.

The open data service from the Department for Transport is very new: https://data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk/. Now is the time for a start-up business to get into this.

 

[Ken H]

This of course is part of a bigger problem. So much stuff is digital now, so is less likely to end up in boxes in the attic. It will just get purged or lost at some point. Photos, data, documents. All denied to future historians.

 

[Citistar]

It also doesn't help when an increasing number of operators refuse to provide PDF timetables (which can be saved), instead we are forced to use their awful journey planners and on-the-fly timetable generators.

 

[carlberry]

It also doesn't help when an increasing number of operators refuse to provide PDF timetables (which can be saved), instead we are forced to use their awful journey planners and on-the-fly timetable generators.

Arriva must be given credit for their latest website which rendered timetable data unreadable by human or machine!