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How to name bus stops in NaPTAN

Published: 07/12/2024

Use these principles so you can:

  • update your data to accurately describe bus stops
  • use best practice to complete basic NaPTAN fields for bus stops

Start by putting yourself in the passenger's shoes

Your responsibility is to help passengers understand where they are, where they can get to, when and how.

The NaPTAN data described simply is 'what is where'. When you add or edit data in NaPTAN, ensure that you are describing bus stops accurately and usefully so passengers can travel.

Put yourself in the passenger's perspective so that you can:

  • upload accurate data
  • help passengers travel easily without getting lost or confused

Use enough unique information so passengers can use stops

You might need adjust the amount information used to describe a stop depending on where the stop is and how easy it might be to find.

You can name a stop usefully by filling in several key fields:

  • Common name - this is the name most usually used for a specific stop, for example, Post Office
  • Street - for example Stamford Road
  • NPTG locality code - this will let you know which Post Office is being referred to. In this example it is Weekley, E0049752
  • Indicator - this identifies the relation of a stop to the nearest or clearest marker, for example opposite, adjacent (close to, next to or nearest), eastbound (in this example "opp" for opposite)

There is a limit for the Name and Street fields of 48 characters.

Alternative Descriptor can be used for local names, for example, that a bus stop named after a street is more usually known by the name of the pub that is opposite the stop. For example, the stop Dunston Road is often known as Old Kent Road Tesco.

Use relevant information

Making stop information useful for passengers means making it relevant to where they are and where they need to go.

Passengers can easily get confused when travelling, for example:

  • deciding which of several stops to use around a busy train station
  • where the nearest stop is in the middle of the countryside
  • where to stand for a bus when there are no markings

Use stop types correctly

The stop types are used to describe how the stop is on the street:

  • MKD stop is a bus stop with a physical marker, a pole, a flag, or road markings
  • CUS stop is a bus stop that has no physical markers, and is in a specific single spot
  • HAR stop is an area of the road where a bus can be hailed (waved at) and will stop

Providing meaningful stop descriptions

Filling in NaPTAN fields usefully means describing stops so they are meaningful to passengers.

Provide meaningful stop descriptions allows the passenger to understand where they are, where they need to be and how to get there.

Pay attention to how the Common Name, Street, Locality Name and Indicator will combine. Used in combination, they can give a very clear description of the stop so that the journey planner apps can display this to passengers.

For example:

Fields: Common Name, Street, Locality and Indicator

Descriptors: Post Office, Stamford Road, Weekley (opp)

When you use a journey planner, the planner can use the NPTG locality information about a place (a set of co-ordinates for each locality) to plan your journey to that destination.

Locality can be used by journey planner apps to plan a journey to an area (e.g. Weekley) which will show all of the stops available in that area.

Check your stop descriptions work with what passengers see elsewhere

When you describe stops in NaPTAN it should match what passengers might understand from what they see elsewhere.

For example, information in NaPTAN fields should match to the sign on a physical bus stop, or on Bus Operator websites.

Don't repeat information

Passengers need to be able to identify stops quickly and easily across multiple devices, including their mobile phones and, when they get to a stop, using electronic passenger information displays or systems.

Repeating the same information across fields is not helpful.

Look at how the Common Name, Street Name, and Locality will combine.

A good example is: Post Office, Stamford Road, Weekley (opp).

Keep the information separate

Use separate information in the fields when you describe stops.

Do not combine different pieces of information in one field, for example putting 'Opp St Mary’s Upper Street Islington' into one field.

Adding the Indicator to the Common Name makes it harder for the journey planner apps to accurately describe the stop.

The example stop could be "Opp Weekley Post Office", Stamford Road, Weekley (opp) - this would repeat the Locality and Indicator field.

Keeping the information separate makes the data more useful for journey planners and means they can display meaningful information to passengers.

Make sure your data is up to date

All of the data you provide or edit, for the stops your data describes, should be up to date.

Make time to regularly review your data to be sure it’s accurate.