Migrating to NaPTAN2

The reason for change

The explanation for migration was given in a letter from DfT, dated 15/11/2005, to the Head of Transport in all transport authorities responsible for maintaining NaPTAN.

...the DfT — in conjunction with those who already use or will be making extensive use of the data
— has conducted a thorough review of the original NaPTAN database standard (and other related standards).
This resulted in the agreed development of a more robust version of the NaPTAN standard.  NaPTAN v2 is
the new standard.  It has already been implemented on the national NaPTAN database, using data imported
from local databases still operating to the v1 standard, as the start of the national migration to the
v2 standard.

A further email letter about the migration was sent in April 2006, asking authorities to confirm which software they intent to use to maintain NaPTAN2 data.

The techical documents relating to the version 2 standard are on the Kizoom website.

They list the benefits of NaPTAN2 as being:

a small number of enhancements to the data which NaPTAN contains
a large number of tecnical improvements
further enhancements planned to allow change-only updates

(It is hoped to obtain more details of these improvements so that they can be listed here)

A format and a standard

The conversion of data to NaPTAN2 firstly reorganises the position of the existing fields to the new format and field names. This is relatively straightforward. A NaPTAN2 format of all data is available to download already through an automatic conversion process. DfT request that all authorities should be uploading data in NaPTAN2 format by the end of 2006.

There then needs to follow a process of adjusting the content of the reorganised fields to meet the standards. This can be a lot of work and no deadline has been set for the data to comply. Once a region has converted to upload NaPTAN2 format feeds, users will not necessarily be able to depend on the content of the new fields meeting the NaPTAN2 standards.

The TransoniQ software (formerly Trandata)

The software offered by Dft is available from Paul Houghton at TransoniQ. The software is supplied to the relevant transport authorities at no cost:

loaded with a version of the current data for NaPTAN2
loaded with data for neighbouring areas
with training materials. and
any bug fixes will be rectified until the end of 2006
a perpetual licence to use the software supplied

Maintenance, support and upgrades to the software including bus stop asset management is the responsibility of the transport authorities to purchase from TransoniQ.

Alternative software

The DfT letter of 15/11/2005 states:

Authorities should consider with their relevant regional traveline data manager whether the supplied
software would be helpful to them, or whether there is a regional preference for an alternative and
equally competent source of software for this purpose.  Any alternative will be a matter for each
authority to acquire from its own resources, but it is essential that whatever software is used provides
complete implementation of NaPTAN v2 standard and a wide range of logical data checks over and above
those which the XML schema can impose. A list of the checks that any alternative software should make
can be made available on request from December 2005.

What does Migration involve?

DfT guidance has already requsted that transport authorities update their existing NaPTAN (1) to avoid certain characters which in NaPTAN2 are not permitted in the names of stops and localities and (2) to secure consistency in data where a record is not populated with relevant data.

The NaPTAN data available to download from the National site is in NaPTAN2 format with an option to continue to download NaPTAN1. The conversion from one to the other is carried out by Thales whatever version is submitted, though not all the fields in NaPTAN2 will be populated if NaPTAN1 data is submitted. CSV and XML formats downloads will continue to be available for NaPTAN1 and NaPTAN2 formats.

If you choose to take the TransoniQ software, it will come populated with the last upload of your data as converted to NaPTAN2 by Thales, including the character changes referred to in the DfT guidance, and also some additional processing by TransoniQ to fit your place names into the new fields. You may wish to find out more details of any changes made to ensure that your data will continue to meet all your requirements.

Throughout 2006, you will continue to be able to upload data in NaPTAN1 format from your existing system, and you will be able to get an update of your TransoniQ system when you are ready to switch over to it for submitting your regular updates in NaPTAN2 format.

You should plan your migration in conjunction with your regional data manager to ensure that there are no consequences for the use of NaPTAN data within your regional systems.

DfT hope that all areas will migrate to NaPTAN2 as soon as possible and in any case before the end of 2006.

Comparison

How does NaPTAN2 compare with NaPTAN1?