When it comes to the provision, some local authorities are better than others. Quite a number do get to providing a list of bus timetables while others merely tell you to take a hike over to Traveline. My preference is not to go criticising folk all the time so here’s a list of those who put in the effort. Sometimes, you can get the wrong end of the stick because the information is hidden so I’ll extract it from the back shelves where that appears to be where it has gone on them. This list will be a living one with new entries added as I go along so don’t let small beginnings make you think that councils are generally unhelpful to the public transport user; most support services that otherwise would be commercially unviable.
Just because areas are hilly and mountainous or that there are far-flung islands doesn’t mean that there isn’t a useful public transport service for getting about (the name of this part of the council website as it happens). There are timetables to be found for next to every means of travel imaginable with ferry and air services complimenting the more usual fare of bus and train information.
The now defunct Cheshire County Council didn’t do so badly when it came to travel information provision and it’s good to see that it is being carried on with listings of bus timetables complimenting that on train travel and other modes. It’s also where you find your way to the real-time bus tracker, limited to services between Macclesfield and destinations like Knutsford and Manchester for now but still useful nonetheless.
This looks so eerily like its eastern neighbour that you get to wondering if having a single council for all of Cheshire might have been sensible in the first place. Clearly, others have disagreed and we get websites that are very similar apart from colouring, the actual content together with other aspects of look and feel. Regarding content, it is all focussed on the council area with a relevant bus timetable library and news of bus service changes all forming part of the offer.
Before this local authority came into existence, the Lake District was spread over parts of no less than three different counties. Now that it is included in one along with some Pennine hill country and coastal areas, the local council would need to do what it can to reduce the number of visitors bringing their cars to the honeypot. To be honest, it doesn’t look as if they are having a great deal of success but the more extensive service in the heart of the National Park do their bit when it comes to moving folk about. Satisfyingly, bus timetable provision is what you’d hope it to be and they make it easier to get information on lake ferry services along with providing something on rail travel too.
A few years back, this local authority took an enlightened view and had a separate website offering travel information. Sadly, that no longer is the case and you are left having to work a little harder than before. Nevertheless, there is a satellite website with bus timing information that remains more than useful. In a way, it’s a shame that things like these are as easy to find as they were, particularly give that the county plays host to a very popular national park that gets crowded in places every bank holiday weekend, but that can be an outcome of piling more things into an already cluttered structure if you’re not careful.
Never let the usefulness of a list of timetables be downplayed when it comes to exploring an area and that’s how it has proven with the Gwynedd of the Snowdonia National Park. In addition to the usual sections on day-to-day bus and train travel, there’s a section devoted to the Snowdon Sherpa services for those wanting to get to know those hillier areas while leaving the car after them.
For a while, the difference behind Herefordshire Council and its Welsh neighbour Powys was night and day with the former coming off much the better in the comparison; since then, Powys has upped its game. Satisfyingly, that good level of information provision stays and bus and train timetable libraries are maintained for anyone wishing to have a look.
Another area worthy of attention from the outsider and one where the local council does its bit for ensuring that you know how to get around too. Some of the areas served are surrounded by hills and it may surprise you where services go. The list of bus timetables is split by area but a useful overview map ensures that you don’t end up scratching your head to work out where the likes of Craven is.
Is it telling that clicking on a link named Public transport information takes you to information about trains? Do they feel that an apparent bias towards bus travel would be unfair? I am not going to venture an answer to either of these questions about that one but a spot of concentration will fish out the bus travel information for you. Saying that, an obvious suggestion would be to have a general landing page for public transport information rather than arriving on the train one like now.
For a long time, this is a council that I would have sent to the naughty step for laxness when it came to providing public transport information; it didn’t help that a major bus operator, Veolia, was equally lacklustre in the same department. However, Powys County Council has improved matters with the provision of bus timetables by way of a clickable map. It certainly is a good way of providing an overview first with extra details easy enough to access.
This isn’t just the city of Stirling but a swathe of central Scotland that takes in part of the southern Highlands, including Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. Bus timetables are part of the offer along with other public transport information for the area.
Western Isles (Na hEileanan nan Iar)
Some may find it a surprise to discover that these outliers from the Scottish mainland have their bus services too along with the requisite ferry and air travel links on which any island is so dependent. However, given the size of the grouping (spending a few days getting from top to tail or vice versa is likely), those bus services prove invaluable if you are without a car and they very handily link in with ferry and air services too.
It may be a largely urban borough but it has inviting countryside on its doorstep too. Since I last had a look, the website has had an overall with the addition bold text and colours that give it a very contemporary feel. Strangely, there isn’t a single public transport landing page with bus and train sections jostling for attention with those for schoolbuses, taxibuses and highways maintenance. Mind you, the overall thrust of the part of their website devoted to Transport and Streets is related to public transport anyway, even if finding their useful collection of bus timetables requires a little more clicking than might be ideal.
