BPLAN Geography
The rail industry uses a system called BPLAN (a successor to a system called APLAN) to manage a master set of geography data used when planning trains. Network Rail create extracts of this geographical data as a PIF.
Data
The following sets of data are included in the extracts:
| Record type | Description |
|---|---|
| PIF | Header record |
| REF > ACC | Accommodation Class codes |
| REF > ACT | Activity codes |
| REF > BHX | Bank Holiday Excepted codes |
| REF > BRA | Brand codes |
| REF > BUS | Business Sector codes (no longer used) |
| REF > CAT | Catering codes |
| REF > OPC | Operating Characteristics |
| REF > PWR | Power Supply Type codes |
| REF > RES | Reservations codes |
| REF > SER | Service Codes |
| REF > SLE | Sleeper codes |
| REF > TCL | Train Class codes |
| REF > TCT | Train Category codes |
| REF > TOC | Train Operating Company codes (not ATOC codes) |
| REF > TRS | Train Status codes used in bid/offer files (not released as Open Data) |
| REF > TST | Publication Status codes |
| REF > ZNE | Data Areas |
| TLD | Timing loads |
| LOC | Location codes |
| PLT | Platform data |
| NWK | Network links |
| TLK | Timing links |
| PIT | Trailer record |
More detailed documentation on the data structure is available.
Downloading
Up-to-date data is available on the Rail Data Marketplace. Links to historical data are contained on a separate page.
The data was once also previously available via the Network Rail API platform, but this is closed to new registrations and offers no advantage ove the source on the Rail Data Marketplace.
Limitations
- Service Code reference data (SER) is not available in the historical files, but is available in the current data from the Rail Data Marketplace
- Bid and offer files (sometimes called PEX files) between Network Rail and train operators are not published, as they may contain unworkable train bids or sensitive data