Public transport timetable

See also: Timetable (disambiguation)

Train departures list in the form of a yellow poster, common in Europe.

Dynamic display in the central hall at Utrecht central station, listing the departures for the next hour or so.

A public transport timetable (also timetable and North American English schedule) is a representation of public transport information to assist a passenger with planning a trip using public transport. A timetable details when vehicle will arrive and depart specified locations and may be organised for by route or for a particular stop. Traditionally this information was provided in printed form, but is now commonly available in a variety or electronic formats. journey planners have to some extent replaced traditional timetable books in many places recently.

History

A matrix timetable for bus services in England in the 1940s and 1950s

The first railway timetable compilation of railway services in the United Kingdom was produced in 1839 by George Bradshaw. Greater speeds and the need for increased accuracy led to the introduction of standard Railway time for the Great Western Railway timetables in 1840 when all their trains were scheduled to London time or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which replaced Solar time. Until railway was introduced local times for London, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester could differ by as much as 16 to 20 minutes; in India and North America these differences could be sixty minutes or more.

Thomas Cook Publishing has published the Thomas Cook European Timetable, a compendium of the schedules of major European railway services, since 1873 (appearing monthly since 1883). From 1981–2010, it also produced a similar bi-monthly volume covering public transport services in the rest of the world, and some of that content has been moved into the company's European Timetable.

Representation

One can distinguish between a timetable produced dynamically, on request, for a particular journey on a particular day around a particular time (see journey planner, below), and a timetable that gives an overview of all services during the period for which the transport company has planned its services, for example, for a year. The latter is static for this period, or shorter in the case of intermediate changes. It can take the form of a book, leaflet, billboard, or a (set of) computer file(s). It makes it much easier to find out, for example, whether a transport service at a particular time is offered every day at that time, and if not, on which days; with a journey planner one may have to check every day of the year separately for this.

Matrix format

Many timetables comprise tables with services shown in columns of a table, and stations or stops on the rows of the table. There will generally be tables for each direction, and often separate (pairs of) tables for weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Generally the times for each station or stop will be the departure time, except for the last stop of the service which will be the arrival time. At some stops if the service stops for some time, both arrival and departure times might be shown on consecutive rows. As well as the times, the columns might include other information, often at the top of the columns, such as day(s) of operation, availability of on-board facilities such as refreshments, and a service number. Timetables with services arranged in rows of tables and stops or stations in columns are less common but otherwise similar to timetables with services in columns.

Stop-specific displays

Some timetables, particularly posted on railway stations and bus stops, list times that services depart that location, sometimes along with other information such as destinations and stopping conditions. As with other forms, there may be separate lists for different days of the week. There may be a separate list for each line/direction (this applies e.g. for train departures in the Netherlands), or a combined chronological list (as in the picture). In mainland Europe train departures are listed on a yellow poster, and arrivals on a white poster. These posters are placed at entrances to stations and on platforms.

Electronic displays

Dynamic electronic displays in stations may be at a central place and list the next few departures for each line, or all departures for the next hour. Displays on platforms just show the next departure (or perhaps the next few) from that platform.

Formats

Timetables are published as books, booklets, folded or plain cards or paper, posters, on-line in HTML, pdf, and other formats, printed, hand-written on posters or blackboards, back-lit displays, and SMS messages.

Due to the development of the internet and electronic memory systems, conventional thick paper timetables are gradually being replaced by website searching or CD-ROM style timetables and the publishing of comprehensive printed timetables is generally decreasing. France's SNCF, for example, publishes timetables only for the RER and Transilien commuter rail services that operate in the outskirts of Paris; the rest of the timetables must be accessed indirectly by means of a search engine.

Scheduling

In many modern public transport systems, timetables and rostering are designed by computer, with the operators specifying operating span, minimum frequencies, route length/time and other such factors. Design of the schedule may also aim to keep times memorable for customers, through the use of clock-face scheduling — services departing at regular intervals, at the same times every hour.

Headway services

In some large cities, such as London and New York, some rapid transit and urban bus services that run to a timetable are so frequent that consulting the timetable is unnecessary. In some cases public transport operators do not even publish public timetables for the times of day that their services are very frequent, or they may simply state "services run every 3–5 minutes" (or words to that effect)

Gallery

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  An 1844 timetable for the Long Island Rail Road

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  Bradshaw's railway timetable

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  A simple bus timetable (2005) found in the Greek island of Astipalea

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  A flap display in Taipei Station, Taiwan

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  Times and prices shown on printed display. Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Nationwide timetables

International

• Thomas Cook European Timetable

A monthly timetable book of major trains, some bus and ferry services in Europe.

• Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable

A bi-monthly timetable book of major trains, and some bus and ferry services outside Europe - no longer published after December 2010.

• OAG Flight Guide

A monthly air timetable book published by OAG (Official Airline Guide), and covers all airlines and airports in the world.

America

United States

• Amtrak System Timetable

The official timetable book of Amtrak and published twice a year.

Asia

China

• China Railway Passenger Train Timetable （全国铁路旅客列车时刻表）
• China Railway Passenger Express Train Timetable（全国铁路旅客快车时刻表）

These handy books are published twice a year by China Railway Publishing in Chinese. The former timetable includes all trains, and the latter one includes fast express trains only.

India

• Trains at a Glance

It is a timetable book for travellers published once a year in English and Hindi.

Japan

Time table display using a stem-and-leaf layout at Minato Mirai train station in Yokohama, Japan. It is a widespread design pattern in the country.

The first regularly published timetable appeared in 1894, published by a private company. By the time of the nationalization of Japanese railways in 1906, three competing timetables were being published and it was decided that only one official timetable should be offered to the public. Five thousand copies of the first official timetable were published in January 1915.

In 2010, two printed national timetables were available: the Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB) Timetable (JTB時刻表) and the Japan Railways (JR) Timetable (JR時刻表）. These thick books - the February 2009 edition of the JTB timetable, for example, contains 1152 pages - are published every month and cover all stations and trains of JR and private railways, as well as long distance bus, ferry and air services in Japan. For frequent JR urban lines, subway trains, private railways and urban buses, only summary timetables are shown. In 2009, a book was published to mark the 1000th edition of the JTB timetable, containing reproductions of all one thousand covers, selected timetables and maps, and articles on the way the timetable is produced.

There are also many searchable online timetables, covering all forms of transport in Japan, for example http://www.hyperdia.com/. Timetables for PDA's, mobile phones and PC's are also readily available.

South Korea

• Tourism Transport Timetable (월간 관광교통 시각표)

This handy timetable book is published every month and covers all trains, highway bus, ferry and domestic air services.

Europe

The most comprehensive Europe-wide timetable information is that provided by the electronic timetable search engine of Deutsche Bahn. (German version), (English version). Information is also available in Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Turkish.

Germany

• Ihr Reiseplan

This is a free timetable leaflet distributed in express train and has information about the departure, arrival time of the train and also connecting services. For many years the “Kursbuch Gesamtausgabe” ("complete timetable"), a very thick timetable book was published but its contents are now available on the Deutsche Bahn website and CD ROM.

Italy

• Pozzorario generale

It is a handy timetable book and covers most trains in Italy.

Switzerland

• Offizielles Kursbuch Schweiz/Indicateur Officiel de la Suisse

A large annual publication consisting of railway, bus, ferry and aerial tramway (cablecar) timetables.

United Kingdom

• GB Rail Timetable

This is a timetable published by The Stationery Office (the official UK Government publishers), and contains information published, according to its title page, "with permission of Network Rail and obtained under licence from ATOC" (the Association of Train Operating Companies). It closely resembles Network Rail's former timetable book which ceased publication in 2007. Network Rail currently provides PDF timetable files on its website.
The GB Rail Timetable appears twice per year:

• In May titled GB Rail Timetable Summer Edition lasting from May to December - Also includes Autumn schedules
• In December titled GB Rail Timetable Winter Edition lasting from December to May - Also includes Spring schedules

Netherlands

See Timetables for the Netherlands.

See also

• Public transport bus service