BODS provides bus timetable (TransXChange), real time vehicle location (SIRI-VM) and fares (NeTEx) data for every local bus service in England. It was commissioned following the Bus Services Act 2017, which included improvements designed to make commercial bus services more accessible to passengers. It is a Department for Transport led initiative to enable new applications, products and services for passengers.

The service hasn’t been fully delivered yet, but in time, BODS is likely to replace the Traveline National Dataset (TNDS).

The Bus Open Data Service is used by operators who publish their data, and anyone who wishes to download it. Operator source data can also be downloaded from Passenger’s Open Data Portal.

Open data is data that has been made available to the public for personal, educational or commercial use. It is usually released under an open data license, such as the Open Government License Version 3.0.

Many public transport operators release their data as open data. Certain datasets must be released to the public under UK law – this currently includes TransXChange. From 2020 onwards, this will also include information about fares and vehicle locations, which comes from Automatic Vehicle Location systems.

In 2020, the Department for Transport launched a new service called the Bus Open Data Service, BODS for short. It will become the main online directory of data about buses in England.

A good source of open data in GTFS format, covering UK-based public transport operators, is Passenger’s open data website.

ETA is often displayed on the screens on bus stops or train stations. It is a prediction of when a vehicle will arrive, based on where it is at that moment. It can also be used by a journey planner as an indication of when a traveller will arrive at a destination.