Great Britain interurban bus map

[aron2smith]

Just found this - congratulations on an excellent, interesting, useful and attractive product. I hope you have the time and energy to keep updating it! Also it would be good if you could get it to a wider audience than just enthusiasts, as it could potentially be very useful in many fields, such as tourist offices and travel agencies. Also maybe in lobbying national and local governments for better services, where the gaps are so obviously shown.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I think the fragmented nature of our buses including a too often total lack of good quality and readable maps, really puts a good chunk of people off, especially for leisure journeys. In places where buses aren't viable to run so frequently that you just see them around all the time, I think maps and easy to access information on times and fares are even more valuable and important to increasing ridership.

Jarrett Walker of Human Transit (based in the US) created a really detailed map of the buses in Cambridgeshire which also indicated the frequency, it was beautiful but more importantly is very easy to use and better still, shows the many gaps in the network there. He was also involved in the extensive redesigning the bus network in Dublin, which is currently being implemented.

Bus Service in England: The Need for Clearer Maps — Human Transit

It’s a time of rapid change for urban bus services in England.[1] Since Margaret Thatcher’s privatization reforms of 1985, these services have been subsidized but not really controlled by government. I wrote here about Thatcher’s vision for privatized public transport, including why it has...

humantransit.org

 

[Parebunks]

Uttoxeter to Burton on Trent you have the 401,402,402A,403

Thanks, fixed.

A few coach service additions you may want to map or list.

Citylink run the 923 4 times daily Glasgow - Ayr - Cairnryan Port - Stranraer. This carries local traffic in addition to being a shipside sevice to Belfast.

https://www.citylink.co.uk/timetables-service-updates/scotland-belfast/

Hannon Coach run twice daily through coach Glasgow - Belfast

Belfast-Glasgow - Hannon Coach

Belfast Glasgow ExpressYour Express Service Between Belfast & GlasgowHANNON Coach are proud to be the only provider of a true direct express service between the cities of Belfast and Glasgow. BELFAST GLASGOWExpress Bags go free £49BookGLASGOW BELFASTExpress Bags go free £49BookTravel with HANNON...

hannoncoach.com

Bus Eireann Expressway - Eurolines runs twice weekly Dublin - Birmingham - London

Travel between Dublin, Birmingham and London with Eurolines Coach & Sail

Travel between Ireland and the UK, departing Dublin – Thursday and Saturday, and departing from London – Friday and Sunday

buseireann.ie

Three County Donegal operators; McGinley, BusFeda and Dohertys Travel run a twice weekly Glasgow - Derry - Letterkenny - West and South Donegal service, this may now be reduced to a seasonal operation.

Glasgow – Donegal Route – McGinley Coach Travel

johnmcginley.com

Thanks, not sure how I completely forgot our western neighbour - added on and below the Scotland inset.

Fromebus 57 is extended from 1/9/25 to provide Gillingham - Warminster 3 times Mon-Fri.

Thanks, fills in a bit of a gap!

The x44 Hereford to Brecon should from 1/9/25 be orange not pink.

"The T14 service will be withdrawn at the end of August and will no longer form part of the TrawsCymru network. The section between Brecon and Hereford will become the X44 operated by Sargeants, while the section between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff will become the X4 operated by Stagecoach. Passengers are advised to contact Powys County Council for further information regarding the new X44 service." Traws.Cymru

I have put the whole of the retendered Powys CC network in pink as TfW seem to have significant input - will think about changing the key to reflect that.

Great work!
A few more updates and upcoming changes in Yorkshire:
73 between Northallerton and Bedale is part of Go-Ahead
55 between Hull and Goole is hourly between Hull and Brough (or possibly Gilberdyke, but that's a bit sketchy)
As there's plenty of space, it might be worth showing the First 361/362 running twice hourly north from Doncaster to Norton, and the First 387/388 running north-east from Doncaster to Thorne (4bph) and Moorends (2bph)
From next week, X98/X99 between Leeds and Wetherby will be run by Go-Ahead
From next week, there will be a new hourly X28 between Scarborough and Pickering run by Viscount (independent) with occasional journeys extended from Pickering to Malton
From mid-Sept, Go-Ahead will be adding a new hourly X3 between Scarborough and Pickering

I can't remember what your policy is on seasonal services, but there a couple of substantial services in this neck of the woods:
Go-Ahead 12 between Scarborough and Bridlington is supplemented by hourly 13 daily for 7 months of the year (and up to 3bph total between Scarborough and Filey for 3 months)
Arriva X93 between Scarborough and Whitby is supplemented by hourly X94 daily for 7 months of the year (and a couple of journeys a day extended to Middlesbrough)

Thanks, seem to have missed a lot here, for some reason thought X98/99 would be Connexxions rather than Go-Ahead. All fixed up. I've generally only included seasonal services where there's no year-round equivalent so these don't qualify on those lines.

I’ve just noticed the electric bus services from ember between Glasgow, Fort William, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and Thurso are absent! IMHO they’re worth adding to the map if you can fit them in?

Their website is; Ember Map

These are included on a separate inset for the fairly similar-style services from Citylink/Stagecoach in Scotland, just to the right of the main map!

 

[Flying Snail]

Thanks, not sure how I completely forgot our western neighbour - added on and below the Scotland inset.

Well if you want to start mapping NI as well I won't stop you. (Joke)

Translink has a full map of their network but it is well hidden on their awful website. The latest version seems to date from 2015 but their network is much less volatile than those in GB so it should still be mostly accurate.

Route Maps

PDF documents containing maps showing the routes of Translink services

www.translink.co.uk

https://trn-prd-cdn-01.azureedge.net/mediacontainer/medialibraries/translink/route-maps/ulsterbus/ulsterbus-route-map.pdf

Transport For Ireland has also recently produced a national map that they are keeping updated.

https://www.transportforireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/250801_Regional_Transport_Map_August_2025.pdf

Network maps

There are five network maps that cover Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford cities. These highlight bus, train and tram (Dublin only) routes.

www.transportforireland.ie

 

[bv52_eno]

Hi,

Just so you know, the 700 between Littlehampton and Worthing is now the 701.

Also, Diamond 125 now no longer runs between Stourbridge and Kidderminster, instead now they do Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. Kidderminster-Stourbridge section is now covered by the 25A, which extends to Dudley.

Stagecoach's D1 does not run between Daventry and Northampton. The D2/3 does this job instead.

Otherwise, a great map this is!

 

[TrenHotel]

Thanks, fixed.

Thanks, not sure how I completely forgot our western neighbour - added on and below the Scotland inset.

Thanks, fills in a bit of a gap!

I have put the whole of the retendered Powys CC network in pink as TfW seem to have significant input - will think about changing the key to reflect that.

Thanks, seem to have missed a lot here, for some reason thought X98/99 would be Connexxions rather than Go-Ahead. All fixed up. I've generally only included seasonal services where there's no year-round equivalent so these don't qualify on those lines.

These are included on a separate inset for the fairly similar-style services from Citylink/Stagecoach in Scotland, just to the right of the main map!

Amazing map. The Slough-Hounslow TfL bus is the 81, not the 84; the SL2 terminates at North Woolwich rather than Woolwich (they are two different places separated by the Thames).

 

[YorkRailFan]

Looks like you've got Stagecoach South West 6/6A mixed up. The 6 runs between Okehampton and Bude via Holsworthy, and the 6A between Okehampton and Exeter, not the other way round.

 

[52290]

111 Preston to Wigan is now 110 and is operated by Holmeswood.
337 Chorley to Ormskirk and 347 Chorley to Southport are both now operated by Vision Bus.
.

 

[plugwash]

What's your critera for considering a bus "interurban"? You seem to have included a handful of busses between Manchester and it's sattelite towns but left out many others.

 

[mattb7tl]

I wouldn't personally class Denby Dale (the D1) as interurban. I thought interurban meant services between two towns, cities, or either.

 

[Parebunks]

Hi,

Just so you know, the 700 between Littlehampton and Worthing is now the 701.

Also, Diamond 125 now no longer runs between Stourbridge and Kidderminster, instead now they do Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. Kidderminster-Stourbridge section is now covered by the 25A, which extends to Dudley.

Stagecoach's D1 does not run between Daventry and Northampton. The D2/3 does this job instead.

Otherwise, a great map this is!

Amazing map. The Slough-Hounslow TfL bus is the 81, not the 84; the SL2 terminates at North Woolwich rather than Woolwich (they are two different places separated by the Thames).

Looks like you've got Stagecoach South West 6/6A mixed up. The 6 runs between Okehampton and Bude via Holsworthy, and the 6A between Okehampton and Exeter, not the other way round.

111 Preston to Wigan is now 110 and is operated by Holmeswood.
337 Chorley to Ormskirk and 347 Chorley to Southport are both now operated by Vision Bus.
.

Thanks all, fixed up.

What's your critera for considering a bus "interurban"? You seem to have included a handful of busses between Manchester and it's sattelite towns but left out many others.

I wouldn't personally class Denby Dale (the D1) as interurban. I thought interurban meant services between two towns, cities, or either.

There is no hard and fast line! But in general it is more about connections and presenting the image of a network than making calls on individual routes. So the D1 is in as a conceivable Huddersfield-Barnsley connection, but a lot of Manchester satellite towns have been skipped where there's more direct options or no conceivable reason they'd be used to connect to something else. Although in areas like Manchester it's more an issue of space than anything else, with some tweaks to make the circle configuration of Manchester itself work.

 

[38291018]

Centrebus route 6 between Grantham and bottesford don't run anymore.
Vectare (under indpendant/local operator) route 93 grantham-bingham on map, continues to Nottingham currently
Unless I just getting confused with the colour coding, shouldn't the wellglade RM (mainline) to Bingham be a purple line not green as the only other two buses from Nottingham going through Bingham is the vectare 90, 93 in orange which are on the map just needs a dot showing it stops in Bingham?

 

[bv52_eno]

Thanks all, fixed up.



There is no hard and fast line! But in general it is more about connections and presenting the image of a network than making calls on individual routes. So the D1 is in as a conceivable Huddersfield-Barnsley connection, but a lot of Manchester satellite towns have been skipped where there's more direct options or no conceivable reason they'd be used to connect to something else. Although in areas like Manchester it's more an issue of space than anything else, with some tweaks to make the circle configuration of Manchester itself work.

NXWM 8 doesn't run between Halesowen and Birmingham.

Chaserider 826 no longer runs between Rugeley and Lichfield.

Telford's 113/114 now runs by Select instead of Arriva, and Stafford's 877, 878 no longer runs to Wolverhampton.

Stagecoach's Northampton 87 will still run between Northampton and Towcester after the changes, albeit in a much reduced frequency

 

[Parebunks]

Centrebus route 6 between Grantham and bottesford don't run anymore.
Vectare (under indpendant/local operator) route 93 grantham-bingham on map, continues to Nottingham currently
Unless I just getting confused with the colour coding, shouldn't the wellglade RM (mainline) to Bingham be a purple line not green as the only other two buses from Nottingham going through Bingham is the vectare 90, 93 in orange which are on the map just needs a dot showing it stops in Bingham?

NXWM 8 doesn't run between Halesowen and Birmingham.

Chaserider 826 no longer runs between Rugeley and Lichfield.

Telford's 113/114 now runs by Select instead of Arriva, and Stafford's 877, 878 no longer runs to Wolverhampton.

Stagecoach's Northampton 87 will still run between Northampton and Towcester after the changes, albeit in a much reduced frequency

Thanks both, fixed. The 87 is a deliberate omission as it is so much lower in frequency and a less direct route - I have done essentially the same thing in similar situations everywhere.

 

[Teapot42]

Around Chesterfield and the Peak District there are a few anomalies:
Between Barnsley and Sheffield you have the 2 and X17 on the same line, but between Bakewell and Sheffield the 218 and 257 follow different lines. Is there logic as to which routes with the same original and destination but differing routes have separate lines? I'm also wondering if it would be viable to add Meadowhall, as while it isn't a town or city by itself, it is a place where a lot of services converge, including coaches. (It's on the coach map, but not the bus one)

Other notes, the 63 (Chesterfield to Matlock) and 172 (Bakewell to Matlock) are missing, although the 'primary' services on these routes are. You could maybe add the once a day X66 from Chesterfield to Buxton and the 66 from Tideswell to Buxton?

Would the Peak Sightseer buses have a place on here, or as they aren't really service buses (in that they charge a premium fare) would they not count?

 

[pjnathanail]

Diss to Bury St Edmunds is erroneously the 40/A, when it should be the 70/A.

The 88 Halstead to Colchester is now wholly the preserve of Konectbuses (Go Ahead) following First's recent service withdrawal.

Central Connect now run between Stansted Airport and Braintree (route 333) alongside the First X20.

 

[bv52_eno]

First Cornwall U1 doesn't run between Newquay and Truro, and Go Cornwall's 89 between Truro and Bodmin doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Go Cornwall's 95 now mainly runs between Wadebridge and Bude. Newquay is only served by 2 buses per morning towards Bude only.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Newquay is only served by 2 buses per morning towards Bude only.

It's actually one bus which runs from Newquay Cornwall Airport right up to Bude, it runs straight out of GCB's depot there.

 

[Andyh82]

First Cornwall U1 doesn't run between Newquay and Truro

It was replaced by the 87 along that stretch at the start of the summer. The U1 still runs Truro to Falmouth

 

[Parebunks]

Diss to Bury St Edmunds is erroneously the 40/A, when it should be the 70/A.

The 88 Halstead to Colchester is now wholly the preserve of Konectbuses (Go Ahead) following First's recent service withdrawal.

Central Connect now run between Stansted Airport and Braintree (route 333) alongside the First X20.

First Cornwall U1 doesn't run between Newquay and Truro, and Go Cornwall's 89 between Truro and Bodmin doesn't seem to exist anymore.

Go Cornwall's 95 now mainly runs between Wadebridge and Bude. Newquay is only served by 2 buses per morning towards Bude only.

Thanks, fixed - think I had caught those Cornwall ones but didn't save them to the file properly so a good spot.

Around Chesterfield and the Peak District there are a few anomalies:
Between Barnsley and Sheffield you have the 2 and X17 on the same line, but between Bakewell and Sheffield the 218 and 257 follow different lines. Is there logic as to which routes with the same original and destination but differing routes have separate lines? I'm also wondering if it would be viable to add Meadowhall, as while it isn't a town or city by itself, it is a place where a lot of services converge, including coaches. (It's on the coach map, but not the bus one)

Other notes, the 63 (Chesterfield to Matlock) and 172 (Bakewell to Matlock) are missing, although the 'primary' services on these routes are. You could maybe add the once a day X66 from Chesterfield to Buxton and the 66 from Tideswell to Buxton?

Would the Peak Sightseer buses have a place on here, or as they aren't really service buses (in that they charge a premium fare) would they not count?

This comes back to the point about trying to present a network - those missing routes are all deliberate in that they don't add anything beyond the primary routes and are relatively infrequent - likewise Peak Sightseer, I've only included the very small number of similar services that fill a meaningful gap between major towns. In general the 2/X17 method is the one I've followed, 218/257 is an artifact of my original plan to have a 'dot' for Bamford but looks better than running together even without so will stay as is. There would be some merit to adding Meadowhall but unfortunately just a bit hard to make work for the information value, and it is very close to Sheffield.

 

[Teapot42]

There would be some merit to adding Meadowhall but unfortunately just a bit hard to make work for the information value, and it is very close to Sheffield.

You could move Sheffield to the left to make space for Meadowhall. Showing bus links would compliment the coach map as there are services which only come off the M1 to serve Meadowhall rather than going in to Sheffield for example.

It might help also to add Chapel between Buxton and New Mills to show connections between the 62 and 199 better? Also, worth clarifying between New Mills and New Mills Newtown - only a handful of 199s go to New Mills 'proper'. If you do that then adding the 358 and possibly Hayfield will give better info on links in an area popular with tourists.

The diagrammatic nature of the map does have some interesting artefacts - such as Edale being in completely the wrong place related to Castleton. Also, the 77 and Pronto are shown as following the same route for a distance when in reality they don't have anything in common.

 

[bv52_eno]

Thanks, fixed - think I had caught those Cornwall ones but didn't save them to the file properly so a good spot.

One more error I have spotted hopefully:
Leicester
- Arriva service 5A is the main service that serves Melton Mowbray, service 5 only goes to East Goscote at most journeys on weekdays/saturdays.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Sep 2025 ==

Turns out there is a few more

National Express
- Service 707 now only runs between Luton and Birmingham
- Service 209 introduced, one way from Gatwick to Bristol, via Victoria and Heathrow, looks like an overnight service.

 

[Parebunks]

One more error I have spotted hopefully:
Leicester
- Arriva service 5A is the main service that serves Melton Mowbray, service 5 only goes to East Goscote at most journeys on weekdays/saturdays.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Sep 2025 ==

Turns out there is a few more

National Express
- Service 707 now only runs between Luton and Birmingham
- Service 209 introduced, one way from Gatwick to Bristol, via Victoria and Heathrow, looks like an overnight service.

Thanks - 209 is a deliberate omission due to being very much an edge case, fixed the others.

 

[bv52_eno]

Nottingham
- 'the threes' label is missing Nottingham-Mansfield
- Would it be possible to display Loughborough-Nottingham 1/9 as two lines in different colours, like what you do with the others, instead of just NCT colour, since the current format could confuse people.

 

[38291018]

Diamond eastmidlands (rotola)

service 19 - the 19 as well as the 9 goes to ashby-de-la-zouch whereas your map shows it going as far as swadlincote but the 19 goes ashby via measham unlike the 9 so may need redrawing to show a deviation continuing to ashby like the 9

Also you have 19,9 from burton to swadlictote however as the 8 and 9 are nearly the exact same route with the 8 terminating in swadlincote and the 9 continuing, I think I would be better to change 19,9 to 8,9 or have 8,9,19 with the 19 having the deviation from swadlictote to ashby drawn similar to how the arriva LC16 is from loughborough to ashby.

Also
Stagecoach eastmidlands

Service 53 - you showing as it being more frequent between Lincoln and market rasen with a few continuing to grimbsy, however unless I'm mistaken all 53/53a buses go from Lincoln to grimsby

 

[Steddenm]

Saw this today - a map of all bus services in the UK and Ireland


Image shows a map of the UK and Ireland with bus routes shown as bright colours radiating out of cities and towns.

 

[gingerheid]

I love that they included Eire but not Shetland!

Also the gap NW of Huntingdon looks equally inexplicable on both maps!

 

[NorthOxonian]

Also the gap NW of Huntingdon looks equally inexplicable on both maps!

I think Whippet used to run their X3 to Thrapston and Kettering, and withdrawing that left that gap in the network? In fairness you do have two fairly frequent and busy corridors to the north and south (Peterborough - Oundle - Corby and St Neots - Bedford) but that specific journey between Huntingdon and Kettering is weirdly awkward, realistically needing two changes (you can do it in one, but then you're on the X4 for a while).

 

[RELL6L]

What a fascinating map! I thought at first it was a very long exposure photo of the moving map from BusTimes but its too uniform to be that - all Stagecoach is the same colour whereas the buses are not. Very clever however it was done.

It certainly shows up gaps and less well-bussed / well-populated areas. South Lincolnshire for example near Delaine's territory. And the gap NW of Huntingdon which as I recall has always been there, no potential passengers I guess, small prosperous car-dependent villages.

Amazing detail on it, eg the 888 and 889 in Northumberland. But the 681 between Alston and Haltwhistle appears to be missing. It still has Stagecoach in Dumfries & Galloway but not the 500?

 

[richard13]

Links to the above bus map posted by Steddenm
Image above
Python code
Zoomable version.

 

[aron2smith]

That map is a work of art but more importantly looks like a useful way of identifying any gaps that seem all too common in cross-boundary routes these days.