Regional travel information sites Traveline East Midlands and Traveline South East & Anglia closed on Wednesday 23 September. For over 20 years, the websites provided impartial travel advice using timetables compiled by all of the local transport authorities in the region. The Bus Services Act of 2017 means that by the end of 2020, it will be the bus operators’ responsibility to make available timetable, fares and real-time location data.
A message on the website said: “The Government expects the market (bus operators and internet information providers) to use the latest technological developments to give travel planning information to the travelling public.
“Our website is rather dated now, and without funds to develop it with new facilities, and without enhancements to use the latest software developments, the decision has been taken to close it down. The closure was initially due to take place a year ago, and then at the end of March 2020. The rapidly changing data resulting from the Covid-19 outbreak provided a further extension.
This website’s last day of operation will be Wednesday 23 September, when our software contracts and hosting arrangements come to an end. Once our journey planner is taken offline, this page will offer a number of alternative journey planning websites.
“We will continue to provide data to the Traveline National Dataset as the transition to operators’ data takes place.”
After closure, the site offered potential users links to other Traveline sites, including travelinemidlands.co.uk which provides national coverage and is provided by Traveline West Midlands using a very similar and outdated front end to the closed sites. A more modern alternative is found at travelinesw.com, provided by Traveline South West which also provides national information. The traveline.info site provided by Traveline Information Limited also remains available and again uses a more modern interface that is more adaptable to a range of screen sizes.
