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Every local transport authority in England must publish its first Bus Network Accessibility Plan by 1 April 2027. The plan has to assess how well the whole bus journey works for disabled people, rate each part of the network from 0 to 5, and commit to dated improvements. DfT published its guidance on 28 August 2026, which leaves authorities about six months to co-design, assess and publish. This briefing note sets out what the duty asks for and what it means in practice.

We have responded to the Department for Transport consultation on the Bus Services Act 2025 – improving information about local services.

Our response can be viewed as a PDF:

https://www.rtig.org.uk/system/files?file=Consultation-Responses/RTIG-c130%20Bus%20Service%20Act%202025%20Consultation%20Response.pdf

The Bus services around the Christmas and New Year period will often operate differently to normal weeks. 

The data for use in services such as the Department for Transport Bus Open Data Service , Traveline, journey planners, real time systems and mobile phone apps all need to be updated to reflect the changed operation. 

This advice deals with how to prepare data for the BODS and other systems to ensure that it is correct for the Christmas and New Year 2026-27 holiday period. 

The September newsletter has been published and available to download from Documents / Newsletters

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There is a requirement to indicate non-passenger stops (driver rests, driver change over, depots, and waiting time stops) so that these can be included in TransXChange (TXC) files in National Coach Service Database (NCSD), and Bus Open Data Service (BODS) without requiring a stop to be created in the NaPTAN database by an authority. These locations are not used by the public to access or exit public transport, they are required for operational management purposes by operators.