GUIDANCE ON THE USE OF ITO! ROUTES AND SCHEDULES DATA
QUALITY ANALYSIS SERVICE
Version 1.2 : 26 July 2010
Version control :
Version number
0.1
0.1-rs
0.1-rs_sr
0.1-rs_sr_em
1.0
1.1
1.2
Date issued
19 March 2010
28 March 2010
31 March 2010
13 April_2010
15 April 2010
20 April 2010
26 July 2010
1
Comments
First draft version
RS comments added
SR comments added
EM images and order
RS reviewed and released
HP minor updates
RS revised test sequence
and minor edits
Using the Ito data quality analysis service for routes and schedules
This system has been created to review current route and schedule data and to create
reports which show evidence of errors or possible errors in the data. Data is provided
from a number of sources, and the analysis and creation of the reports will be carried
out on Friday night each week.
Details of the datasets used for each week’s analysis is shown under the “dataset info”
tab on the left of the screen.
The total “count” of each type error is affected by whether the service crosses an
admin area border or not. Services which cross a border (and so operate in two or
more admin areas) will have the error reported twice (or more, depending on the
number of admin areas in which the service has stops) – and therefore the “count”
will be higher than the number of actual lines in the error report. Correcting an error
which is counted more than once will reduce the total “count” for that error by more
than one.
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Definitions of the Reports
Stop Missing
Report of stops used in timetables but not found in NaPTAN.
From NaPTAN
Stop Missing
Report of stops used in timetables but not found in either
from NaPTAN
NaPTAN or in a QL record within the timetable data file.
and QL
Timing
Backwards
Report of timing patterns with illegal backward entries. An
illegal entry is one that goes backwards in time between stops, the
arrival is after the departure, or the time between two stops is
implausibly long.
Fast Timing
Point Section
Report of timing patterns with segments that are too fast.
A pair of bus/coach timing points with a “crow fly” travel speed
of over 70mph is deemed too fast. A margin of two minutes is
added to the travel time to account for possible effects of the
arrival and departure times being rounded to the nearest minute.
This test is ignored between adjacent pairs of timing points when
either stop is synthetic (created by ITO without enough
information for an accurate position).
Slow Timing
Point Section
Report of timing patterns with segments that are too slow.
An adjacent pair of non-ferry timing points with a travel speed of
under 1mph (over at least 800m) is deemed too slow. A margin of
two minutes is added to the travel time to account for possible
effects of the arrival and departure times being rounded to the
nearest minute. This test is ignored between adjacent pairs of
timing points when either stop is synthetic (created by ITO
without enough information for an accurate position).
Date Range
Format Illegal
Report of the journeys that have an illegal start date format.
Date Range
Backwards
Journey
Duplicate
Report of journeys that have their start date later than the end
date.
Report of duplicated journeys. A pair of journeys within an area
are regarded as duplicate if they start at exactly the same time,
follow exactly the same timing pattern, and there is at least one
day of their operating period in which they both run.
Report of journeys that are partial duplicates. A pair of journeys
Journey Partial within an area are considered to be partial duplicates if they arrive
at at least 10 of the stops at exactly the same time, and there is at
Duplicate
least one day of their operating period in which they both run.
Stop Type
Inappropriate
Report of stops that have journeys of an inappropriate mode
Stop Variant
Report of journeys connected to the wrong variant of a stop.
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Report of timing patterns with more than four occurrences of a
single stop. While this might not be an error, it is more likely to
Multiple Stops
be due to a coding problem, for example having a single stop
code used for multiple locations.
No Timing
Points
Report of timing patterns with no stops marked as timing points
All Stops
Timing Points
Report of timing patterns for bus and coach journeys with every
stop marked as a timing point. If a timing pattern has over 8
stops, it is unlikely (though possible) that they are all timing
points. This only relates to bus journeys that are not DRT
services.
First Stop Not
Timing
Report showing journeys where the first stop is not a timing
point.
Last Stop Not
Timing
Report showing journeys where the last stop is not a timing point.
Report of timing patterns of bus services where timing points are
more than 20 minutes apart. Journeys on bus services that have
Timing Missing
timing points greater than 20 minutes apart fail the test. Journeys
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with consecutive stops that are greater than 20 minutes will fail
the test if either is not a timing point.
Stop Unused Air Report of unused airports.
Stop Unused
Bus/Coach
Report of unused bus and coach stops.
Stop Unused
Ferry
Report of unused ferry locations.
Stop Unused
Metro
Report of unused metro stops (tram, light rail, underground and
non-national rail).
Stop Unused
Train
Report of unused rail stations.
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Reports on Routes and Schedules Data
Stop Missing
Report of stops used in timetables but not found in NaPTAN.
From
NaPTAN
Objective
Action
This report highlights those stops that are used by services running
during the snapshot week, but are not included in NaPTAN, but are
included in the QL records within the supplied CIF data files
Where a stop is shown within this report, and is a valid stop within a
supplied timetable, the local authority must ensure that it is added to
NaPTAN, as an ACTive stop.
Example
Each of the missing stops in area is shown as a red dot on the area map.
If you click on the name of the missing stop under the map, you can
check which service patterns stop at the missing stop.
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Stop Missing
Report of stops used in timetables but not found in either NaPTAN or
from NaPTAN
in a QL record within the timetable data file.
and QL
Objective
Action
This report highlights those stops that are used by services running
during the snapshot week, but are not included in NaPTAN, and are
also not included in the QL records within the supplied CIF data files.
Where a stop is shown within this report, and is a valid stop within a
supplied timetable, the local authority must ensure that it is added to
NaPTAN, as an ACTive stop.
... continued on next page
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Example
All stops that this test flags will be called “unknown” as there is no
data on them in any of the locations there should be. Clicking on an
“unknown” bus stop you can check which lines stop at it, and thus
where to look in the data to check any unique identifiers were entered
correctly.
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Report of timing patterns with illegal backwards entries.
Timing An illegal entry is one that goes backwards in time between stops, the
Backwards arrival is after the departure, or the time between two stops is implausibly
long.
Objective
Action
To highlight where there may be problems with service timings within
the data.
Local authorities should review any examples found to establish if they
were caused by data input errors (or come from some other source) and
correct these as necessary. Most common causes of this are switched
columns, or due to an error in handling midnight.
Example
In this example the times at stops after Whitchurch (Shrops), Hospital are
incorrect and the time difference between the lines is detected as going
backwards (00:34:00 back to 00:25:00). In the first line it would appear to
be a typo, but as the backwards time continues for the rest of the journey
careful assessment of the data would be recommended.
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Report of timing patterns with segments that are too fast.
A pair of bus/coach timing points with a “crow fly” travel speed of over
70mph is deemed too fast. A margin of two minutes is added to the
Fast Timing
travel time to account for possible effects of the arrival and departure
Point Section
times being rounded to the nearest minute. This test is ignored between
adjacent pairs of timing points when either stop is synthetic (created by
Ito without enough information for an accurate position).
Objective
Action
To highlight where there may be problems with service timings that are
too fast within the data.
Local authorities should review any examples found to establish if they
were caused by data input errors or arose from some other source, and
correct these as necessary.
... continued on next page
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Example
In this example a service is shown as having an impossibly fast
schedule between Wolsingham, Bridge End and Frosterley, Lodge (nw),
covering 39.7km in 7 minutes. This suggests that there are errors in
either the stop or time data.
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Report of timing patterns with segments that are too slow.
An adjacent pair of non-ferry timing points with a travel speed of under
1mph (over at least 800m) is deemed too slow. A margin of two
Slow Timing minutes is added to the travel time to account for possible effects of the
Point Section arrival and departure times being rounded to the nearest minute. This
test is ignored between adjacent pairs of timing points when either stop
is synthetic (created by ITO without enough information for an accurate
position).
Objective
Action
To highlight where there may be problems with service timings that are
too slow within the data.
Local authorities should review any examples found to establish if they
were caused by data input errors and correct these where necessary. It
is recognised that some “too slow” errors arise from the way that
schedules are created by operators to prevent early running and/or to
add contingency times towards the end of journeys – and these clearly
are not errors.
... continued on next page
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Example
In the above example, the times between Halewood, Hollies
rd/Halewood Station and Halewood, Ravenscourt Bus Facility/Stand A
seem to be incorrect as they each take over an hour to travel short
distances. The stop locations appear correct on the map which make it
less likely that they are the source of the problem.
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Date
Range
Report of the journeys that have illegal date range format.
Format
Illegal
This report shows where operating or exception dates run backwards, or do
not have valid end dates. It is accepted that data may need to be set up in
Objective this way for use in downstream systems, therefore the data may not
necessarily be wrong, however this report will provide warnings of where
instances of backward running or missing end dates have been found.
Review of each of the services to check whether the running or exception
dates are correct. In many cases, the end date appears to be earlier than the
Action start date, and this should also be investigated and updated where
appropriate (note - this may be an unexplained feature within Routewise
exports).
Example No current examples to show.
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Date Range
Report of journeys that have their start date later than the end date.
Backwards
Objective
Action
To ensure that journeys are correctly coded with a start date before its end
date unless there is good reason for it being otherwise.
Review the dates to check that they do not contain an error. It is
recognised that some systems require a record to be created this way in
order to hold details for journeys which only ever run on exceptional
dates – such as journeys to football matches.
Example
The date range in the example starts on 24/10/2010 and runs till
18/08/2010.
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Report of duplicated journeys. A pair of journeys within an area are
Journey regarded as duplicate if they start at the exactly the same time, follow
Duplicate exactly the same timing pattern, and there is at least one day of their
operating period in which they both run.
Objective
Action
To enable local authorities to see whether service information has been
included more than once in error.
To review each example to check whether the duplicates are genuine and if
so, remove the duplication. Please ensure that the service is a genuine
duplicate – some service data may look identical, but cover different days
of the week.
Example
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Report of journeys that are partial duplicates. A pair of journeys within an
Journey
area is considered to be a partial duplicate if the services arrive at at least 10
Partial
of the stops at exactly the same time, and there is at least one day of their
Duplicate
operating period in which they both run.
To check whether a journey may be partly duplicated in the data – perhaps
Objective because an old version has not been removed when a revised version was
added.
Review instances where services are timed to arrive at 10 or more stops at
the same time, and arrange for data to be corrected where appropriate.
Action
Review these reports and check whether the conflicting journeys really both
exist or whether one should be removed from the data
Continued on next page...
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Example
In the above example the second journey is the same as the first other than
one stop on the second journey.
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Stop Type
Report of stops that have journeys of an inappropriate mode.
Inappropriate
Objective
Action
To show where stops are linked to journeys of a different mode (e.g.
where a train appears to stop at a bus stop, rather than a rail station).
To review the warnings and correct the error by either changing the
stop used to one for the correct mode, or correct the mode of the
journey, as appropriate.
... continued on next page
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Example
In the above example, the four stops listed are rail stations or taxi
ranks, but they have bus services scheduled to use them, which is not
permitted. This can be checked by clicking onto the stop and checking
the indicator field. Each journey that uses it will detail the type of
vehicle that makes the journey.
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Stop Variant
Objective
Action
Report of stops that have journeys connected to the wrong variant of a
stop.
To ensure journeys are connected to the correct element of a stop. As
an example, a warning would be generated if a journey was connected
to an RSE (rail station entrance) rather than the RLY rail station.
Review the examples and update the data to show the correct variant
where appropriate.
Example
In the above example, the journeys have been incorrectly connected to
either a stop of type RSE (rail station entrance) or a TXR (taxi rank).
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Report of timing patterns with more than four occurrences of a single stop.
Multiple
While this might not be an error, it is more likely to be due to a coding
Stops
problem, for example having a single stop code used for multiple locations.
Objective To highlight journeys that stop more than four times at the same stop.
Review data and recode service timetables to use the correct stops where
Action
necessary. Create new and/or update NaPTAN stops where required.
Example
... continued on next page
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Example
In the above example, this service appears to stop at ‘Bacup stop C’ five
times (only three shown in the section of the route shown) – in this instance
it appears to be logical and not an error.
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No Timing
Report of timing patterns with no stops marked as timing points.
Points
This report highlights any journeys where no stops have been flagged as
timing points.
Ensure that all timing points for the service are encoded correctly. As a
minimum the first and last stops of all journeys should be flagged as
Action timing points and, for bus services, generally there should be no more
than 15 mins between timing points - however this test only identifies
journeys with NO timing points.
Example No current examples to show.
Objective
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All Stops Report of timing patterns for bus and coach journeys with every stop
Timing marked as a timing point. If a timing pattern has more than 8 stops, it is
Points unlikely (though possible) that they are all timing points.
Objective
Action
To find journeys where every stop has been encoded as a timing point in
error.
Review the service information and amend the timing point flags for those
stops which are not timing points.
... continued on next page
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Example
In the above example, every point on this service has been encoded as a
timing point. It is unlikely that this is correct.
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First Stop Not
Report showing journeys where the first stop is not a timing point.
Timing
Objective
Action
Example
To highlight services where the first stop is not a timing point.
Local authorities should review the data and if the first stop should be a
timing point, the data should be amended. Downstream systems which
show only timing points will not show the first section of a journey if its
first stop is not a timing point.
No current examples to show.
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Last Stop Not
Report showing journeys where the last stop is not a timing point.
Timing
Objective
Action
To highlight services where the last stop is not a timing point.
Local authorities should review the data and if the last stop should be a
timing point, the data should be amended. Downstream systems which
show only timing points will not show the last section of a journey if its
last stop is not a timing point.
Example
The timing point for the last stop in the journey is missing. The data
will need to be updated to be a timing point.
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Report of timing patterns of bus services where timing points are more than
20 minutes apart.
Timing
Journeys on bus services that have timing points greater than 20 minutes
Missing 20
apart fail the test. Journeys with consecutive stops that are greater than 20
minutes will fail the test if either is not a timing point.
Objective To show journeys where timing points may be missing from the data.
Review the service data and where required, change the timing points flag
Action
to denote a timing point.
... continued on next page
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Example
Here the second timing point for the journey is 27 minutes into the journey
despite there being many stops between the two timing points. The data
should be checked to make sure a timing point was not missed on entry.
If this is how the service is registered, then the operator’s attention should
be drawn to the requirements to have registered timing points no more than
15 minutes apart where practicable.
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Stop Unused
Report of unused airports
Air
Objective
Action
Provide information about all non-deleted airports in the authority’s
area that were not used by services within the data. NOTE : at present
internal air services are only an integral part of data supplied for
Scotland, so most airports outside Scotland are expected to be listed as
“unused” (in that no air services using them appear in the timetable
data supplied by traveline).
Review whether services should have been using these airports. If
you believe that a stop is no longer active, you should notify the
Transport Direct team (TDPortal.Feedback@dft.gsi.gov.uk), who will
investigate and make any necessary changes.
Example
In the above example, investigations should be carried out as to why
no services were using the airports during the period for which the
data was provided (e.g. do any scheduled domestic flights operate
from this airport). However air services are only included in data for
Scotland, so would not be expected to be present at English airports.
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Stop Unused
Report of unused bus and coach stops.
Bus/Coach
Objective
Action
Provide information about all non-deleted bus and coach stops that
were not used by services running in a local authority within the
snapshot week.
Review whether services should have been using these stops. If stops
are no longer acceptable as bus stops, they should be marked as
DELeted within NaPTAN. If, however, the stops could be reused,
then there is no need to make any changes – an unused stop record in
NaPTAN is not an error if the stop remains available to be used.
Example
In the above example, the stops that are shown should be investigated
to check why they are unused, unsuited for use or used by lacking
schedule data with amendments made to NaPTAN if unsuited to use.
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Stop
Unused Report of unused ferry locations.
Ferry
Objective
Action
Provide information about all ferry locations that were not used by services
running in a local authority within the snapshot week.
Review whether services should have been using these locations. It is
accepted that some ferry locations will only be used during the summer
season, and these should remain ACTive. If you believe that a location will
not be used again, you should notify the Transport Direct team
(TDPortal.Feedback@dft.gsi.gov.uk), who will investigate and make any
necessary changes.
Example
In the above example, investigations should be carried out as to why no
services were using these locations during the period for which the data was
provided (e.g. are these ferry locations only used during the summer
months).
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Stop
Report of unused metro stops (tram, light rail, underground and nonUnused
national rail).
Metro
Provide information about all non-deleted metro/tram/light rail stops that
Objective were not used by services running in a local authority within the snapshot
week.
Review whether services should have been using these stops. If you
believe that a stop is no longer active, you should notify the Transport
Action
Direct team (TDPortal.Feedback@dft.gsi.gov.uk), who will investigate and
make any necessary changes.
Example
In the above example, the stations should be checked to ensure they are all
non-national heritage railways which were either not operating, or for
which no timetable data is included in the supplied data. If mainstream
“metro” stations are shown in this report, then investigations should be
carried out as to why no services were using these stops during the period
for which the data was provided (e.g. was there engineering work
preventing services running to these stops at that time).
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Stop
Unused Report of unused rail stations.
Train
Objective
Action
Provide information about all rail stations that were not used by services
running in a local authority within the snapshot week.
Review whether services should have been using these stations. If you
believe that a stop is no longer active, you should notify the Transport
Direct team (TDPortal.Feedback@dft.gsi.gov.uk), who will investigate and
make any necessary changes.
Example
At present all rail stations are reported as missing as rail timetable data is
not being analysed in the system.
When this changes, investigations should be carried out in all cases as to
why no services were using stops shown in this report during the period for
which the data was provided (e.g. was there engineering work preventing
services running to these stations at that time).
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