Office of Public Sector Information

Posted by: Tom Steinberg

Public Sector Information Holder: Department for Transport

Information Asset: National Public Transport Data Repository

The problem

This dataset contains a snapshot of timetable information across the UK and across many modes of transport, bus, train etc.

mySociety needs this dataset in order to produce real-time versions of the currently non-interactive isochrone travel time maps found here:

http://www.mysociety.org/2007/more-travel-maps/

These maps would have a tangible impact on UK citizens' ability to choose places to live and work that made sense to optimise their commutes.

My ideal solution

We would like this dataset to be made available for free, not for £7500, for the whole of the UK. We would also like it to be made available for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, as we expect that the revenue generated from letting people build experimental business models around it would probably be greater than making people buy first.

What I would do

We would produce an interactive mapping service where users could pick and location in the UK and have isochrone maps based on multi-model public transport journey times drawn for them. These would then help people work out the best places to live to have easy and quick commutes.

If the information was made available for commercial use, we would then start to sell maps like this to commercial buyers who want extra features.