A new forum has been launched by industry members that include major bus groups and independents, local authority representatives, independent watchdog Transport Focus and open data consumers and suppliers, to unite stakeholders and consumers of the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) with the aim to improve communication and best practice.
Facilitated by the Transport Open Data User Forum (TODUF) and chaired by Transport Focus, the forum’s launch coincides with the ongoing procurement process for the next phase of the BODS contract, due to be awarded by the Department for Transport (DfT) later this year.
BODS is currently managed by KPMG International and Ito World and has become a central resource for operators, local authorities and developers working with open transport data. As its contract comes up for renewal, stakeholders are eager to ensure the next phase builds on the achievements of the past five years.
The forum is open for use by anyone interested in any aspect of BODS and can be used to share news, views and experiences towards improving BODS for data consumers and passengers. One of the primary goals of the forum is to establish an unofficial BODS User Workstream, which will address three key areas:
- An open platform for sharing experiences, news and case studies related to BODS
- Engagement with DfT, ensuring stakeholder feedback is considered during the procurement process
- Support for the BODS retender process and ensuring bidders and DfT understand what improvements are needed.
Engagement with the forum is critical to ensuring BODS acts as a “single source of truth” for bus service data, and progress continues to be made on the foundation laid by KPMG and Ito World. Julie Gray, Chief Executive of Traveline and a key player in the forum’s creation, says the forum serves as a “task and finish” platform for open dialogue about BODS, and ideally would be handed over as part of the procurement progress.
“Because you can’t reach out to everybody easily on such a huge multi-operator, multi- stakeholder project, it’s a difficult manage and we want to give some support to that. We would hope that this forum would be able to be handed over as part of a new contract.
“This can very easily become about the systems and what they do and don’t do, and we feel that we need to maintain the focus of stakeholders on delivering for the customer, which has got to be the only reason why BODS is there — to provide better quality information systems by making good quality open data that is free at the point of access.
“We all felt the focus needed to be on BODS because the contract is in procurement. Applicants are being shortlisted and bidders will be invited to run the new BODS contract from later this year. This is why the timing is so important — there are people who have been involved closely in the project with a familiarity of how it works.
“This is an opportunity for us to build on what has been achieved in BODS across the different data sources. There are a number of things we’d like to see improve, one of which is stakeholder engagement, which is how we got to where we are. It’s a huge, complex project, and a lot has been achieved; the opportunity in this contract is to build on that and make it even better.”
