How to use this Website
The CITY and COUNTRY pages aim to show all buses between Peterborough and each locality, irrespective of route or operator. This makes it easy to find bus timings, provided your particular locality is listed. Click on CITY for different areas of Peterborough itself, or on COUNTRY for the surrounding towns and villages. Alternatively the ROUTE page gives links to full timetables for each route (generally pdf files on the operators' websites). Any pages prepared in advance of timetable changes will be found on the ADVANCE TIMINGS page.
Other useful information includes coach times, Queensgate departure bays, maps of bus routes, day tickets, and a useful guide to rail fares to London. You will also find a news archive plus some background information about myself and the coding behind the site. Please explore the links on the left to find these features. You can make the text bigger by using your browser controls (typically View-Zoom or View-Text Size).
Background and History
Why did I start this site?
At the beginning of 2000 when I started this site there was next to nothing on the web concerning bus timetables for the Peterborough area. Wanting to taste the water with web authoring, and having a life-long interest in bus and rail timetables, I gave it a go. I was also keen for my site to be genuinely useful to the travelling public, and with that end I concentrated on the content of the site rather than design aspects. Many people have told me they find it useful and easy to use.
Is it still needed?
Twelve years on and all the major operators now have their own websites, as do the Councils. Indeed, Peterborough City Council's website has route-by-route timetables for all local bus services. People tell me that my site is still the easiest to use, combining as it does all buses to a single destination on one page, and I shall continue to maintain it for the foreseeable future as best I can, given the limited time available.
The code behind the site
Back in 2000 the site started with very simple hand-coded html and frames. From early 2003 I started using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for the city pages, and in February 2005 I decided to start redesigning the whole site using CSS and no frames. For help in using CSS for layout I found Bluerobot.com very useful.
I was also keen to have scaleable fonts to help those who wanted to adjust the typesize using their browser controls, and was very pleased to find a neat solution on Thenoodleincident.com. Using CSS also meant that separate stylesheets (now dropped) could be provided for those using older browsers, and the pages are still logically laid out if viewed as text-only. A further stylesheet is provided for printing purposes meaning that any unwanted material such as menus can be omitted.
Abolishing frames meant that I had to find a new technique for repeating items such as menus on each page, and for that I am using SSI (Server Side Includes) - you can find a useful guide to this here.
In early 2009, following problems with the previous hosting company, I moved all my websites onto a single webspace, hosted in the UK by Storm Internet, which has turned out to be a very reliable and good value host. I am now using the domain name globestudios.co.uk as an umbrella name for all my work - this was a domain purchased by my teenage son but no longer used, and it seemed too good a name to lose. It seemed suitable for any present or future web projects and I am grateful to my son for his forsight!
In Spring 2009 I started putting Google ads on my homepage, having previously avoided any sort of advertising. Over the years the hosting and domain name have cost me quite a bit and I thought it was about time I got something back!
On January 1st 2010 the site received a complete makeover to celebrate its 10th year, using a template from CSS-tricks.com. This fluid-width design copes with a wide range of screen resolutions from 800x600 (with no horizontal scroll) up to 1260px, at which point it cleverly becomes fixed width, thereby avoiding being too wide for comfort on widescreen monitors. At the same time I took the opportunity to simplify the layout and reduce the number of styles, as it had become rather cumbersome and difficult to update.
The Webmaster
Originally from Leicester, I made my first visit to Peterborough in 1966 at the age of 12 on a Midland Red coach, and walked from the bus station (then near the Embankment) to Lincoln Road depot. I still have a street plan from that visit, carefully marked in felt tipped pen with the local bus network. In 1968 I moved with my parents to Southampton and became a firm fan of Bristol/ECW types. My degree course at the City of London Polytechnic (as it was then) was of the sandwich variety and included a fascinating work placement with London Country Buses at Reigate and Crawley, as well as periods with a London Council and in road haulage.
Having graduated, I moved to Peterborough in 1978 to work for the Operational Research Department of the National Bus Company, based in Deanery Mews. During this period I made good use of my NBC staff pass to explore bus networks throughout the country. In 1982 I planned my first extensive rail trip abroad (Switzerland), the first of many European trips looking mainly at trains, trams and trolleybuses. Just weeks before the trip the NBC announced the relocation of the Research Department to Birmingham, and I might have moved there but for an unexpected vacancy on the Continental Timetable team at Thomas Cook. Joining as Assistant Editor, under the watchful eye of John Price, I became Editor in 1985 of what is now the European Rail Timetable and have held the post ever since, although my title has changed to reflect wider responsibilities.
From 2005 I became a big fan of the Malta bus scene and wrote a series of articles on the routes and timetables for Malta Transport News. I also started a website entitled Malta By Bus. The demise of the old buses and bus routes in July 2011 brought an end to the Maltese articles and the work on the website has been suspended, although I hope to find time to do more work on it at some point.
Eastern Europe has always fascinated me, in particular the Czech Republic where I have made several visits in recent years. Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are also favourites. I have started some web pages about public transport in Prague which can be found on the Globe Studios page and hope to expand them further when time permits. The demands of work and family life means that development of all my web projects continues to be a rather slow process!
Contact Me
I regret I am not normally able to answer travel enquiries due to the demands of the day job and family. However, feel free to me if you find broken links or are aware of changes that I have missed.
Happy travelling. Brendan Fox, Peterborough
Page updated 29/12/11