Timetables

The relationship between bus stops both in terms of routes and time of operation, is specified in the timetable.

Data transfer protocols

In order to transfer data between electronic systems the following protocols are in use:

ATCO CIF - has been available for several years and is still widely used in the UK as the main way of transferring data within traveline. It is suitable for transferring data to local authorities and journey planning systems. It lacks some of the features needed for real time systems and it cannot be used to register bus services. It is based on the rail Common Interface File system. The timetable is exported as a series of "station" events. Put them in order and you have a journey. For further information see the ATCO CIF specification
TransXchange. It builds on the Transmodeldata standard and is XML based. It is suitable for transferring bus timetable data to real time systems, local authorities and for registering bus routes with the UK traffic commissioners. In TransXchange the route as a series of journeys is the main unit for the transfer of data. Click here for more information and access to training.

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 Megabus and Easybus were not included, Scottish Citylink has now been withdrawn from the National Express data, and the number of longer distance bus services included in the data needed to be increased.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 will provide more coach information for other parts of the UK and benefit journeys planned from your region to other parts of the UK.

It is hoped that your region will contribute data to the database that will be of use to other regions planning journeys into your area. If you do so, when you import NCSD, you will probably want to suppress the data for bus or coach services in your own region that are already in your database. Identifiers in the data enable this to be done.