Making sense of On-Time Performance: how to track OTP across your transit network

Beyond the day-to-day, OTP data shapes major decisions - from operational reporting and contract compliance to funding allocation, performance-based agreements, and public reporting on network performance.

Yet despite its importance, tracking OTP across a full network is rarely straightforward. Buses are especially vulnerable to traffic, roadworks, and other factors that make reliable service difficult. When routes span multiple agencies, modes, or data systems, getting a consistent view of performance can feel like piecing together a puzzle with mismatched pieces.

So how do you move from disjointed snapshots to a complete, trusted picture of network-wide performance? ‍

Why OTP Is So Hard to Track at Scale

Many agencies struggle to produce consistent OTP metrics - not because they lack data, but because it’s scattered, inconsistent, and hard to unify. Operational information comes from multiple systems - AVL feeds, GTFS schedules, and others - each with its own quirks, formats, and update schedules, making integration challenging.

Even when data is available, definitions of “on time” often vary between authorities. One might allow a -1 to +5 minute window, while another uses entirely different thresholds. Without standardisation, comparisons quickly fall apart.

And then there are the tools themselves. Many teams still rely on spreadsheets or inflexible dashboards that can’t handle the complexity of a modern transit network. These tools make it hard to spot patterns, drill into root causes, or even ensure the data is accurate. Missed trips, early departures, and partial journeys often distort the picture, leaving teams unsure what’s really happening on the ground.

What a Better OTP Solution Looks Like

To truly understand network-wide performance, agencies need more than raw data. They need systems that can bring together data from multiple sources, apply consistent logic, and present results in a way that’s easy to explore and act on.

A better solution makes it simple to analyse performance at a granular level - by route, agency, time period, or even specific stops and regions - and automatically surfaces anomalies like recurring delays or early departures. Most importantly, it should make reporting easy. When insights are hard to extract, they’re rarely used.

How Mosaiq Takes the Complexity Out of OTP

These challenges are exactly what Mosaiq was designed to solve.

As a cloud-based transit intelligence platform, the Mosaiq Transit Intelligence Suite takes away the pain of data integration. Mosaiq unifies data from systems, timetables, and other sources, matching scheduled and actual trips across the network. Instead of each agency using different OTP thresholds, Mosaiq applies consistent, configurable logic so everyone is measuring success the same way. This approach delivers measurable results: one authority improved OTP by ten percentage points - from 83.4% to 94% - after transforming their data and performance processes alongside targeted operational improvements.

Because Mosaiq processes large volumes of data, agencies can break down performance however they need, from network-wide overviews to granular route-level views. Patterns hidden in traditional reports become easy to see: recurring delays at a particular stop, early running that causes missed connections, or even inconsistencies in the data itself.

And when it’s time to report? What once took hours of spreadsheet work can now be done in just a few clicks. Whether it’s a board meeting, a performance update, or a response to a specific issue, Mosaiq makes the insights instantly available.

Turning Data Into Confidence

OTP may be a standard metric, but getting it right takes more than a standard approach.

Mosaiq allows local authorities and transit agencies to move beyond patchy reports and inconsistent logic. It provides a single, consistent view of your network’s performance, built on unified data and designed to flex with your needs.

That means less time wrangling spreadsheets and more time making confident decisions - knowing your insights truly reflect what’s happening on the ground.

Ready to see what a unified view of OTP looks like? Book a walkthrough today and find out how Mosaiq can take the complexity out of network-wide performance tracking.