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TFL bus guide leaflets

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southernyoshi

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Bit of an unusual question but here goes:
I have a TFL-produced leaflet called 'Your guide to bus services from Kingston'. It contains a spider map of the bus routes that serve Kingston, some first & last service info, an index, & a town centre map. What I want to know is, are these available for other areas of London, & if so, what areas have these? Thanks :)
 
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southernyoshi

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So all of those are made in printed leaflet form? I thought the big maps were the only printed bus information TFL made.
 

Andyh82

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The only bus info TFL seem to do are the bus maps, "Continuing your journey from..." Maps and sometimes bus station guides.

A lot of occasional leaflets are kept behind glass in unmanned offices
 

IanD

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So all of those are made in printed leaflet form? I thought the big maps were the only printed bus information TFL made.

So I don't know but if you get yourself a printer they could be. Sorry for trying to be helpful by answering your question.
 

Busaholic

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TfL and its predecessors have never been great at providing bus timetables in print form to the general public, although for decades the so-called 'panel timetables' still displayed at bus stops were available if you knew what to ask for and where to ask it! St James's Park station enquiry office at 55 Broadway, long closed, was always a first port-of-call. More recently, but perhaps no longer, you could get timetable booklets for all bus routes in certain areas, mostly Outer London boroughs like Croydon. I think the problem in producing these now is not changes of routeing etc, which are probably at an all-time low, but the frequent changes to individual timetables to reflect the extra running times having to be added to so many routes.

There is much else available in printed form still, though: the series 'Continuing your Journey' from underground stations like Tottenham Court Road, Piccadilly Circus and Southwark, for instance, which are updated quite often. Also, if TfL are planning to change bus services in a certain area they will produce the info in booklet form as well as on their website. An example of this is a 20 page A5 publication 'Proposed changes to bus services in the Orpington area Routes R1, R2, R3, R7 and R11' recently produced. I would imagine the idea was to deliver copies through letterboxes in the area, but copies should have been available at Victoria enquiry office, if you knew to ask for it!
 

Busaholic

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This site has up to date timetables & not just start & finish times which panel timetables have but complete full list of times. http://www.londonbusroutes.net/

An excellent site. It is worth noting, though, that many panel timetables at bus stops list every departure, even for frequent (10 mins or less) routes and even for some important trunk routes like the 3.
 

plcd1

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And if you want hyper levels of detail then you can use the TfL Bus Schedules search facility. This brings up all the route schedules route by route, by day of the week / bank holidays. Some routes have very complex sets of schedules to reflect school day workings etc.

It is worth noting that 24 hour services are split contractually into day and night routes so, for example, the 24 will be accessible as 24 and N24.

TfL established this to reduce the stream of FOI requests for bus schedules.

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/bus-schedules
 

Deerfold

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And if you want hyper levels of detail then you can use the TfL Bus Schedules search facility. This brings up all the route schedules route by route, by day of the week / bank holidays. Some routes have very complex sets of schedules to reflect school day workings etc.

It is worth noting that 24 hour services are split contractually into day and night routes so, for example, the 24 will be accessible as 24 and N24.

TfL established this to reduce the stream of FOI requests for bus schedules.

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/bus-schedules

And bear in mind they use the little-known 26.75 hour clock, so buses which start a shift before midnight may carry on as far as 26:45.
 

Busaholic

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And bear in mind they use the little-known 26.75 hour clock, so buses which start a shift before midnight may carry on as far as 26:45.

I do like to see a bus operating 110% of the available hours:lol:
 

hassaanhc

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Found this one at Fenchurch Street Station this morning.
 

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berneyarms

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There are a set of five detailed bus maps available from any TfL travel centre (also on the TfL website).

North East London
South East London
South West London
North West London
Central London
 

CatfordCat

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This site has up to date timetables & not just start & finish times which panel timetables have but complete full list of times. http://www.londonbusroutes.net/

It's worth bearing in mind though, that while each bus (and driver) will be timetabled with specific times at each 'timing point', on 'frequent' services (every 12 minutes or more frequent), at street level, they are controlled on maintaining headway rather than each bus running on time, even if this means holding a bus back a bit 'to regulate the service'.

TfL's monitoring (and therefore performance related payment to operators) of frequent services is based on 'excess waiting time' rather than (for example) whether bus SW 123 on route 11 was exactly on time passing Victoria.

This means that the full timetable is more a basis for negotiation rather than reality.

I guess the theory is that the average passenger doesn't consult a timetable in advance, they just go to the bus stop, and would prefer a regular service rather than a pile of buses then a long gap.

I believe there are some routes now where drivers' duty boards only show departure time from each terminus, and once running, drivers are guided by the electronic box of tricks on the bus that shows how close they are to the bus in front, with radio messages from controllers where needed.

I can't help wondering if this means the whole route ends up running at the speed of the slowest bus / driver out there.
 

Busaholic

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It's worth bearing in mind though, that while each bus (and driver) will be timetabled with specific times at each 'timing point', on 'frequent' services (every 12 minutes or more frequent), at street level, they are controlled on maintaining headway rather than each bus running on time, even if this means holding a bus back a bit 'to regulate the service'.

TfL's monitoring (and therefore performance related payment to operators) of frequent services is based on 'excess waiting time' rather than (for example) whether bus SW 123 on route 11 was exactly on time passing Victoria.

This means that the full timetable is more a basis for negotiation rather than reality.

I guess the theory is that the average passenger doesn't consult a timetable in advance, they just go to the bus stop, and would prefer a regular service rather than a pile of buses then a long gap.

I believe there are some routes now where drivers' duty boards only show departure time from each terminus, and once running, drivers are guided by the electronic box of tricks on the bus that shows how close they are to the bus in front, with radio messages from controllers where needed.

I can't help wondering if this means the whole route ends up running at the speed of the slowest bus / driver out there.

'Maintenance of Headway' is a short novel by the Booker Prize winning author Magnus Mills that came out earlier this century. It is based on his experience of driving Routemaster buses out of Brixton Garage on routes 137 and 159. It is well-written and philosophical and is set on a thinly-disguised 137, extended at each end. Sales were (surprisingly!) low, but then the literati were never going to take to it. It's been a few years since I've read it, but the title relates to a well-meaning roadside inspector's efforts to achieve a reasonable service over the whole of the route.
 
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