Introduction
Here's a quick page collating all the websites I find useful when taking different modes of transport. This article is mostly to save me having lots of different bookmarks but I thought it might be useful to others as well.
All Modes
Need to plan a whole journey? Here's where to look first.
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Google Maps | Good for getting a rough idea what's out there, but it doesn't know what anything costs and it doesn't know how reliable things are. Its public transport directions are tricky to customise, requiring a lot of manual work to allow appropriate contingency time. |
| Citymapper | Better than google maps for public transport or cycling, although it won't let you cross city boundaries within one journey. |
Trains
| Name | Description |
|---|
| OpenTrainTimes | Shows departure boards including booked platforms before they're announced. Shows which trains are passing through a station, and at what time relative to the working timetable. Shows signalling diagrams I can't understand. |
| RealTimeTrains | Good for departure boards and timetables with more information such as platforms before they're announced. |
| SignalBox | Shows a live map of all the trains in the country. It's not totally accurate as it does a lot of interpolation, but it's good to get a rough sense of what's going on across the network. |
| National Rail | The best place to go for live departure (and arrival) boards, as well as status of disruptions. The information reaches here long before trainline gets it! |
| BR Times | Useful for finding the minimum connection time between different stations |
| SplitMyFare | You don't have to book on the app, but it might be useful to find out where you can split tickets. It's much more aggressive than trainline at saving every last penny! |
Buses
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Bustimes.org | Has all the timetables you could ever need, plus live maps of where the buses are! |
| Citymapper | Also very good at finding live times although can sometimes be more difficult to obtain a map of all the buses on a given route. |
Cycling
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Beeline | Great for planning routes! Gives you three options of fast, quiet or balanced. Has user ratings for how good the infrastructure is, and displays the elevation. |
| Citymapper | Also has surprisingly good cycle navigation including three options. |
All Modes
| Name | Description |
|---|
| Google Maps | It's not brilliant but it does the job - just don't rely on it telling you which lane to be in. |
