UK public transport data in one API

Your first rail-to-bus integration

Resolve a station, fetch its next departures, then discover nearby bus stops and published routes. These are three authenticated requests; there is no automatic polling.

curl --fail --max-time 15 -H "X-API-Key: $UKPT_API_KEY" "https://api.ukpt.botric.co.uk/v1/resolve?crs=PWY"

import json, os
from urllib.request import Request, build_opener, HTTPRedirectHandler

class NoRedirect(HTTPRedirectHandler):
    def redirect_request(self, req, fp, code, msg, headers, newurl):
        return None  # Never forward the key to another host.

request = Request(
    "https://api.ukpt.botric.co.uk/v1/resolve?crs=PWY",
    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["UKPT_API_KEY"]},
)
with build_opener(NoRedirect()).open(request, timeout=15) as response:
    station = json.load(response)
print(station["id"], station["name"])

# UKPT_API_KEY must already be set in your environment.
node rail-to-bus.mjs PWY

Read the data honestly

• UKPT IDs are opaque strings. CRS identifies railway stations; ATCO/NaPTAN identifies source stops. Use resolve rather than assuming IDs are interchangeable.
• generated_at is response creation time. source_observed_at is the latest contributing live update where available; null means freshness is unknown, not current.
• aimed_departure is scheduled; expected_departure is an available prediction. Check live, cancelled and calendar_status. A GPS position alone is not an arrival prediction.
• Empty departures mean no current results from available imports, not that no services run. Null fields are unknown or unavailable, never zero, false or confirmed access.
• ISO timestamps carry timezone information. Display passenger times in Europe/London, including clock changes. Date-only service_date describes published validity, not confirmed weekday or holiday operation.
• Nearby distances are straight-line metres. Read stops_truncated and services_truncated before treating a bounded list as complete. Nearby route results may be cached for one hour.

A minimal empty board can look like the example below. This is illustrative, not a live observation; consult OpenAPI for the full schema.

{
  "location_id": "ukpt:location:rail:EXAMPLE",
  "location_name": "Example station",
  "mode": "rail",
  "departures": [],
  "message": "No current departures are available from the imported live/timetable data.",
  "generated_at": "2026-10-01T12:00:00Z",
  "source_observed_at": null
}

Coverage and limitations · Rail notices

Errors, limits and polling

Read the HTTP status before parsing a success schema. Error bodies normally contain detail (a string or validation list); do not treat them as an empty board.

Free accounts allow 10,000 requests per UTC calendar month and 60 per minute. Read X-RateLimit-Limit/Remaining/Reset and X-MonthlyLimit-Limit/Remaining/Reset when supplied. Free account allowances are shared across keys, including rotated keys. Internal keys without an account retain their own allowances. Authenticated requests can consume allowance before endpoint validation, including errors and cached responses.

For a small prototype, refresh a visible departure board no faster than every 60 seconds and reuse station IDs and nearby-route results. Continuous one-minute polling uses about 43,200 requests in a 30-day month, beyond the free allowance. Stop when hidden and budget across all endpoints. This recommendation is not a freshness guarantee.

Use the interactive OpenAPI reference for current parameter ranges and schemas. v1 and v2 coexist; a larger version number does not replace every v1 endpoint. No new deprecation guarantee is introduced by this guide.

Sources and configured refresh schedule

Schedules use Europe/London time and describe configured imports, not successful observations or guaranteed freshness. BODS processes one operator code per hour, not the whole catalogue each hour.