BusOva Live Tracker
The BusOva Live Tracker has received a significant round of updates today, improving data quality, adding new features, and fixing several issues that were affecting the user experience. Here is a full rundown of everything that has changed.
Live Map Improvements
The live bus map has been cleaned up considerably. Buses that have not reported any movement for five or more minutes are now automatically removed from the map. Previously, stale vehicles could sit on the map for hours (in some cases over 1,000 minutes), which defeated the purpose of having a live tracker. The map now only shows buses with genuinely recent position data.
All text displayed in bus popups has been cleaned up. Stop names, destinations, origins, and vehicle references that previously contained underscores (for example, "Marina_Cinema" or "Graham_Avenue_Shops") now display with proper spacing. Vehicle registration plates in popups also benefit from this cleanup.
Every bus on the map now displays its operator name when clicked. Previously, only a small number of operators were showing their names due to a data matching limitation. The system now cross-references operator codes against both the GTFS agency data and the full National Operator Code (NOC) database, meaning all operators are correctly identified.
New Vehicles Page
A brand new Vehicles page has been added to the tracker, accessible from the navigation bar. This page lets you select any operator and instantly see all their currently tracked vehicles. For each vehicle, the page shows the vehicle reference, last known route, destination, origin, and how recently the data was updated.
Where a vehicle has already been logged in the main BusOva database, the registration plate is displayed alongside the fleet or vehicle reference. This cross-referencing happens automatically by matching fleet numbers against existing BusOva records. The page also includes a search filter, sortable columns, and a CSV export button for offline use.
Operator Data Corrections
Several operator detail pages were displaying incorrect website URLs. Many operators were showing a generic Traveline link (https://www.traveline.info) instead of their actual company website. This happened because the GTFS feed data was being prioritised over the more accurate National Operator Code data. The system now checks the correct data source first, ensuring operators display their real website.
An admin tool has also been added to allow manual website overrides for any operator. These overrides persist through future data imports, so corrected URLs will never be overwritten by an automated update.
Vehicle Import Tool
A new admin utility has been built to help populate the BusOva database with vehicle registrations discovered through the live tracker. The tool fetches live data from the Bus Open Data Service (BODS), identifies vehicle references that match UK registration plate formats, filters out fleet numbers, and cross-references against the existing BusOva database to avoid duplicates.
Operators are matched by both NOC code and company name, and each imported bus is assigned the correct operator, set to "Active" status, and credited appropriately. This tool has already been used to add new vehicles to the database that were previously unrecorded.
Error Pages
Visiting a page that does not exist on the site previously showed a plain white screen with small default text reading "File not found." All missing pages now display a properly styled error page with navigation options to return to the homepage or go back to the previous page.
What Is Next
We are continuing to develop the Live Tracker with further improvements planned. If you spot any issues or have suggestions, please get in touch through the contact page.