Timetable Booklets

[HA25322]

Just had a few days up in the Leeds area and picked up the West Yorkshire Timetable booklet which had the vast majority of local timetables altogether. So the question is do any other areas produce the same thing? For example North West area. Or maybe even local areas like timetables for services into & out of Manchester/Liverpool?
Cheers.

 

[swt_passenger]

SWT do a timetable booklet for their whole operating area, including all the other TOC services that pass through, and timetabled bus links. It's a couple of hundred pages, in A5 format, available from major stations.

 

[brompton rail]

Just had a few days up in the Leeds area and picked up the West Yorkshire Timetable booklet which had the vast majority of local timetables altogether. So the question is do any other areas produce the same thing? For example North West area. Or maybe even local areas like timetables for services into & out of Manchester/Liverpool?
Cheers.

Derbyshire CC Public Transport Unit produce a free railway timetable booklet for the county twice a year. It is available at staffed stations in the county, and probably at Tourism Offices. By contacting the CC PTU I believe they will post out a copy, free of charge I think.

Lines covered include:-
Midland Main Line (Sheffield - Chesterfield - Derby and onto Leicester, St Pancras)
Cross Country ( Sheffield - Derby - Birmingham - Bristol / Cardiff etc)
Derby - Nottingham
Leeds - Sheffield - Nottingham
Norwich - Nottingham - Sheffield - Liverpool
Matlock branch
Derby - Stoke - Crewe
Hope Valley stoppers
Manchester - Glossop / Hadfield
Manchester - New Mills Central
Manchester - Stockport - New Mills Newtown -Buxton

I may have missed something out, but hope not.

All in all a very helpful booklet, and an excellent companion to a Derbyshire Wayfarer ticket, which covers all Derbyshire stations ( after 0900 Mon-Fri, all day at w/ends) in the county, plus extension out to Sheffield, Burton on Trent and Uttoxeter, plus, of course most buses (except High Peak 'Trans Peak' and others in Buxton area - see buses thread for details).

 

[Andyh82]

Just had a few days up in the Leeds area and picked up the West Yorkshire Timetable booklet which had the vast majority of local timetables altogether. So the question is do any other areas produce the same thing? For example North West area. Or maybe even local areas like timetables for services into & out of Manchester/Liverpool?
Cheers.

South Yorkshire used to do similar but I don't think they do any timetables now,relying on the Northern ones.

 

[higthomas]

FGW did and as far as I know still do one, so that is essentially a South West one.It costs £4 I think and is by all accounts excellent.

 

[HA25322]

Thank you for the heads up on these. I have contact Derby CC. Will also contact SWT after the May timetable change.
I am also really interested in the Manchester area. Had a look on line but not had any luck. If only the different areas did a booklet like West Yorkshire did it would be so great. Anyone able to push me in the right direction for this.

 

[berneyarms]

There isn't one in Manchester - you'll have to get the individual Northern route leaflets.

Merseytravel do individual timetable booklets:
http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/travelling-around/timetables/train-timetables/Pages/default.aspx

GWR do a network timetable (like SWT) which you can purchase from them for £5.

 

[Springs Branch]

Maybe we all need to enjoy the availability of these various timetable books while we can.

I've seen it proposed on another website (for timetable buffs) that the days are numbered for printed timetables, and indeed for transport schedules presented in traditional tabular form.

The idea is based on assumptions that:-
- "everyone" now has a smartphone, or other device, and can download some sort of real-time or timetable app,
- a normal punter is only concerned with his/her own departure & arrival times and has no interest in the full schedule for the bus or train's journey,
- every last penny has to be squeezed out of the operating costs of businesses, and government agencies (transport-related or not).

Updating, printing and distributing paper timetables for normal, day-to-day trains and buses, whether as booklets or individual leaflets, might be seen as an avoidable cost and be progressively and quietly eliminated like paper bank statements and utility bills.

Airlines like BA & Lufthansa used to print timetable booklets, but these are long gone, and I understand there are no traditional timetables available (either hardcopy or in electronic format) for TGV services in France. Here the only option seems to be entering origin/destination/date/time into drop-down boxes on a web-based journey planner.

This obviously will be an issue for anyone interested in seeing anything beyond the bare bones of their proposed journey, anyone trying to plan options & alternatives for complicated trips and makes it very hard for those interested in this sort of thing to archive historical info on train services, even from last month, never mind 25 years ago.

Does anyone agree that printed timetables will go the way of the Yellow Pages and LU ticket offices in the not-too-distant future?

 

[HA25322]

Probably will go like that unfortunately. I could always download the full TT from the Network Rail website onto my phone but then to try to find what I want??????
That is why that West Yorkshire booklet was so good for me whilst in the Leeds area.
I agree it is such a shame as they are invaluable when trying to work out a move mid-bash.

 

[Andyh82]

Just had a few days up in the Leeds area and picked up the West Yorkshire Timetable booklet which had the vast majority of local timetables altogether. So the question is do any other areas produce the same thing? For example North West area. Or maybe even local areas like timetables for services into & out of Manchester/Liverpool?
Cheers.

Worth pointing out, the WY book doesn't have the vast majority of services in, it has all services in, even long distance routes like VTEC and XC.

 

[route101]

Scotrail could do this ! A few have been amalgamated like the strathclyde area ones yet Paisley canal , East Kilbride, Neilston and Maryhill lines still separate.

Virgin Trains now one !

 

[D1009]

Personally I very rarely look at a printed timetable, I get the info I need from Real Time Trains, which has the advantage of being updated with all alterations.

 

[traveller1]

SWT do a timetable booklet for their whole operating area, including all the other TOC services that pass through, and timetabled bus links. It's a couple of hundred pages, in A5 format, available from major stations.

Do GWR still do their book? They did when it was FGW.

 

[D1009]

Do GWR still do their book? They did when it was FGW.

Yes, have a read of post #7.

 

[HA25322]

Yes Realtime trains is good as are the Nat Rail app but being able to flick between the paper timetable will never be able to be beaten.

 

[Oxfordblues]

I well remember working at Bradford Interchange booking office in the summer of 1978. There was a large cupboard full of local timetable booklets and I suggested putting some of them out on the shelves for passengers to pick up. I was told in no uncertain terms not to do so. "If you put them out they'll all be taken and then we won't have any left" the senior clerk advised. Despite this I tentatively put a few booklets out and sure enough they disappeared with minutes. It was thought that some customers might try and sell them to others. And so they were kept firmly in the cupboard where they would come to no harm!

 

[charley_17/7]

I miss the 'Intercity Guide to Services'. Wonderful little book.

Here in Milton Keynes we used to have a (free) book with all the local bus services listed, complete with the Marston Vale Line timetables.