Stop activity - Driver changes

NCSD - National Coach Services Database
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I submitted some feedback to the BODS team (14th March) regarding the Coach data and the inclusion of the operationally specific custom stops that are not relevant to passenger facing information, in particular:

  • |9990147B8195|M6 Rugby (Driver change - no drop off)|
  • |99905D87F1C7|A1 Brampton Hut (Driver change - no drop off)|

They appear in Flixbus 023, N23 and 002. In the data they are pickUpAndSetDown which means timetables and journey plans using this data could show these stops as potential boarding or alighting points.

The CommonName suggests these are no drop off. As such, we’d expect the stop Activity to be pickup Only - although looking at the Flixbus website it doesn’t appear possible to book tickets to or from these sites so would “pass” be more appropriate?

I’ll update this thread with any response I receive from the BODS team.

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Thanks Amy.

The M6 stop is one of the use cases for the introduction of the new 999 stop area code - operationally important stops which are non-paseenger.

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You know my views on this, however worth putting in writing. If these stops do need to be included in the output, they should definitely not have any flag other than pass in the data, this should also be in the TXC data itself, not the lookup file.

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From what I can see, in the reference file at least, currently all GB-based 999 stops are pickUpAndSetDown. I’ll have to work out what lines use them to find the relevant TXC and see what the activity is within the file. I suspect some of the others might be intended for dead runs but the two I mentioned got my attention first because of the “no drop off” common names:

AtcoCode CommonName
99909CFE2665 Manchester (Moss Lane East)
9990CADB0A48 Norwich (University of East Anglia)
9990914A915D Newquay Bus Station
9990147B8195 M6 Rugby (Driver change - no drop off)
9990FE41977E Cheltenham (Arle Court Transport Hub)
999044601EF6 London Gateway services
99905D87F1C7 A1 Brampton Hut (Driver change - no drop off)
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Dan -
Interesting dilemma here.
if a vehicles are stationary at the location for a period - which is likely to be a reasonable length of time given they are mainly used for driver breaks, change overs etc then why would it be set to pass?
If a stop is set to pass then it suggests it doesn’t stop and consuming systems may therefore ignore any WaitTime which is set for the duration of the stationary time.
Would the use of 999 stop help with your views? as they could then be excluded from public view?

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Hi Tim,

I think that many systems are tied into pickup and setdown to determine where you can access a service.

I am not a big fan of 999 stops for these purposes, this is because if I was to come across this data (having had knowledge of TXC) and then load this into a system, you could in fact be able to see a service area as a way to get on/off a coach. I get it for other stops such as foreign stops or festival drops offs where a NapTAN would not be appropriate, but in this example I fear it could be misleading downstream.

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