A public transport timetable (also timetable and

North American English North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar ...

schedule) is a document setting out information on

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

service times. Both public timetables to assist passengers with planning a trip and internal timetables to inform employees exist. Typically, the timetable will list the times when a service is scheduled to arrive at and depart from specified locations. It may show all movements at a particular location or all movements on a particular route or for a particular stop. Traditionally this information was provided in printed form, for example as a leaflet or poster. It is now also often available in a variety of electronic formats. In the 2000s, public transport route planners / intermodal

journey planner A journey planner, trip planner, or route planner is a specialized search engine used to find an optimal means of travelling between two or more given locations, sometimes using more than one Mode of transport, transport mode. Searches may be op ...

s have proliferated and offer traveller the convenience that the computer program looks at all timetables so the traveller doesn't need to. A "timetable" may also refer to the same information in abstract form, not specifically published, e.g. "A new timetable has been introduced".

History

The first compilation of railway timetables in the

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was produced in 1839 by

George Bradshaw George Bradshaw (29 July 1800 – 6 September 1853) was an English cartographer, printer and publisher. He developed Bradshaw's Guide, a widely sold series of combined railway guides and timetables. Biography Bradshaw was born at Windsor B ...

. Greater speeds and the need for more accurate timings led to the introduction of standard railway time in

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

timetables in 1840, when all their trains were scheduled to "London time", i.e.

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the local mean time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being ...

(GMT), which replaced

solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Traditionally, there are three types of time reckoning based ...

. Until railway time was introduced, local times for London,

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and

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could differ by as much as 16 to 20 minutes; in India and North America these differences could be 60 minutes or more. The '' European Rail Timetable'', a

compendium A compendium ( compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to a body of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a specific ...

of the schedules of major European railway services, has been in publication since 1873 (appearing monthly since 1883). Originally, and for most of its history, it was published by

Thomas Cook & Son Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a British travel company that existed from 1841 to 2001. It arranged transport, tours and holidays worldwide. It was owned by the British government from 1948 to 1972. The company was foun ...

and included ''Thomas Cook'' or ''Cook's'' in its title. Although

Thomas Cook Group plc Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — a ...

ceased publication in 2013, the ''Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable'' was revived by a new company in early 2014 as simply the ''European Rail Timetable''. From 1981 to 2010, Cook also produced a similar bi-monthly Overseas volume covering the rest of the world, and some of that content was moved into the ''European Timetable'' in 2011.

Representation

A timetable can be produced dynamically, on request, for a particular journey on a particular day around a particular time (see

, below), or in a timetable that gives an overview of all services, in a particular

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, and is valid for a specified period. The latter could take the form of a book, leaflet, billboard, or a (set of) computer file(s), and 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

table Table may refer to: * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and column ...

s with services shown in columns, and stations or stops on the rows of the table. There will often be separate tables for each direction of travel, and often separate (pairs of) tables for working days, weekends and holidays. Generally the times shown against each station or stop will be the departure time, except for the last stop of the service which will be the arrival time. The left hand column will list the stations in route order, and the other columns are arranged from left to right in chronological order. If the service is scheduled to wait, both arrival and departure times might be shown on consecutive rows. If a slow service is overtaken by a fast service, the slow service will often occupy more than one column, to keep the times in order. There may be additional rows showing connecting services. In most parts of the world times are shown using the

24-hour clock The modern 24-hour clock is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) passed since midnight, from to , with as an option to indicate ...

(although in the United States the 12-hour clock, with the addition of "am/A" or "pm/P" or with pm times in bold, is more often used). If services run at the same minutes past each hour for part of the day, the legend "and at the same minutes past each hour" or similar wording may be shown instead of individual timings. Other information may be shown, often at the tops of the columns, such as day(s) of operation, validity of tickets for each service, whether seat reservations are required, the type of vehicle used (e.g. for heritage railways and

airline timetable Airline timetables are printed pamphlets or folders that many airlines have traditionally used to inform passengers of several different things, such as schedules, fleet, security, in-flight entertainment, food menus, baggage weight restrictions, ...

s), the availability of on-board facilities such as refreshments, availability of classes, 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 at railway stations and

bus stop A bus stop is a place where Public transport bus service, buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelter (building), shelters ...

s, list the times that services depart from that location, sometimes with other information such as destinations, types (train), and stopping conditions. Again, there may be separate lists for different days of the week. There may be a separate list for each line/direction, or a combined chronological list (as in the picture). In parts of

mainland Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by so ...

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 in the next hour. Displays on platforms usually just show the next departure (or perhaps the next few) from that platform.

Formats

Timetables may be printed as books, booklets, folded or plain cards or paper,

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s, or hand-written on posters or

blackboard A blackboard or a chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, better known as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or da ...

s, shown on back-lit displays, or published on-line or as SMS or text messages. With the development of the internet and electronic systems, conventional thick paper timetables are gradually being replaced by website searching or CD-ROM style timetables, and the publication of comprehensive printed timetables is generally decreasing. Transport schedule data itself is increasingly being made available to the public digitally, as specified in the

General Transit Feed Specification GTFS, or the General Transit Feed Specification, defines a common data format for Public transport timetable, public transportation schedules and associated geographic information. GTFS contains only static or scheduled information about public ...

(GTFS) format. Time schedule-01

Scheduling

In many modern

systems, timetables and rostering are generated by computer, with the operators specifying the required operating span, minimum frequencies, route length/time and other such factors. Design of the schedule may aim to make times memorable for passengers, through the use of clock-face scheduling — services departing at regular intervals, at the same times every hour. This is less likely to apply at peak times, when the priority is optimum utilisation of available vehicles and staff.

Headway services

In large cities services may be so frequent that consulting a timetable is unnecessary. In some cases

operators do not publish public timetables for busy times of day, or they may simply state "services run every 3–5 minutes" (or words to that effect), which is the norm for buses in some cities such as Hong Kong even during off-peak hours.

Gallery

File:1844 LIRR schedule.jpg, An 1844 timetable for the

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File:1850 Bradshaw Whitby.jpg, Bradshaw's railway timetable File:Bus timetable.JPG, A simple bus timetable (2005) on the

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island of Astipalea File:TRA Taipei Station split-flap display 20101211.jpg, A flap display in Taipei Station, Taiwan File:BusTimetable.jpg, Times and prices on printed display, Playa del Carmen, Mexico File:Reading Buses Timetable Example 1.jpg, A modern stop-specific bus timetable in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, United Kingdom File:Putzbrunn, Busanzeiger, 2.jpeg, An electronic bus timetable in Germany

International timetables

*'' European Rail Timetable'', formerly titled ''Thomas Cook European Timetable'' A monthly timetable book of major trains, some bus and ferry services in Europe. *''

Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an appren ...

Overseas Timetable'' A bi-monthly timetable book of major trains, and some bus and ferry services outside Europe, ceased 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.

National timetables

America

United States

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

System Timetable The official timetable book, 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) Published twice a year by China Railway Publishing, in Chinese. The former timetable includes all trains, the latter fast express trains only. *Chinese Railway Timetable Published irregularly (last January 2015) by Duncan Peattie, in English. It includes all trains shown in the Chinese Railway Passenger Train Timetable, but not all stations.

India

*Trains at a Glance Published once a year in English and Hindi.

Japan

The first regularly published 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; one published by

JTB Corporation (aka JTB), is the largest travel agency in Japan and one of the largest travel agencies in the world. It specializes in tourism. There are branches all over the world to help Japanese and non-Japanese guests in both private leisure and corpor ...

and one published by the ''Transportation News Company/Kotsu Shimbunsha'', itself owned by all constituent companies of the

Japan Railways Group The Japan Railways Group, commonly known as the or simply JR, is a network of railway companies in Japan formed after the Corporate spin-off, division and privatization of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. ...

(barring the RTRI) and

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

. 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. 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, for example http://www.hyperdia.com/. Timetables for PDAs, mobile phones and PCs are readily available.

South Korea

*Tourism Transport Timetable (월간 관광교통 시각표) Published every month and covers all trains, highway bus, ferry and domestic air services.

Europe

Every year, in December and June, some European train timetables are amended. There are seldom major changes to important routes, but the change allows for alterations to international services and for seasonal variation. In the months leading up to the changeover date booking will be restricted as some railway operators are sometimes late loading in the new data (between several weeks and a few days before the change). In

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

timetable changes only happen once a year in December. In Switzerland major changes happen only in odd years. One of the most comprehensive European-wide timetable information is provided by the electronic timetable search engine of German Railways

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

DB BAHN - TravelService - Query page
Reiseauskunft.bahn.de. Retrieved on 2013-10-05. (information is also available in Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Turkish). The same information, but differently presented, one also find on the online timetables by the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

(in English, German, French, and Italian) and the timetable by the Czech Ministry of Transport (in Czech, and - however not to every detail - in English and German).

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 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

website and CD ROM.

Italy

*Pozzorario generale Covers most trains.

Netherlands

Switzerland

, timetables change happens only once a year in December all over Switzerland for any kind of public transportation means; major changes even happens only every second year on odd years. A large annual publication consisting of all Swiss railways, funiculairs, most lake and river boats, cableways, Swiss PostBus, and all other country buses timetables.

=Official Timetable

=
Official Timetable of Switzerland
in one multi-lingual edition, while the particular timetables themselves are kept in the language of the respectively covered Swiss area.

*The printed version (three volumes; city transit networks (buses and tramways) are only referenced, but not included) has been cancelled from season 2017/18 onwards. Therefore, only the synoptic map of the first volume is up-to-date: **Volume 1 for railways/funiculairs, cableways, and boats
synoptic map
**Volumes 2 and 3 for buses in western and eastern Switzerland
synoptic map (only last version of 2017)

=Coherent, integrated online timetables

= All online timetables provide information for the same timetable as the printed ''Official Timetable'' plus all Swiss city transit systems and networks as well as most railways in Europe. The user interface as well as all Swiss railways stations, and bus, boat, cable car stops are transparently available in German, French, Italian, and English spelling. *By Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS):
SBB CFF FFS online

of all SBB CFF FFS railway stations as PDF files.

by SBB CFF FFS. *By Swiss PostBus (PostAuto, CarPostal, AutoPostale):
Swiss PostBus online ... and Mobile App

Network routes

United Kingdom

*''GB Rail Timetable'' Published by

The Stationery Office The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of Her Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. It is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, s ...

(the official UK Government publishers), and contains information, according to its title page, "with permission of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

and obtained under licence the Rail Delivery Group. It closely resembles Network Rail's former timetable book, which ceased publication in 2007, but PDF timetable files are on its website.
It appears twice per year: *In May, titled ''GB Rail Timetable Summer Edition'' lasting from May to December *In December, titled ''GB Rail Timetable Winter Edition'' lasting from December to May

=History

= Until 1974 each region of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

published its own timetable. The first Great Britain timetable started on 4 May 1974. Prior to that the only joint publication between regions had been a publication of 30 principal passenger services from 1962, following the demise of Bradshaw in 1961. The final printed all-line timetable was produced by Network Rail in 2007, after which versions were published both by the Stationery Office and Middleton Press. Subsequently, The Stationery Office version has been discontinued and for the summer of 2016 Middleton Press only published a reprint of the UK pages of the European Rail Timetable, although a limited two-volume comprehensive version belatedly appeared in August.Rail Chronology: A Brief History of the National Rail Timetable and Its Predecessors
/ref>

References

External links

* * illustrated history of the timetable {{DEFAULTSORT:Public Transport Timetable Public transport information systems Transportation planning Scheduling (transportation)