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| The Bus Times map at about 11.30 on 17th December. |
Stagecoach buses have been there for some time, but now they've been joined by those run by Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire so that all the District's buses are shown in real time on the online maps of Bus Times.org
This unofficial, but extremely comprehensive and useful site is a mine of information for bus passengers and those with an interest in bus operations alike. The maps show the position - in real time - of each bus and the service on which it is operating.
Clicking on the bus icon brings up more detail:
A click on the bus marked "51", which is shown in its last reported position (in this case 51 seconds earlier), tells you that it is operating on service 51 to Carnforth and that the vehicle is registered YD63 VKL. The icons are colour coded to match the colours in which the buses are painted. For example the 555, shown immediately below the 51, is in Stagecoach's "Lakes Connection" livery, whereas the 49 nearby is in the company's new colour scheme. At present, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire buses are shown in plain white, but this can be expected to change to blue and white in due course.
Next, clicking on the service number and destination brings up still more information in the form of a full timetable for the route.
These can be seen at timing-point level, as above, or, by clicking the box at "all bus stops" level, although times at stops that are not timing points are estimates only. Bus Times.org contains a full set of timetables for all bus services in the United Kingdom, which can be accessed directly without going through the map page.
Inputting a future date, up to three weeks ahead, brings up the timetable that will be operating on that day, even when a timetable change is imminent. This is one of the few ways of accessing future timetables on the 'net - along with this site obviously!
Perhaps of more interest to the bus enthusiast fraternity, clicking on the registration mark of the vehicle brings up a screen with more details about the bus itself and also shows all the previous journeys it has been used on so far that day.
and following the Flikr link on that page takes you to more photos of each bus than you could possibly wish to see!
Most bus services and operators in the UK are included, with the only gaps being in the Scottish Islands and parts of Northern Ireland, mid and west Wales, Herefordshire and, er...Greater London! More operators are being added on a regular basis. No doubt there is a good reason why operators working for London Buses (TfL) are excluded. Perhaps there are simply just too many of them to fit on the map at a sensible scale!
Two words of warning though: The site is particularly addictive and you could sit and watch the buses move around the map all day! And be careful if you are using it to find out when to go out and actually wait for a bus - the refresh rate on the map is not particularly high, sometimes as long as two or three minutes and a bus can go a very long way in such a time!
