fbb Never Knew!
Powys Bus Timetables book
The OS South Wales & West Branch has published a timetable book for the County of Powys following a retendering exercise of bus routes in Powys. Revised services were introduced on 31 August 2025 but no booklet showing all of the services has been produced, so the SW&W Branch decided to produce a complete guide to the timetables of all routes operating in the county, including those which were not part of the tendering exercise.
But He Knows Now!
But, in much the same style, this slim volume dropped through the letterbox at fbb mansions a few days ago.
As alert readers can see, it is in the same style as the Powys book and sells for a similar price, Mr Shayshutt informs fbb that it has been entirely financed by the author with no editorial input from Dumfries and Galloway council.
So what do you get for your money?
The booklet consists of 32 full colour pages (which includes the cover) which are not numbered.
To keep production costs down, the type face is small, a bit too small for fbb to read in comfort. His Age Related Macular Degeneration has not (yet!!) degenerated too far but, like long words for Winnie The Pooh, small print bothers him.
But thankfully fbb has his tablet c/w an excellent camera which is far better than a magnifying glass.
There is no index, which is a disappointment. fbb is sure that with a judicious bit if jiggling, pages could be be spared for an alphabetical list of "places served" even if, say, local roads and districts in Dumfries were just summarised with each town service timetable..
So here us Dumfries local route 8 ...
... noting that Keith makes use of 'repeat patterns' as above, "every hour', thus saving space.
Talking if space, the white space gaps are used to include bus photographs and operator logos where appropriate. Unlike the Council's timetables, every service comes with an operator at the top of every tine column.
Sometimes you get a picture ..
... and/or a logo.
As there are no joint services, surely an operator name as part of the table heading would suffice!
fbb is pleased to see that a 115 bus on the Ae route is featured ...
... as, of course is the timetable, an exact copy if the council's table layout. Incidentally, any deficiencies in the quality of the screenshots is entirely down to fbb's haste to complete the blog in a very busy day!
The 115 is a timetable born of operating convenience rather than motivated by a genuine desire to explain. fbb reckons it could be presented more helpfully!
Another good policy adopted by Keith and not by the council is to remove short working journeys that never show their headlight clusters in the county.
So the 58, 60, 358, 360 only shows the 3xx journeys through to Stranraer ...
... making the service more sensible, more understandable and, as above less wasteful of precious space. D & G, readers will remember, just pastes the whole knitting pattern of the full Stagecoach company presentation.
Oddly, Houstons 101/101A to Edinburgh is shown in full; surely the Biggar to Edinburgh journeys are entirely in furrin parts and could be omitted?
Talking of Stagecoach, fbb failed to mention two more services which escaped the Stagecoach sulky abandonment of the county.
They are service 79 run by Stagecoach Cumbria from Carlisle ...
... to Annan and Dumfries ...
... showing as a simple table for D & G journeys
Stagecoach still operates the X74, hourly via the A74/M74. This has had posh coaches ...
... but Motorway Maintenance liveried double deckers can also appear. A top deck front seat ride from Glasgow's Buchanan bus station all the way to Dumfries Whitesands would be something very special!
Although no proper network map is included there is this "broad brush" effort at the beginning.
The Dumfries local map really is too small!
Stranraer gets two maps ...
... which could probably be merged into one.
Is there a PNB stop?
Some rural routes get a map like this ...
... which are SO much better than Traveline's part pathetic computer generated squiggles which fbb posted yesterday for the 517, the same route as above..
But there isn't room for one for every service. fbb wonders how Mr Shayshutt chose?
But it is far to easy to be nit picking.
This is a splendid effort from Keith Shayshutt which ought to be bought in bulk by Dumfries and Galloway Council and widely distributed throughout the community. fbb reckons the compiler might offer a small discount!
Well done Sir Keith.
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Busy day yesterday. There was the start of a tidy up near the new baseboard section.
This involved sorting the store on the floor, throwing junk out, dysoning the carpet ...
There is still more, MUCH more, to do. Progress is slow because the monthly leaflet distribution to meeting attendees and supporters is also being composed.
... wondering what all those cables were for ...
... and then filling up the new baseboard 'shelf' with stuff that was still wanted - probably!
It's all about biblical wine and associated viticulture, in both the old and new testaments.
Cheers!
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There's more on the BP freightliner tank wagon to come.
Next West Midlands mini blog - Thur 27 Aug
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