StopToStop
Live bus times for every route in Norfolk and Suffolk, in one place: departures from every stop, a live map of every bus, a journey planner, and an iPhone and iPad app. Designed, built and hosted by Web Services Suffolk.
The problem
Bus information in Norfolk and Suffolk is split across more than twenty operators, each with its own website, app and timetable format. Passengers in rural villages, where the bus is often a lifeline, had no single place to see every service, or to know where their bus actually was.
What we built
StopToStop brings every route together using the Department for Transport's Bus Open Data Service, the official feed of timetables and live bus positions, refreshed nightly. A routing engine plans door-to-door journeys, and live positions are matched to timetabled journeys so each departure shows how late or early the bus is running.
We then made every county, town, route and stop its own fast, readable page, so the site is found in Google and quoted by AI assistants, and wrapped the whole thing in a native iPhone and iPad app.
Features
Live departures from every stop
Each stop shows its next buses, with live times estimated from where each bus actually is: not just the printed timetable.
A live map of every bus
Every bus reporting its position appears on the map, moving in near real time. Tap one to follow it along its route.
Door-to-door journey planner
Journeys by bus with walking directions and changes, powered by a dedicated routing engine loaded with the full regional timetable.
iPhone and iPad app
A native app with a lock screen countdown for your bus (Live Activities), home screen widgets, Siri shortcuts and "time to leave" alerts.
Built for Google and AI search
Thousands of fast, server-rendered pages (every route, stop and town) with structured data, so people find their bus straight from a search.
Tools that grow it
An admin panel with usage and data-health dashboards, an embeddable live departures box for other websites, and outreach tools.
Under the bonnet
- React and TypeScript front end, server-rendered pages for search engines
- Node.js API with live data from the DfT Bus Open Data Service (timetables, positions and disruptions)
- OpenTripPlanner routing engine and MapLibre vector maps
- Native iOS app with Live Activities, widgets, Siri and push notifications
- Self-hosted on our own infrastructure with nightly automated data rebuilds
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