To achieve customers’ expectations and the benefits of real time information is it is important that the necessary data is readily available and of good quality to enable easy processing.
The Bus Open Data programme, coming from the Bus Services Act 2017, places a requirement on all bus operators of local bus services across England to openly publish timetables, fares and location data for their registered services. This includes producing SIRI (VM) data containing their vehicles location as open data. While SIRI has been around for many years now, and is a mature standard, there are different ways in which data can be constructed within the standard.
As part of the Bus Open Data Service (BODS) programme, the Department for Transport (DfT) has developed a SIRI (VM) profile to support BODS. The aim of this profile is to specify a consistent use of elements and a consistent way of using SIRI VM that will be used within BODS and which will lead to a higher quality data set and, at the same time, lower the barriers to entry by users new to SIRI.