We've been busy behind the scenes making BusOva better for everyone. Here's a roundup of what's new.

Live Tracker: Early Preview

We're excited to give you an early look at the BusOva Live Tracker, a new section of the site that lets you track buses in real time across the UK.

The Live Tracker includes:

  • Live departure boards: search for any bus stop and see upcoming departures
  • Real-time bus positions: view live vehicle locations on an interactive map
  • Route explorer: browse routes with maps and timetable data
  • Operator directory: explore operators and the routes they run
  • Stop browser: browse stops by region, county, and district

The tracker is powered by open data from the Bus Open Data Service (BODS), NaPTAN, and GTFS timetable feeds, covering thousands of operators and hundreds of thousands of stops nationwide.

You can access it from the main navigation or visit it directly at busova.com/tracker.

Please note: this is a testing release

The Live Tracker is currently in early testing. While we've worked hard to make it as accurate as possible, you may encounter incomplete data, missing routes, or occasional inaccuracies. It should not be fully relied upon for journey planning at this stage. We recommend using it alongside official operator apps or Traveline for any journeys where accuracy is essential.

We'll continue refining the tracker over the coming weeks, and your feedback is invaluable. If you spot anything that doesn't look right, please let us know via the contact page.

Platform Improvements

Alongside the tracker, we've made several improvements across the main BusOva platform:

  • Better error pages: if you follow a broken link or visit a page for a bus, operator, manufacturer, model, or member that doesn't exist, you'll now see a helpful page with clear navigation instead of a blank error message.
  • Unknown manufacturer & operator pages: when a vehicle's manufacturer or operator hasn't been identified yet, the page now explains the situation clearly and lets you suggest what it might be. Suggestions are reviewed by our admin team.

What's Next

We're continuing to develop the Live Tracker and the core platform. If you have ideas for features or improvements, we'd love to hear from you. As always, the best way to help BusOva grow is to add a bus. Every contribution makes the database more complete.

Thank you for being part of the BusOva community.