NaPTAN is a shy dataset. If you’ve ever used a mobile journey planning app, you’ve probably used NaPTAN, most likely without knowing! NaPTAN, the acronym for National Public Transport Access Nodes, is a national database that contains a unique entry for each point of access to public transport: railway stations, bus stops, airports, ferry terminals, coach terminus, taxi ranks, and so on. In short, it’s an index of every place where a passenger can join or leave public transport. NaPTAN contains about 500,000 records, the vast majority of which are bus stops. Once upon a time, there was a user ..read more

As the Department for Transport’s Digital Service, we are seeking to bring about real transformation both internally but also externally by digitally transforming public transport services for passengers. Successful transformation starts with a willingness to question everything. Like many industries, the bus sector was being challenged by disruptors, such as Uber, but is vitally important to the economy, addressing issues around congestion, emissions, air quality and climate change as well as connecting people and places. The Buses Team knew that rapid progress needed to be made to address s ..read more

In the run-up to the Department for Transport’s International Women’s Day events, we asked 5 colleagues in the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession to tell us about their work and their vision for the future. Innovation thrives from the diversity of thought. Yet, whilst the UK’s tech sector is one of the swiftest growing sectors in the UK, the proportion of  women in the tech sector has flatlined at 16% since 2009. Even worse, women in Science, Engineering and Technology management roles dropped to 14% in 2019. With DfT’s diverse make-up and experiences, we’re thrilled to celebrate ..read more

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession is designed to support departments across government to attract, retain and develop specialists who build services and products for citizens and users. The Department for Transport (DfT) specialises in analytics and data consolidation. The profession's practitioners work together to solve common challenges The DDaT Profession in DfT supports the department to: Personalise and improve the department's approach to recruiting diverse professionals Provide up-to-date learning and development to improve professional’s skills Build communities of ..read more

Discovery is an important phase of many government digitisation projects. It focuses primarily on establishing user need for the service and finding out what already exists that might meet that need. This prevents unnecessary spend, and makes sure that money is spent on features that users need, rather than on the bells and whistles. DfT’s Digital Service is now looking to broaden discovery in the project phase, with more speculative discussion focusing on delivering better outcomes for the future and not just better versions of today. We’re calling this Discovery 2.0. Discovery 1.0 - better ..read more

The Transport Data Initiative (TDI) was founded in 2016. Set up by local authorities, its goal is to help its members improve the way they collect, store, and use data to make transport services better while reducing the costs of delivery. The TDI is a partnership led by Buckinghamshire County Council and funded by Innovate UK. I sit on its steering group as the representative for the Department for Transport. The TDI runs regular events across the country to discuss data in transport. I was honoured to be asked to compère the 9th meeting in Sheffield recently. An engaging event in Sheffield ..read more

Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport Earlier this month, colleagues from across the Department for Transport and its agencies gathered for an inaugural International Women’s Day themed event. The aim was to: showcase the power of diversity through inspiring role models and their success stories really help understand what it means to work in Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) roles in DfT The afternoon kicked off with a rousing introduction from DfT’s Permanent Secretary, Bernadette Kelly, herself a fantastic role model and one of the few female permanent secretaries ..read more