Timetable

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See also: Airline timetable

An 1844 timetable for the Long Island Rail Road

A simple bus timetable (2005) found in the Greek island of Astipalea. Note that there are only two buses per day going to the airport.

A timetable is an organized list or schedule, usually set out in tabular form, providing information about a series of arranged events: in particular, the time at which it is planned these events will take place. This could be the rota or rosta

[edit] Public transport timetables

For every public transport line there are two tables (one for each direction), consisting of columns, one for each daily public transport service. Every line of the table corresponds to one stop, the table shows the departure times, or for the last stop, the arrival times. For some stops there may be two table lines, one for arrival and one for departure. The columns may specify restrictions on the days for which it applies, e.g. Mon-Fri only; alternatively there are separate tables for (usually) Mon-Fri (e.g. [1]), Sat and Sun (or Sat and Sun combined).

Dynamic display in the central hall at Utrecht central station, listing the departures for the next hour

Alternatively, info may be for a particular departure stop, as is often displayed on train stations and bus stops. Info may be arranged by public transport line, and per line arranged by departure time (e.g. [2]), or just be arranged by departure time for all directions together (e.g. [3]). The table may or may not indicate arrival times. Like above, there may or may not be separate tables for (usually) Mon-Fri, Sat and Sun (or Sat and Sun combined).

A dynamic display in a station may be at a central place and give a list of all departures from the station for e.g. the next hour (see picture), or at a platform and just show the next departure (or perhaps the next few) from that platform.

Computer programs allow one to enter departure location and destination location, as well as date, and departure or arrival time. The program then gives suitable departure times, with details for the whole journey.

In the U.S., timetables for bus lines and some transit operations are called schedules instead.

In some large cities, such as London and New York, some rapid transit and urban bus services that run to a timetable are so frequent that consulting the timetable is unnecessary.

The first railway timetable was published in 1839 by George Bradshaw.