TransCAPI MCP server
Lets AI assistants such as Claude answer questions about public transport in
Great Britain with live data: "When's the next train from Leeds to York, and
is it on time?", "Where's the 52 bus?", "Is anything disrupting my route
home?"
It connects an assistant to TransCAPI, which
covers England, Scotland and Wales: stops and places, bus and rail departures
with live running, live bus positions, disruptions and journey planning.
Setup
-
Get a free API key at https://www.transcapi.com/signup (1,000 requests a
day, every endpoint).
-
Add the server to your MCP client. For Claude Desktop, in
claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"transcapi": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["transcapi-mcp"],
"env": { "TRANSCAPI_API_KEY": "your-key" }
}
}
}
For Claude Code:
claude mcp add transcapi --env TRANSCAPI_API_KEY=your-key -- uvx transcapi-mcp
Or install it yourself with pip install transcapi-mcp and run
transcapi-mcp.
| Tool | What it answers |
|---|
search_places | Find a town, village, postcode or stop by name |
nearby_stops | Bus, tram and rail stops near a point, with which way the buses go |
nearby_stations | Rail stations near a point |
bus_departures | What's leaving (or arriving at) a bus stop, with live times for tracked buses |
rail_departures | Live trains at a station: expected times, platforms, cancellations, delay reasons |
train_service | Every station one train calls at, live for today |
bus_service | Every stop one bus journey calls at, and where the bus is now |
live_buses | Buses on the road near a point, with delays where tracked |
disruptions | Planned works, incidents and line status, by area, line or a journey's route |
plan_journey | Public transport journeys between two points (South and West Yorkshire and West Sussex for now) |
All tools are read-only.
Configuration
| Variable | |
|---|
TRANSCAPI_API_KEY | Required. Your TransCAPI key. |
TRANSCAPI_BASE_URL | Optional. Defaults to https://api.transcapi.com. |
Attribution
TransCAPI is built on official open data. If you show its data to other
people, credit the sources as described at
https://www.transcapi.com/docs/data-sources.
Licence
MIT.