BusTimes FAQs

Question 1

What is BusTimes and what does it do?

Accepted Answer

BusTimes is an MCP server designed to provide real-time bus departure information for UK bus stops. It scrapes data from bustimes.org and offers tools to fetch live departures and validate ATCO codes, returning structured JSON responses for easy integration.

Question 2

Are there any limitations or important considerations when using BusTimes?

Accepted Answer

BusTimes is currently limited to UK bus stops only. It relies on HTML scraping, which makes it somewhat dependent on the stability of bustimes.org's website structure. It also implements respectful rate limiting (2-second delay per request) and caching, making it unsuitable for extremely high-volume, rapid data fetching.

Question 3

What are ATCO codes and how does BusTimes use them?

Accepted Answer

ATCO (Association of Transport Coordinating Officers) codes are unique 13-character identifiers for UK bus stops. BusTimes uses these codes as the primary input to fetch precise departure information and includes a `validate_atco_code` tool to ensure the format is correct and to retrieve associated stop metadata.

Question 4

How does BusTimes obtain real-time bus information?

Accepted Answer

BusTimes fetches real-time departure data by robustly scraping the HTML of bustimes.org. It also utilizes the bustimes.org API for stop metadata like names and coordinates, ensuring data freshness while adhering to respectful scraping practices with built-in rate limiting and caching.

Question 5

Can BusTimes be easily deployed and integrated into other applications?

Accepted Answer

Yes, BusTimes is built to be Cloudflare Workers compatible, allowing for scalable and efficient deployment. Its structured JSON responses make it straightforward to integrate into various applications, including AI assistants via the MCP protocol or directly as a web service.

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