Passenger Knowledge Base

place keyIf you can't find a location, it's possibly because it's not in OpenStreetMap, you can add or improve the location information within OSM, and we'll automatically pull this into the search index.

Our pipeline for importing data for location search starts daily from 11:30am, these changes should be reflected immediately once imported. The import may not complete until the end of the day, depending on where the operating area is located.

For further information on editing data for location search, see Editing OpenStreetMap.

We only import a subset of OSM data for location search;

• Only a subset of nodes/ways/relations are added to the search index.
• Only a subset of tags within a node/way/relation are used within the search index.

Locations are imported into two distinct categories, places and localities. 

Localities

Localities are imported if the place key has one of the following values:

• city
• town
• borough
• suburb
• village
• hamlet

The above order also defines the weight of the entry, biasing results towards larger localities. 

Places

Locality for places

When importing a location from OpenStreetMap, we also record the closest locality, this appears to the right of the location name. 

Nodes/ways/relations added to the search index

The following is a list of keys that when they have an inclusive value are imported into the search index, when a key has an exclusive value it is not imported. This list can be expanded upon request, however, smaller search indexes will provide more accurate results.

Example 1

This node will be imported because it has the key railway with the value station. 

Example 2

This way will be included because it as the key amenity, without any matching exclusive value. 

Example 3

This way would not be imported because it does not have any matching keys. 

Tags within a node/way/relation that are used within the search index

The following list of tags which are used to match a search query:

• name
• name:en
• alt_name
• int_name
• loc_name
• nat_name
• official_name
• old_name 
• reg_name
• short_name

Example 1

Typing "Bournemouth University" in a website/app search box would match this way. 

Example 2

Typing "Hurn Airport" in a website/app search box would match this way (Bournemouth Airport). 

Reducing locations down to a single point 

Location search currently has to reduce locations down to a single pair of coordinates, this can result in undesired results. If you encounter this issue we encourage you to let us know.