The route_ref=disused combination was created with a large group of changesets made by MattCanada in November 2025 to mark discontinued Winnipeg Transit bus stops (see route_ref=disused | Tags | OpenStreetMap Taginfo and Changesets by MattCanada | OpenStreetMap ), no other cities or users use this tag. Given that OSM records only current information I believe all these nodes should be removed. I have fixed the incorrectly-tagged or duplicate stops using the current list of stops on Winnipeg Transit’s website in changeset 181972093, the remaining stops all have been removed from the official site.
I tend to agree that route_ref=disused is a bit of a “troll tag” in that it’s adding info where the very absence of it ought to convey the meaning: if there is no route actually stopping at a bus stop it simply shouldn’t have anything tagged in route_ref.
That said, I’m personally not a big fan of deleting something unless there is confirmation that it no longer exists in reality. Which is to say: a bus stop that does not have bus routes stopping at it does not cease to be a bus stop just because of the absence of buses.
For example, I recently dealt with essentially the opposite case of what you have here: a bus stop that still exists on the transit agency website despite no scheduled buses, but no physical bus stop marker exists anymore. I deleted this bus stop in Calgary last week. I know for a fact, having driven past it recently, that the bus stop signage is gone. The stop itself only ever consisted of a placard on a metal pole. (It was essentially only ever used for alighting passengers, not for pick-ups, so no one really waited at the stop for the next bus and therefore there was no need for a bench or a shelter.) In fact I’m the one who added this stop to OSM in the first place, so it’s almost fitting that I’m the one to delete it.
However, despite this, like I wrote above, this stop is still on the Calgary Transit website.
I took the step of deleting it from OSM because the sign itself, the only physical permanence that that stop had ever had, is gone. The likelihood that it is replaced at that exact spot any time soon is nil. (There is another stop about 75 m west anyway.)
In the case of these bus stops in Winnipeg that are no longer on the website, I would proceed with deleting them from OSM if and only if the physical markers on site have been removed. If there’s still a bus stop sign on the side of the road I would leave it, even if no bus routes stop there. In my (admittedly anecdotal) experience it’s not uncommon for a seasonal change to bus routing and scheduling to start making use of a formerly disused stop again, in which case the bus stop would have to be re-added to OSM.
I can say with high certainty that all of the disused stops no longer exist; they were removed as part of a major network overhaul where minor stops are removed to create faster “spine” routes. I have ridden on many of them and never saw any extra bus stop signs, although the concrete slabs probably still exist. There is basically zero chance of a network overhaul with a similar scale in the foreseeable future, and the minor changes until at least winter 2026 do not re-add any of the removed stops.
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