The Bus Open Data Service opens today (28/01/2020) and will with time give bus passengers information on timetables, fares and live location to help them plan their journeys. This will be enabled by a DfT project set out to standardise and openly publish information from bus operators. The information on timetables will be available from early 2020, followed by location and fares data during 2021. The hope is that the data will encourage more people to choose buses by making them easier to use - improving connectivity for communities and boosting the environment as more people turn to public transport. 

The Bus Open Data will be available here.

The government will work with technology companies, app developers and information providers to ensure a range of innovative products are designed to make the most of the data and help all bus users make informed choices.

Annual bus statistics for England 2017/18 published in January 2019 showed that the number of local bus passenger journeys in England fell by 1.9% in the year ending March 2018 and 3.2% outside London. 

For more on buses see CIHT's Buses In Urban Developments

The release of open data by Transport for London in 2007 has recently been evaluated in the Deloitte report ‘Assessing the value of TfL’s open data and digital partnerships’. Transport for London is now generating annual economic benefits and savings of up to £130 million for travellers, London and TfL itself with 42% of Londoners reporting they use an application powered by TfL data and 83% reporting they use its website. Similarly, for routes that offered real time service updates, Transport for London reported a two percent uplift in patronage when compared to routes without real time information. If you look outside of London, the availability and quality of information available to passengers when planning their trips, waiting at bus stops, or travelling to their destinations varies considerably. 

The Department says that even though the latest annual bus statistics demonstrated that whilst bus patronage figures have continued to fall year on year, the decline is tailing off. Further, in today's announcement it is stated that in areas where bus operators and local authorities have already invested in their passenger information offer, such as the West Midlands, this trend has been fully reversed with year on year patronage growth of 7.8 million journeys being reported.

Source: www.gov.uk