The Bing Maps public transit directions service no longer includes bus routes across most of the UK. Is this being fixed?

Paul Ainsworth 11

I'm running a project that relies on Bing Maps public transport route data. When I first started using Bing Maps (about a year ago), it was able to provide data on both train and bus routes across the UK. Now, Bing maps no longer includes bus routes, except for in a few major cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester.

As an example, when I search for directions from Leeds to Guiseley, I know there are two bus services (First Leeds 33 and 34) that run this route. Other mapping services pick these up, but looking for transit directions in Bing now shows the train as the only public transit option. It does not offer the bus routes even though First Leeds is supposed to be included in its coverage: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/coverage/transit-coverage/europe

This pattern is repeated across the entire UK. From the coverage link I've sent above, it appears that a lot of the bus routes that are now missing come via the same source, a service called 'Traveline', so I can only conclude that the connection between Bing and Traveline has somehow broken.

Please could you look into this. If you need more examples, I can send you as many routes as you need with missing bus routes (all of which are supposed to be there according to your documentation) - as I said this seems to be an issue that covers almost the entire UK bus network and is an issue that has only arisen in the past year.

Thanks,

Paul

IoTGirl 2,976 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-03-05T18:23:26.3833333+00:00

Hi Paul,

I have let the Microsoft Maps Routing team know and they will look into it. Can you confirm you see the same behavior on Bing.com/maps? We do rely on RSS Feeds from the bus company to ensure we have their schedule so they may have stopped providing it to us. Do you know which lines are not reporting? Can you provide company names?

Sincerely,

IoTGirl
Paul Ainsworth 11 Reputation points

2024-03-06T11:06:23.0033333+00:00
Hi IoTGirl,

Thanks for the quick response! I can confirm that the behaviour described happens on Bing.com/maps.Here are some of the bus companies that are missing. As I said, the issue seems to be affecting almost every bus route in the UK, so this is just a small selection based on a quick search of a few routes:

First Leeds

First South Yorkshire

Nottingham City Transport

First in Bristol, Bath and the West

Stagecoach Supertram

Stagecoach North East

Arriva North East

They are all supposed to be included according to the Bing transit coverage page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bingmaps/coverage/transit-coverage/europe

When you click the link to these routes on the transit coverage page, they all take you to the 'Traveline' page. So I assume the issue is that Traveline RSS feed is no longer working.

Thanks,

Paul
Paul Ainsworth 11 Reputation points

2024-03-12T09:57:11.3833333+00:00

Hi IoTGirl,

Do you have any sense of how long this issue might take to fix? I've done a bit more research and found that over 90% of bus services in the UK (1225 out of 1336) come to Bing via the Traveline feed according to your transit coverage page. So over 90% of UK bus services are currently missing from Bing Maps.

Thanks,

Paul
IoTGirl 2,976 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-03-12T19:23:59.6666667+00:00

Hi Paul,

No idea at this point. The issue is with our data provider and they have been informed. As soon as their feed is back up, our site should be fixed.

Still not fixed to date (March 26th)

Sincerely,

IoTGirl