Archived bus running times?

[TheManOnThe172]

Our Parish Council is worried about performance of the local six-times-a-day bus service, and before going further, I want to establish exactly how bad things are.

I can see that Bustimes will show at-the-time locations (when it works), but can't I find any archived source that would allow periodic analysis of how often a service has been cancelled or ran seriously late, in that way that one could use RealtimeTrains or similar for rail timings.

Can I check that I haven't missed something?

 

[dodecahedron67]

Bustimes will allow you to view up to 2w in the past I believe

Aside from that you're looking at a bus company's own internal systems or manually logging all current and future bustimes reports into an excel spreadsheet or similar

 

[Murray J]

Bustimes will allow you to view up to 2w in the past I believe

Actually it's far longer than that, the records go back to January 2023. Depending on the bus company the tracking may be incomplete however, and anyone going through it will need the timetable to hand to compare with as bustimes don't keep the tracking data linked to a service for more than a few days I think.

 

[JKP]

Is the bus service commercially operated or under a Council contract? If the latter, has the parish council approached the contracting authority? Some Councils monitor performance or can request that the operator provides them with data from the ticket machine and then agree that this data is shared with the PC. It does of course depend on the contracting Council’s conditions of contract and relations with the operator.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

Many Thanks for three very helpful - and rapid - answers.

It is indeed a local authority supported service and I have written to ask the authority what data they get and are willing to share.
As to bustimes - apologies if I am being dim, but I can't see how to access historic data. Am I looking at the wrong site (bustimes.org)? Is there any documentation online to explain how to get the data?

 

[Murray J]

Many Thanks for three very helpful - and rapid - answers.

It is indeed a local authority supported service and I have written to ask the authority what data they get and are willing to share.
As to bustimes - apologies if I am being dim, but I can't see how to access historic data. Am I looking at the wrong site (bustimes.org)? Is there any documentation online to explain how to get the data?

Assuming the bus service you're looking at is run by a company that has real-time tracking for vehicles on you can.

53 - Guildford Bus Stn - Ewhurst The Glebe

Stagecoach South

bustimes.org

As an example look at this one. Click on the vehicles button on the bottom of the page, then click on the date tab to change the date and get running details for other days.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

Assuming the bus service you're looking at is run by a company that has real-time tracking for vehicles on you can.

53 - Guildford Bus Stn - Ewhurst The Glebe

Stagecoach South

bustimes.org

As an example look at this one. Click on the vehicles button on the bottom of the page, then click on the date tab to change the date and get running details for other days.

I can see that works fine for a single-vehicle operator. But for an operator with many vehicles on complex diagrams, doesn't that mean that proving a cancellation would involve checking every one of their vehicles to show that none of them had run the particular service?

 

[dodecahedron67]

I can see that works fine for a single-vehicle operator. But for an operator with many vehicles on complex diagrams, doesn't that mean that proving a cancellation would involve checking every one of their vehicles to show that none of them had run the particular service?

You can view vehicles for a specific route by adding "/vehicles" to the end of a route's URL - fx "https://bustimes.org/services/2-rawcliffe-bar-york-city-centre-circle" becomes "https://bustimes.org/services/2-rawcliffe-bar-york-city-centre-circle/vehicles"

 

[Murray J]

I can see that works fine for a single-vehicle operator. But for an operator with many vehicles on complex diagrams, doesn't that mean that proving a cancellation would involve checking every one of their vehicles to show that none of them had run the particular service?

You may not be able to prove it for definite, particularly as sometimes the tracking software does go down for a few hours or is more dodgy on certain vehicles. But it can give you a good indication. Also do as the post above says.

 

[Roger1973]

Without knowing the specifics, data for 2020-21 may have gaps - many bus operators were changing timetables / schedules frequently and at short notice because of lockdown, schools closing /re-opening and so on, and some operators were more on top of keeping data updated than others.

Bustimes is not an official source, and relies on operators and / or local authorities putting data out as 'open source' in to the public domain.

You may not be able to prove it for definite, particularly as sometimes the tracking software does go down for a few hours or is more dodgy on certain vehicles. But it can give you a good indication. Also do as the post above says.

And, yes, that.

While it would be difficult for Bus Times to show a journey running if it hadn't run, there are a lot of reasons why journeys that do run might not show up. I've seen some fairly large operators not have anything track for a day or so because of some data /technical failure.

 

[Murray J]

And, yes, that.

While it would be difficult for Bus Times to show a journey running if it hadn't run, there are a lot of reasons why journeys that do run might not show up. I've seen some fairly large operators not have anything track for a day or so because of some data /technical failure.

exactly. There's also the situation of some individual vehicles not tracking occasionally for whatever reason.
It's probably doable to look through the data and gain some evidence from it but it isn't 100% accurate.

 

[Roger1973]

The other angle, for a parish council, is for residents / users to note specific times / dates when a bus has failed to run.

Going to the operator and / or county council with specifics is better than saying 'the bus often doesn't turn up'

 

[greenline712]

It's a bit obvious, but because the bus doesn't turn up within the -1/+5 window, doesn't necessarily mean that the bus has been cancelled. We've all seen the effects of "pop-up" roadworks on timekeeping . . . in my area buses have been noted as "not running", whereas they are seriously delayed but still coming down the route.

BusTimes, and other operator-specific apps, are great, but do depend on accurate data being uploaded, and on a reliable sync with the GPS satelite at all times . . . rural areas can be difficult to maintain said signal.

There can be no substitute for the Mark One Eyeball !!

 

[Megafuss]

I can see the service is supported in part by Surrey County Council. It may be worth an FOI for reliability data for the trips or part of the route they pay for. They may even have data on spot checks!

 

[Murray J]

I can see the service is supported in part by Surrey County Council. It may be worth an FOI for reliability data for the trips or part of the route they pay for. They may even have data on spot checks!

That was just an example I used, that's not the route the OP is referring to.
Although given the limited frequency of the service the OP refers to it's quite possible it receives council subsidy, which does open up more routes in complaining to the relevant people at the county level.

A FOI likely won't work as they probably won't hold the information, although if it's a municipal bus company it might be worth a shot.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

You can view vehicles for a specific route by adding "/vehicles" to the end of a route's URL - fx "https://bustimes.org/services/2-rawcliffe-bar-york-city-centre-circle" becomes "https://bustimes.org/services/2-rawcliffe-bar-york-city-centre-circle/vehicles"

Thanks for the help on this. Bustimes.org data showed the relevant trip failing to run on 9 occasions in January (one of which was clearly because of the weather), and I have written to the local authority accordingly.

 

[Man of Kent]

Thanks for the help on this. Bustimes.org data showed the relevant trip failing to run on 9 occasions in January (one of which was clearly because of the weather), and I have written to the local authority accordingly.

If by some chance the operator in question is Hulleys, bear in mind that they have on occasion been using Go Coach vehicles, which may not necessarily show up on Bustimes. Indeed, Bustimes cannot show a trip failing to run, but can only show that there is no evidence that a service ran.
And if it's Stagecoach, I know from personal experience that not all ticket machines track all of the time.....