Bus Stop

A small macOS menu bar app that shows live departures from a Lothian Buses stop in Edinburgh.

• Click the bus icon in the menu bar for a drop-down list of the next departures.
• Double-click the app to open the same list in a window.
• Each row shows the bus number, destination and time until departure ("Due", "4 min", or a clock time for buses more than an hour away). A green dot means the bus is being tracked live; otherwise the time is from the timetable.
• To save battery and network, the app sleeps until you look at it. Opening the menu or window (or clicking Refresh) fetches the latest times and keeps updating every 30 seconds for 5 minutes, then pauses again.

The default stop is Royal Hospital for Children & Young People (Stop IE), south-west bound. You can switch to any Edinburgh-area stop with Change Stop….

Download

Requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. Runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

1. Download BusStop-x.y.z.zip from the latest release and double-click it to unzip.
2. Drag BusStop.app into your Applications folder. (Run it from Applications, not Downloads, or macOS runs it from a hidden temporary copy.)
3. Double-click BusStop in Applications. A window with departures opens, and a bus icon appears in the menu bar. The app has no Dock icon.

First launch: "Apple could not verify…"

The first time you open it, macOS shows a warning and won't open the app. This is because the app isn't notarised by Apple (that needs a paid developer account). The full source code is in this repository if you'd like to check it. To allow it, once:

1. Click Done on the warning.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security section.
3. Next to "BusStop" was blocked to protect your Mac, click Open Anyway, then confirm with your password or Touch ID.

After that it opens normally. Alternatively, in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/BusStop.app

Start automatically at login (optional)

Open System Settings → General → Login Items and add BusStop under "Open at Login". When started this way it stays quietly in the menu bar without opening a window.

Build from source

If you'd rather compile it yourself, you need Apple's command line developer tools (free; full Xcode is not needed). If you don't have them, open Terminal and run:

xcode-select --install

1. Download the code. In Terminal:

   git clone https://github.com/mattnolan001/BusStopDesktopApp.git
   cd BusStopDesktopApp

   (Or on GitHub, click Code → Download ZIP, unzip it, and cd into the folder.)

2. Build the app:

   ./build-app.sh

   This creates BusStop.app in the same folder. It takes under a minute.

3. Drag BusStop.app into your Applications folder (or run mv BusStop.app /Applications/).

4. Double-click BusStop in Applications. A self-built app opens without the first-launch warning.

Using the app

To…	Do this
See departures quickly	Click the bus icon in the menu bar
Open the window	Double-click the app, or choose Open Window from the menu
Get fresh times	Open the menu or window, or click the ↻ button
Change stop	Choose Change Stop… and search by stop name, bus number or stop code
Quit	Choose Quit from the menu bar drop-down

The footer shows Last updated with the time of the most recent successful check, and Paused when the app is asleep.

Finding a stop

In Change Stop… you can type part of the stop name (e.g. Princes Street), a bus number (e.g. 24), or a stop code. Results show which buses serve each stop, and the direction buses travel from it (e.g. SW). Many stops have a twin on the other side of the road heading the opposite way, so check the direction.

You can also find a stop on bustimes.org: the number at the end of the stop's page address (e.g. bustimes.org/stops/6200251020) is its stop code.

Troubleshooting

I can't see the bus icon in the menu bar. On MacBooks with a camera notch, macOS hides menu bar icons that don't fit. Quit a few other menu bar apps, or hold ⌘ and drag icons off the menu bar to make room. On macOS 26, also check System Settings → Menu Bar that BusStop is allowed. You can always use the app by double-clicking it to open the window.

./build-app.sh: Permission denied Run chmod +x build-app.sh and try again.

xcrun: error: invalid active developer path or swiftc: command not found The developer tools aren't installed. Run xcode-select --install.

It says "Bus data server returned HTTP …" or "The request timed out." The live data service may be briefly unavailable. Click Retry or try again in a minute.

Uninstall

Quit the app from its menu, delete BusStop from Applications, and optionally remove its saved stop choice:

defaults delete com.mattnolan001.BusStop

Data source

Departure times come from bustimes.org, a volunteer-run site that combines bus timetables with live vehicle tracking. This app isn't affiliated with bustimes.org or Lothian Buses. Times may occasionally be missing or inaccurate, so allow a little slack when catching a bus.

For developers

The app is plain SwiftUI/AppKit with no dependencies. build-app.sh compiles Sources/BusStop/*.swift with swiftc and assembles an ad-hoc signed universal (Apple Silicon + Intel) .app bundle using Resources/Info.plist.

To publish a new version, commit your changes and run ./release.sh 1.1.0 (with the new version number). It sets the version in Info.plist, builds and checks the app, zips it to dist/, commits and tags v1.1.0, pushes, and creates a GitHub Release with the zip attached. It needs the GitHub CLI (gh) logged in.

File	Purpose
BusStopApp.swift	App entry point and menu bar drop-down
AppDelegate.swift	Opens the window on launch / double-click
DeparturesStore.swift	Fetching, sleep/wake and 30 s auto-refresh, saved stop
BusService.swift	bustimes.org API calls
Models.swift	JSON decoding for departures and stops
DeparturesView.swift	The departures list (shared by menu and window)
StopPickerView.swift	Change Stop search
build-app.sh	Builds BusStop.app
release.sh	Builds and publishes a GitHub Release

License

Copyright © 2026 Matt Nolan mattnolan001@gmail.com

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See LICENSE for the full text.