OpenBusData

Name: OpenBusData
Author: andrewaubury

@andrewauburyMCP server · External

MCP server for UK Bus Open Data with timetable parsing, journey planning and live tracking.

Public transportv1.0.2Python

Freeno charge per call

How to install

Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.

What it does

Reads
Writes
High impact

At most: only reads or looks up information.

What it costs

Free

Odel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.

Runs locally over stdio

This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).

PyPIopenbusdata-mcpv1.0.2

Run

uvx openbusdata-mcp

MCP client config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openbusdata": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "openbusdata-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

README1 min readView on GitHub

OpenBusData MCP Server

mcp-name: io.github.AndrewAubury/openbusdata

MCP server for the UK Bus Open Data Service with rich timetable parsing, stop search, route discovery, journey planning and real-time bus tracking.

Features

Live API tools — query timetables, fares, disruptions, cancellations and real-time bus locations
Stop search — fuzzy text search across every bus stop in the UK
Route finder — discover all routes serving a pair of stops
Journey planner — "get to X by Y o'clock" with support for direct and chained multi-leg journeys
Live tracking — see exactly where buses are right now

Installation

Option 1: via `uvx` (recommended — no install needed)

bash

uvx openbusdata-mcp

Option 2: via `pip`

bash

pip install openbusdata-mcp

Configuration

Set your Bus Open Data Service API key as an environment variable:

bash

export OPENBUS_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Get a free key at data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk.

Usage

With `uvx` (recommended)

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openbusdata": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["openbusdata-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENBUS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

With `pip` install

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openbusdata": {
      "command": "openbusdata-mcp",
      "env": {
        "OPENBUS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

bash

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # or .venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

# Install dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run server
python -m openbusdata_mcp.server