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 (not released in the Open Data extract)
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.

Availability

The data is available for each principal and subsidiary timetable (twice a year).

Limitations

Service Code reference data (SER) is not currently published, as it contains data about freight operators
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

Downloading

Links to current and historical data are contained on a separate page.

API

BPLAN geography data can also be retrieved via an API. Details to access the API are shown on Network Rail's website, and will be documented here in further depth soon.