If timetables have always looked like a wall of confusing numbers, you're in the right place. We'll go through it slowly, one piece at a time, using a real example you can follow along with.
The parts of a timetable
Almost every bus timetable is a grid. Once you know what the rows and columns mean, the rest falls into place.
- The stops are listed down one side (usually the left). Each row is one stop along the route, in the order the bus visits them — from the start of the route at the top to the end at the bottom.
- Each column is one single bus trip. Read a column from top to bottom and you're following one bus as it travels along the route, stop by stop.
- The times in a column are in order. The bus reaches the top stop first, then a few minutes later the next one down, and so on. So a later time further down the same column is normal — that's just the bus moving along.
- A dash (—) or a blank cell means the bus does not stop there. Some trips skip certain stops to go faster. If you see a dash next to a stop, that particular bus won't pick you up or drop you off there.
A quick word on 24-hour time
Many timetables use the 24-hour clock, which counts straight on past 12 instead of restarting at 1. After midday, just subtract 12 to get the afternoon time you're used to:
09:05= 9:05 in the morning14:30= 2:30 in the afternoon (14 − 12 = 2)19:45= 7:45 in the evening (19 − 12 = 7)
Anything before 12:00 is a morning time. Anything from 13:00 onward is afternoon or evening.
An example timetable
Here's a made-up route we'll use for practice. It's the Route 12, running from Riverside Station out to Hillside Park. The stops go down the left. Each of the five columns (labelled A to E) is one bus trip.
| Stop | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverside Station | 08:05 | 09:05 | 09:35 | 10:05 | 11:05 |
| Market Street | 08:12 | 09:12 | 09:42 | 10:12 | 11:12 |
| Town Hall | 08:20 | 09:20 | — | 10:20 | 11:20 |
| Central Library | 08:27 | 09:27 | 09:54 | 10:27 | 11:27 |
| Hillside Park | 08:35 | 09:35 | 10:02 | 10:35 | 11:35 |
Notice the dash in column C at Town Hall. Trip C is a faster bus that skips Town Hall — it goes straight from Market Street to Central Library. If you were waiting at Town Hall, bus C would never come; you'd wait for bus D instead.
Worked example: reading it for a real trip
The question: You're starting at Riverside Station and you need to be at the Central Library by 10:00. Which bus should you catch, and what time should you be at the station?
- Find your starting stop. You're getting on at Riverside Station, so look at the Riverside Station row (the top row).
- Find your destination stop. You're getting off at Central Library, so look at the Central Library row (the fourth row down).
- Look along the destination row and find the latest time that still gets you there before 10:00. The Central Library row reads:
08:27,09:27,09:54,10:27,11:27. The ones before 10:00 are08:27,09:27and09:54. The latest of those — the one that gets you there with the least waiting — is 09:54, and that time is in column C. - Go back up column C to your starting stop. Follow column C up to the Riverside Station row. It says 09:35. That's your departure time.
Common mistakes to avoid
1. Reading the wrong stop's time. It's easy to glance at the destination's time and think that's when to be at the stop. Always read the departure time from your own boarding stop — the arrival time is only for knowing when you'll get there. Fix: find your boarding stop's row first, and take the time from there.
2. Assuming buses come at the same interval all day. Buses are often frequent at rush hour but much rarer in the evening, on weekends, or on holidays. Fix: check the actual next time on the chart instead of guessing "one every 20 minutes," and make sure you're looking at the right day's timetable.
3. Misreading 24-hour times. Seeing 15:00 and turning up at 5:00 is a classic slip. Fix: for any time past midday, subtract 12 — 15:00 is 3:00 in the afternoon, not 5:00.
4. Not noticing dashes and footnotes. A dash means that bus skips your stop, and little symbols or notes (like "school days only") change when a bus actually runs. Fix: if a cell is a dash, pick a different column; and always read the small print at the bottom of the timetable.
One last tip: Aim to be at the stop about five minutes early. Buses can run a little ahead of schedule, and it's much better to wait a few minutes than to watch yours pull away. You've got this.