Product supply

Available formats

OS MRN is available in two formats:

• Protocolbuffer Binary Format (PBF)

• GeoPackage (GPKG)

Protocolbuffer Binary Format overview

PBF is an open source transfer format for vector GIS data created by the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. PBF is an alternative to the original OSM XML format. PBF files are generally much smaller than OSM XML files and are faster to read and write.

GeoPackage overview

GeoPackage is an open standard data format as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). GeoPackage is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy-to-distribute and ready-to-use file.

GeoPackage offers users the following benefits:

• The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end-user a rich experience.

• Attribute names are not limited in length, making the format user-friendly.

• The file size limit is very large at 140 TB (a file size limit might be imposed by the file system to which the file is written).

• It supports raster, vector and database formats, making it a highly versatile solution.

For general guidance on using the product in GeoPackage format, please see the Getting started with GeoPackage guide.

Supply mechanism

OS MRN is available as an online download from the OS Data Hub. You can select a data format (PBF or GeoPackage) during the download process.

It is available as a Full Supply only, and customers can order full Great Britain (GB) coverage or a customisable area of interest (AOI).

Order Summary File

Orders supplied from the OS Data Hub will be provided with an Order Summary File, a manifest for the product that provides a record count for each feature type the product contains. This file can be used to validate your order, enabling you to check record counts across all feature types included in the product.

The following file naming convention will be applied to the Order Summary File you receive:

• productname_orderSummary.json

For example, the file name for the OS Multi-modal Routing Network Order Summary File would look like this:

• OSMulti-modalRoutingNetwork_orderSummary.json

The example below shows the information the Order Summary File contains:

{
  "productName" : "OS Multi-modal Routing Network",
  "crs" : "http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326",
  "validToDate" : "2025-09-16",
  "totalRecordCount" : 89966573,
  "featureTypes" : [ {
    "id" : "mrn-ntwk-transportlink",
    "version" : "1.0",
    "recordCount" : 14103706
  }, {
    "id" : "mrn-ntwk-transportnode",
    "version" : "1.0",
    "recordCount" : 75639021
  }, {
    "id" : "mrn-ntwk-turnrestriction",
    "version" : "1.0",
    "recordCount" : 223846
  } ]
}

The following table provides a brief description of each field:

Field	Description	Use
productName	The product delivered in this order (for example, OS Multi-modal Routing Network).	Validate the downloaded product against your order.
crs	The coordinate reference system used for your supply.	Validate the coordinate reference system against your order
validToDate	The end date of coverage for this supply.	Validate the currency of your data to ensure the latest date aligns with the expected supply window for your order frequency.
totalRecordCount	The total number of records delivered across the whole product package.	Validate that the delivered entries match the overall number of records expected for your download.
featureTypes	Array of feature types included in the product package, including identifier, schema version, and record count.	Validate included feature types, their schema versions, and per-feature-type record totals against your order.

Currency

OS MRN is updated monthly, in-line with updates of OS transport network data.

Coverage

OS MRN covers Great Britain.