Since
there are loads of cross boundary bus services bordering the Greater London
area, many of those cross boundary routes are part of London Buses.
The
North West, North East, South East and South West London bus maps also show
cross boundary services. The routes that are in green are not part of the
London Buses network and so different fares apply.
On
the TFL bus map
page, they haven’t provided information for non-London bus services which cross
the London boundary.
Below
I have linked to various bus maps and guides of the Home Counties provided by
the council and the bus company.
Essex
The
bus maps are provided by CartoGold, an interactive bus map for Essex
County Council.
Thurrock Borough Council (Unitary Authority)
provides a ‘spider’ diagram map for their area.
First
Bus Essex provides their own network maps for their services in Essex.
Ensignbus
also provide their own network map serving the Thurrock area.
Kent
Kent
County Council provides bus guides and maps for their county.
Fastrack,
a Bus Rapid Transit service also provide a route map of their service.
Arriva
provide their own network maps for the South East England area
they serve. (Except for London)
Stagecoach
provides local area maps serving the region of Kent and the South East of England
(except London).
Surrey
Surrey
County Council provides bus guides and maps for their county.
Abellio
Surrey provide their own network map.
Compass
Travel provide their own network map.
Southdown
PSV provides route maps for their services.
Slough (Berkshire*)
Slough
Borough Council provide their own area map and bus station guide map.
First
Berkshire and Thames Valley provide their own network map for their area.
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
County Council provides maps for their area.
Carousel
Buses provides maps for their services.
Hertfordshire
The
bus maps are provided by Intalink for Hertfordshire County Council.
St
Albans City & District council provide their own bus guide.
Centrebus
provides their own route maps
Mullanys
Coaches provide their own service maps
Uno
provide their own service maps
*Berkshire
has no county council as they are succeeded by six
unitary authorities.
I
do think Transport for London and the councils should link to each other on
their bus guide pages which would make it easier for users to access bus
information.
Short review:
Since
the Essex County Council bus guide is hosted by CartoGold, they haven’t
provided the PDF format for their county-wide bus map.
Also
on the Essex interactive bus map, they didn’t include the Thurrock bus guide as
they tell you to look at Thurrock Council's publicity to view extensive bus
services within that area. When I looked at the bus map of Thurrock, it was
different to the main Essex interactive bus map because the Thurrock bus map is
based on a spider map.
Moving
on to the Kent maps, with their individual town maps, I like the way how they
show separate bus services shown in their map.
Also,
with the Kent county-wide bus map, it’s huge, as it covers the whole county of
Kent. I like the way they feature different tones of green colour because it
shows the difference with the bus services as the dark green is shown to be
running 7 days whilst the light green is shown to run operating 5 to 6 days a
week.
The
bus maps and guides provided by Surrey County Council are similar to Kent
County Council bus maps.
Slough
Borough Council provides their own bus map jointly with their bus station guide,
again their map is similar to the one provided by Kent County Council.
Buckinghamshire
County Council provide their own bus guides, this time they have split their
county map into separate PDF documents, again their bus route diagrams are
similar to Kent County Council's local town bus guide.
Hertfordshire
Intalink provides a county-wide bus map and they’re similar to the London Buses
guide map. Their local bus maps are similar to the London Buses guide map
because they don’t show any route diagrams, but the road is in dark grey and
shows where the bus serves.
This
was just a quick article to inform people about bus times. For more information
visit the Traveline
website and download their app from the Apple Store and Google Play for live
bus departures on the go.
As
always, you can follow me on Twitter,
Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus
which is @CLondoner92
