We collect data from over 8,000 different sources to build our comprehensive public transport model
Our public transport model consolidates the timetables from 1000’s of different providers and agencies to produce an overall model of public transport for a country. At last count we had over 3m public transport stops and stations worldwide.
We include all combinations of public transport including train, bus, coach, metro, tram, and ferry. Walking is also included for all public transport journeys.
Our inhouse data team updates this data globally at least every two weeks, so it is always right up-to-date with changes to timetables and services.
To find out more about what data is included in the model, please see our data coverage page here.
Using the model
Walking is included in all our public transport modes, as most journeys don’t start and finish on public transport!
The length of time allowed for walking between different public transport legs (e.g from a bus stop to the train station) is limited to 10 minutes each time.
The length of time allowed for walking at the start and end of the journey (i.e from the origin to the first stop/station, and from the final stop/station to the destination) is configurable to the user. This is perfect for tailoring the model to different individuals, demographics, or even cultural preferences.
Public transport journeys can be very sensitive to the departure or arrival time, as sometimes train and bus services only run once an hour or maybe even less frequently than that. To cope with this we built a feature called Range.
Range allows the user to set a departure or arrival window, instead of a specific time. So for example, a departure window of 8am to 9am. With this enabled, the model will look for any journeys that depart within this time frame.
When working with isochrones, this allows you to create a reachable area based on all of these journeys to remove the sensitivity to a specific time and give a more general view of public transport accessibility. When working with matrices and routes, this allows you to retrieve multiple options for journeys that fall within this window, so you can pick whichever one you want, like in the example below.
While our public transport model always optimises for the shortest journey time, in some use cases the fastest route might not be the ‘best’.
For example, a commuter may prefer a journey that is slightly slower but has fewer interchanges. To work for these different preferences, our model allows the maximum number of changes to be specified.
