National Coach Services Database

National Coach Services Database (NCSD)

When Traveline started a feed from Natianal Express already included Scottish CityLink services and agreement was reached to incorporate a number of additional coach services and strategic express bus services. Traveline regions imported the National Express data and this ensured that their regional database had a good representation of the coach network across the UK as well as the rail data obtained from RJIS.

It became increasingly apparent that the coach network could not be adequately described by this dataset alone. Megabus and Easybus were not included, Scottish Citylink has now been withdrawn from the National Express data, and the number of longer distance bus services included in the data needed to be increased. DfT therefore agreed to set up the National Coach Services Database and this is now available to be used in Traveline regions and is already used in Transport Direct. Transport Direct describe this in section 8 of their 2005 guidance document. It is maintained for DfT by WS Atkins.

The Traveline data supplier companies have been given details of how to access the data and it can be used in place of the National Express data feed. This provides more coach information for other parts of the UK and benefit journeys planned from your region to other parts of the UK.

A region that contributes data to the database will probably want to suppress the data for bus or coach services in its own region when importing NCSD as a more up to date versions of those services may already be in the local database. Identifiers in the data enable this to be done.

MegabusPlus

MegabusPlus is a service which is sold by Megabus but involves travel for part of the journey by train. The current service (May 2009) involves the train between St Pancras and East Midlands Parkway rail stations. To code this, the service will be shown as a coach without pick up or set down at East Midlands Parkway (as that is not permitted) - and it will terminate at or start from a 9100 stop at St Pancras with a stop type of BCQ (which is what is being used for the coding of some rail replacement bus services where they do not stop close to a rail station). The TIPLOC part of the 9100code will be unique to the BCQ stoppoint - and will be made part of the St Pancras Rail Station stoparea in NaPTAN.