About Next Stop Assistant

This project was created by me, oscie! You can find the source at GitHub.

Features

• Text-to-speech system
• GPS-based stop detection
• Old device support
• Supports multiple transport modes

Backstory

This project was born out of my personal hatred for the public transport system here in the United Kingdom. Everything is so fragmented, confusing, and so often unreliable. The amount of times I have missed my stop because the bus came really late and its too dark to see outside or the weather is too bad to see out the window. I feel like time is up, and I've decided to work on my own solution to this problem.

In October 2025, guidance put out by the government became enforced, requiring bus operators to include accessible information provisions on board bus and coach services. In simpler terms, buses need screens and speakers that provide information about the service, in order for greater accessibility.

Unfortunately, there are some issues with this guidance:

• It only applies (currently) to buses manufactured after October 1st, 2014 (for easier understanding, all buses with a 15 plate and most with a 64 plate).
• The regulation isn't fully enforced, and there is no punishment to operators who do not comply.
• Partially compliant buses still don't need to follow this regulation yet.

In a place like mine, we have an underfunded public transport system that is fragmented into multiple operators, and the regulation has barely been enforced where required. And otherwise? The vehicles are too old to be required to comply yet!

Here we are in January 2026, and because of all of these reasons, Next Stop Assistant was born! I thought, if the buses won't work, and the operators won't do anything about it, I'll do it myself.

Changelog

v0.1 - Initial release

• Basic design implemented
• Full functionality including GPS, Text-to-Speech, and stop detection

v0.2 - 12th January 2026

• Line names have been adjusted to sound more human when being spoken
• GPS location is requested when the pages are first loaded, fixing permission errors
• Screen should stay awake while the journey is active, potentially allowing to run in the background
• GPS tracking is now higher accuracy, and pings at double the rate

v0.3 - 22nd February 2026

• You can now jump to a specific stop in the journey
• Underground services now have different approach boundaries
• Line names now have a dynamic size to avoid cutting off
• A link to the legacy ES5 version has been added