most bus stops in Leeds seem to be tagged with a local_ref=* value which is the same or as seemingly related to naptan:AtcoCode=*. This seems to have been done during the initial Naptan import.
my understanding of local_ref=* is that it’s a short, localized reference used to determine nearby stops apart, e.g. in 'London Road (Stop D)", D would be the local ref.
Are these full AtcoCodes actually used in Leeds in the same way as “Stop D”?
If not, it may be a good idea to do a mass edit to remove local_ref where it’s the same as an existing naptan:AtcoCode tag.
local_ref=* should be whatever short local code is on top of the post to distinguish one stop from another in a stop area. Looks like the importer messed up in your area if you have the long ATCO code [there].
ATCO codes are long sometimes long. The shorter eight digit (or sometimes eight letter) ones are probably NaPTAN codes? The short NaPTAN ones are actually exposed to bus users round here, sometimes in all-letters form based on an SMS keypad, sometimes numbers. We have enough codes on our bus stops that it was worth writing https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Oxford/Bus_Mapping to try and explain what’s what.
A good idea is to put what’s written on the sign for users to put into websites and SMSes for real-time passenger information into ref=*, the long numeric code into naptan:AtcoCode=* and the short eightish-digits one into naptan:NaptanCode=*.
