Sunday 1st March 2026
It comes to something when passengers wanting a bus timetable book showing all the bus routes operating across a county have to turn to the Omnibus Society to find out what runs when and where in a printed format. But that’s exactly what’s happened in Powys where the South Wales and West Branch of the Omnibus Society has taken the much welcome and commendable initiative of commercially producing a fully comprehensive countywide timetable book detailing every bus route – including those with just a part section of route in the county – and an easy to follow countywide bus map.
Omnibus Society member David Chalkley has put it all together and is to be congratulated on a magnificent job with all the timetables laid out to a crystal clear and consistent format with easy to understand codes detailing any journeys with exceptional routings or other variations. David also explains “we have seen operators’ website timetables, Traveline Cymru and bustimes.org sometimes define a timing point in different ways, and we consider it is of more use to readers if a timing point is described in the same format throughout the book”. Hurrah for that.
The book kicks off with a list of the 15 bus operators featured in the book along with route numbers of the services they operate followed by an Introduction page giving the background to the timetable’s production.
Where space permits within the timetable pages the reader will find seven lovely colour photographs of buses going about their work throughout the county and a real highlight is a colour map across the centre pages which shows all the principal inter-urban routes in red with other routes in green together with an indication of their frequency. Railway and heritage railway lines are also shown but, for reasons of space, not school services.
The map is a masterclass from Brendan Fox who runs the hugely helpful busatlas.uk website and is to be congratulated and heartily thanked for giving permission for his cartography skills to be included in the book. It’s so much easier to follow than what is now on the Powys website as featured in last month’s Seen Around.
The timetable book is available to purchase online for £5 either through MDS Books or by sending a cheque for £6 (to include postage if a non member of the Omnibus Society) made payable to ‘The Omnibus Society SWW’ to OS-SWW, 5 Angelica Avenue, Melksham, Wiltshire, SN12 6ZP. Alternatively, a bank transfer can be made by emailing sww@omnibus-society.org with the address for dispatch and details of the bank account will be emailed back.
As a long standing member (and past President) of the Omnibus Society it’s so heartwarming to see this new dimension to the organisation’s activities. The Society has long been an excellent source of recording and detailing developments and changes to the UK’s bus routes over the decades so how lovely to see it now also providing useful and helpful information for passengers wanting to use current services.
Quite why county council’s (and in commercial cases, some bus companies) abrogate that responsibility continues to baffle me. Well done Omnibus Society (South Wales and West). The timetable book has already enticed me to make a return visit to Powys for some more travels.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
Thank you, Roger, for the excellent review!
Darryl in Dorset (and OS SWW Branch Secretary)
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But isn’t the problem with such a book is that it’s quite possibly out of date even before people can purchase it – and potential travellers wouldn’t know which routes had been changed?
Of course, if operators only changed their services and (say) two defined days per year, there’d be no problem!
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Almost all services in this book will be contracted by Powys and given the upheaval of the recent changes, one would hope they leave them alone for some time!
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Presumably the problem for councils is that they no longer have staff with the speciallist knowledge to create and thoroughly check a book like this. But they can still benefit from the efforts of people like Brendan Fox and the Omnibus Society by having links on their website – and buying a bulk supply of this book!
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Sorry to come back again: but is Joe Public (or his Welsh equivalent) likely to buy this – or even know of its existence? I do think that, for the vast majority of folk, the Internet is their go-to place for this kind of information. And yes, it is important to have all the information in one place, kept up to date. Although neither produce books any more, both Suffolk and Gwynedd are good at this. The big omission though is maps.
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The main reasoning for producing this book was to provide a snapshot of services following the complete revamp of the Powys bus network which took place last September.
Yes, printed literature does become out of date with the next change. But with this publication, the main lump of work is now done and it should be relatively easy to update it when necessary.
I’d also point out that there are some online timetables out there which are also out of date, or (as Roger pointed out in a recent blog), very difficult to understand!
Darryl in Dorset (and OS SWW Branch Secretary)
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I totally agree. The problem though is that changes occur at random times and someone looking up the printed timetable won’t know about them.
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I have just sent your blog to a friend who lives in a village 5 miles out of Newtown which only has two shopping buses per week. He reads the local County Times but had no knowledge of this publication. He’s absolutely delighted and has immediately ordered a copy with a view to more travelling throughthe county. Success!
Paul, Leicester
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Sorry Roger, you have criticised Transport for Wales here which is incorrect.
Their Powys service change was exemplary and model for what will come.
You must believe that type and PR.
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Addressing Anonymous @9.46 and Paul Leicester, has the OSS thought about contacting the County Times for them to run an article in their newspaper to bring residents’ attention to this timetable?
MotCO
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And also targeted posts on local community Facebook groups with a link to purchase the book.
Peter Brown
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Thanks Roger, more timetables like this one needed.
The Swiss don’t change their timetables for a whole year. Talking of which, I came across an excellent report called “Switzerland in the Peak District”. Excellent common sense contained therein at https://hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk/switzerland-in-the-peak-district/ .
Any chance of reviewing and promoting it, Roger?
Cheers
Paul Kirby
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Tony JacksonSent from my iPad
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What a useful book!
I managed to read the page explaining the publication, and note that for space reasons arrival times at bus stations and other connection points have been omitted (presumably this refers to through journeys) – this could be problematic when there is some waiting time and timed connections that are within a few minutes.
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It has to be said that at the time of these changes, Lloyds Coaches did an exemplary job of communicating the Powys changes through social media and on their own website, and not just for their own services either.
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This is very welcome news.
Not so long ago most councils in Wales produced clear and comprehensive timetable booklets; Powys was one of them and the quality of its publication would have shamed most English and Scottish councils had they any sense of shame. But now there is next to nothing.
It would be a joy not to have to wrestle with the Transport for Wales website which contains timetables but makes them near impossible to find unless one already knows the route number. The map is of little help as it shows only bus stops and imminent departures therefrom. No bus today? No information. Complexity without utility: probably designed as a school exercise.
So congratulations to the Omnibus Society for doing what councils and operators should be doing.
Where next?
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