Ashwood Travel licence cut for missing Bus Open Data

If you’ve ever watched a school bus crawl across a live map, that is Bus Open Data doing its job. This week we saw what happens when the data isn’t there. After a public inquiry in Cambridge, East of England Traffic Commissioner Richard Turfitt announced sanctions against Ashwood Travel Ltd for failing to publish required information. The government confirmed the outcome on 19 December 2025.

What changed for the operator is concrete. The licence has been reduced by three vehicles for two weeks from 18 December 2025, and former transport manager Darren Thomas Murphy has been disqualified from relying on his Certificate of Professional Competence until he can prove capability to a Traffic Commissioner.

Let’s get clear on the rules. BODS-the Bus Open Data Service-requires operators of registered local bus services in England (outside London) to publish data on timetables, fares and live vehicle locations. The deadlines were phased, with full data requirements in force by 7 January 2023 under the 2020 Regulations and the Bus Services Act 2017.

Who has to publish? If a route is registered as a local bus service, it’s in scope-even some home‑to‑school routes. Closed‑door school services are not automatically exempt: if they are not required to be registered with the Traffic Commissioners under section 6 of the Transport Act 1985 they fall outside scope, but once registered as local services they must meet BODS duties. The Department for Transport’s own implementation guide sets out these distinctions, which the Commissioner also highlighted in this case.

How we got here matters. The Office of the Traffic Commissioner wrote to operators six times between February 2021 and June 2022 about BODS. Ashwood Travel was individually alerted in June 2024. The initial reply argued some services were private, but reminders followed in June, September and October 2024. By September 2025 the company had begun publishing timetable and vehicle location data-yet the late compliance still counted.

The inquiry also examined wider safety and management issues: maintenance records, drivers’ hours and tachographs, plus governance problems between directors. A DVSA assessment recorded hundreds of instances of “missing mileage,” while the newly appointed transport manager, Fasal Raja, introduced reforms and training through early and mid‑2025. The Commissioner noted improvements, but not enough to erase earlier failings.

In plain English, a curtailment means the firm can use fewer vehicles for a set period. For families and schools this can mean temporary timetable tweaks or reduced backup capacity, especially around the end of term. The Commissioner said trust had been undermined by repeated breaches, so a short, sharp sanction was used as a deterrent.

Why does open data matter to you? It powers the apps we all use to check when a bus will reach the stop and helps authorities monitor punctuality. In this case, Analyse Bus Open Data (ABODS) figures were used to review performance across the autumn term-another example of how transparent data supports accountability for services children rely on.

If you run or commission school transport, the takeaway is practical. First, decide whether a route is a registered local bus service; if it is, you must publish to BODS. That means timetables, fares and live vehicle locations in the formats set by the Department for Transport. The government’s implementation guide is your step‑by‑step reference, and operators can get help from the DfT team if needed.

For students, teachers and parents, this story is really about reliability you can see. When operators publish data, you make better decisions about when to leave the house, and schools can spot patterns that need fixing. Enforcement shows the rules are real: even when an operator catches up later, long periods of non‑compliance can still lead to penalties.