Heard of the National Public Transport Data Repository before? Unless you're the ultimate transport enthusiast, there's no reason why you should; hidden behind pre-registration and restrictions on commercial use it was not exactly easy to find.

But all that has changed, thanks to data.gov.uk. The Liberal-Conservative coalition always pledged to release Whitehall's largest databases to the world; this is one of the biggest.

Why's it such a big deal? The official description gives you some idea of how important it is:

A snapshot of every public transport journey in Great Britain for a selected week in October each year. The dataset is compiled with information from many sources, including local public transport information from each of the traveline regions, also coach services from the national coach services database and rail information from the Association of Train Operating Companies

So, for the week of 5-11 October, 2009, every train, coach and bus journey is catalogued and recorded in a huge set of spreadsheets, divided up by every region in the country (excluding Northern Ireland, that is). The official blurb basically says you can't do anything with this data without the use of seriously heavy-duty databases and big old computers.

That's a bit "here's all the data but sod you if you want to actually do anything with it". When, in fact, there's quite a lot you can do with it. On an ordinary computer. Using excel.

We've copped out a bit and simply extracted the full list of every transport stop in the UK (stops.csv in the downloads). That's still some 406,458 records. Using Google Fusion tables, which is better at handling huge datasets than the Google spreadsheets we normally use, we put together the map above (thanks to Rebecca Shapley at Google NY for all her help). It takes a while to load and to get the full detail, you need to zoom in close to places.

Theoretically, you can use the data to map routes and use of the network, with the right tools.

But that basic CSV file can tell you other things too. We wanted to know which place in Britain has the least bus stops - and which the most. That would mean finding out the number of stops in each area, comparing populations to the ONS population stats and working out a rate per 100,000 people.

Because this data is compiled by locality rather than local authority (a town centre is a locality, for instance), we needed yet another database to compare it to. And that database is the National Public Transport Gazetteer (NPTG) which is basically a list of every administrative boundary for transport in the UK.

Daithi O'Crualaoich helped put the two together and the result is below. It shows that London has one of the lowest rates for bus stops in the country - perhaps mitigated by extensive tube and overground rail network. At the top end are the Western Isles in Scotland and Gwynedd in Wales, which have low populations but lots of bus stops

But that leaves a wealth of data unexplored in folders of data which detail routes and services. Can you help us?

• DATA: download the full stops data as a Google Fusion table

• DATA: Get the bus stops population data

• Get the full NPTDR data from data.gov.uk

World government data

• Search the world's government with our gateway

Development and aid data

• Search the world's global development data with our gateway

Can you do something with this data?

Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group

• Get the A-Z of data

• More at the Datastore directory

• Follow us on Twitter

Bus stops per 100,000 people Click heading to sort Admin Code AreaName Region Bus and coach stops Bus stops per 100,000 people 20 Gwynedd W 1,822 1,534 142 Eilean Siar S 394 1,504 114 Argyll & Bute S 1,344 1,493 118 Dumfries & Galloway S 2,014 1,356 113 Angus S 1,425 1,292 135 Perth & Kinross S 1,868 1,280 12 Carmarthenshire W 2,273 1,257 94 Northumberland NE 3,909 1,257 33 Monmouthshire W 991 1,126 63 Warrington NW 2,200 1,112 24 Isle of Anglesey W 764 1,110 25 Isle of Wight SE 1,543 1,101 115 Scottish Borders S 1,239 1,099 128 Highland S 2,358 1,069 13 Ceredigion W 801 1,048 97 Shropshire WM 3,052 1,046 81 Gloucestershire SW 6,140 1,042 126 Fife S 3,764 1,035 23 Herefordshire WM 1,852 1,034 78 County Durham NE 5,232 1,033 134 Orkney Islands S 206 1,030 92 North Yorkshire Y 6,142 1,028 64 West Berkshire SE 1,537 1,005 75 Derbyshire EM 7,614 1,002 73 Cornwall SW 5,231 985 30 Merthyr Tydfil W 543 975 89 Lincolnshire EM 6,764 969 108 Wiltshire SW 4,289 940 14 Conwy W 1,045 938 45 Powys W 1,231 935 101 Suffolk EA 6,635 929 140 Stirling S 819 923 112 Aberdeenshire S 2,210 908 130 Midlothian S 727 900 77 Dorset SW 3,566 883 74 Cumbria NE 4,343 877 125 Falkirk S 1,314 862 95 Nottinghamshire EM 6,587 848 107 West Yorkshire Y 18,770 843 67 Wrexham W 1,120 841 34 Neath Port Talbot W 1,152 838 60 Torbay SW 1,089 813 131 Moray S 703 802 76 Devon SW 5,989 801 98 Somerset SW 4,169 796 152 Cheshire West & Chester NW 2,546 780 120 East Ayrshire S 934 777 19 Flintshire W 1,156 771 61 Torfaen W 699 771 99 South Yorkshire Y 10,145 770 132 North Ayrshire S 1,036 765 40 Pembrokeshire W 893 761 4 Blaenau Gwent W 520 758 91 Norfolk EA 6,468 758 137 Shetland Islands S 168 757 56 Swansea W 1,748 756 122 East Lothian S 722 746 138 South Ayrshire S 826 741 106 West Sussex SE 5,822 734 83 Greater Manchester NW 19,067 733 62 Vale of Glamorgan W 911 731 1 Bath & North East Somerset SW 1,285 723 15 Darlington NE 719 716 16 Denbighshire W 691 715 22 Hartlepool NE 649 714 42 Plymouth SW 1,826 711 10 Caerphilly W 1,227 710 119 Dundee S 1,013 706 55 Stoke-on-Trent WM 1,669 699 100 Staffordshire WM 5,742 693 58 Telford & Wrekin WM 1,119 689 2 Blackburn with Darwen NW 950 679 37 North Lincolnshire EM 1,093 679 72 Cheshire East NW 2,457 677 109 Worcestershire WM 3,715 668 96 Oxfordshire SE 4,229 660 88 Leicestershire EM 4,237 657 87 Lancashire NW 7,661 657 104 Warwickshire WM 3,504 655 85 Hertfordshire SE 7,147 652 41 Peterborough EM 1,110 648 116 Clackmannanshire S 327 648 48 Rhondda Cynon Taff W 1,517 647 111 Aberdeen S 1,381 646 47 Redcar & Cleveland NE 875 636 69 Bedford SE 1,004 635 129 Inverclyde S 508 633 70 Buckinghamshire SE 3,129 633 84 Hampshire SW 8,116 629 93 Northamptonshire EM 4,289 627 43 Poole SW 875 620 39 Nottingham EM 1,855 617 7 Bridgend W 827 616 38 North Somerset SW 1,274 609 103 Tyne & Wear NE 6,730 608 151 Central Bedfordshire SE 1,527 604 51 South Gloucestershire SW 1,581 603 127 Glasgow S 3,534 601 17 Derby EM 1,464 600 79 East Sussex SE 3,059 597 68 York Y 1,182 595 49 Rutland EM 227 591 102 Surrey SE 6,579 591 3 Blackpool NW 824 589 136 Renfrewshire S 993 584 54 Stockton-on-Tees NE 1,100 576 71 Cambridgeshire EA 3,440 567 80 Essex SE 7,916 566 35 Newport W 786 560 66 Wokingham SE 906 560 21 Halton NW 659 555 90 Merseyside NW 7,410 549 57 Swindon SW 1,090 548 32 Milton Keynes SE 1,297 548 11 Cardiff W 1,840 547 5 Bournemouth SW 894 542 141 West Lothian S 927 542 26 Kingston upon Hull Y 1,383 527 65 Windsor & Maidenhead SE 757 526 124 Edinburgh S 2,510 525 36 North East Lincolnshire EM 798 508 133 North Lanarkshire S 1,654 507 86 Kent SE 7,152 507 139 South Lanarkshire S 1,564 503 18 East Riding of Yorkshire Y 1,683 499 27 Leicester EM 1,515 497 8 Brighton & Hove SE 1,270 496 31 Middlesbrough NE 667 475 53 Southend-on-Sea SE 777 473 121 East Dunbartonshire S 492 470 123 East Renfrewshire S 418 469 28 Luton SE 900 463 46 Reading SE 701 462 117 West Dunbartonshire S 400 440 52 Southampton SW 945 399 9 Bristol SW 1,721 397 6 Bracknell Forest SE 455 395 29 Medway SE 1,003 394 59 Thurrock SE 592 377 50 Slough SE 452 352 44 Portsmouth SW 634 312 82 Greater London L 24,122 311 105 West Midlands WM 14,362 264



