Great Western Coffee Shop

Been trying to research the bus link from Kingham to Chipping Norton.

A search on Google produces

1) A timetable from 2011 run by RH Transport, who I know went out of business.
2) An Oxon County Council leaflet which has a Stagecoach timetable from 2012
3) Pulhams Coaches website which I think may be the current one, but has no date on it.  The website front page also has a link to Good Friday services, which is either great forward planning or an indication that all is not up to date....
4) Also found a dead link via Google to a 2009 timetable.

How hard can it be....

Can anyone confirm who runs the current X8 service?

Still Pulhams according to Traveline South East:

http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/se/TTB/EFA02__0000217b_AS.pdf

Many thanks.

Does that link win an award as the longest URL?   ;D

Post edited to give the .pdf link rather than Traveline's proprietary timetable.  ;)

Bignosemac's link does not appear to work.  The link to a PDF of the current X8 timetable can be found on the following page http://www.pulhamscoaches.com/timetables/4539355309.

The service runs up to the end of May 2014, after which, it all depends on whether Oxfordshire County Council decides to continue to subsidise it.  If it does, the operator may change, however.  The same comment applies to the X8A and C1 RailBus routes (from Kingham and Charlbury stations) currently operated by GoRide.

Meanwhile the FGW timetable leaflet 'East 4', for London and Oxford to Worcester and Hereford, refers you to www.railbus.co.uk (http://www.railbus.co.uk).

Go there and you find a button for 'Bus and train times' which doesn't mention connections at Kingham.

Or there's another button for 'Getting information'. That takes you to a page that includes a link to 'Download the Kingham Railbus X8 Timetable', which in turn takes you to http://railbus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/X8-December-2011.pdf (http://railbus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/X8-December-2011.pdf), where you'll find a timetable that's valid from 2011 Dec 11 to 2012 May 13, operated by RH Buses.

All I can say is that if this service does indeed operate, then it doesn't deserve to have any passengers.

And if it's subsidised by Oxfordshire, then they're not spending my taxpayers' money very effectively.

Yes, that was the merry-go-round I got stuck on earlier Worcester_Passenger.

I found two versions of the glossy chocolate & cream leaflets - and both out of date!

But they're very pretty.

..and that's the problem - you almost don't notice the date!

In general terms the reliability of bus timetables shown by TOCs is often poor, and sometimes completely wrong.  In the GB Timetable there are many examples of " connecting bus services" which appear to be 'owned' by the relevant TOC.

I have seen many that are out of date, and they are the local bus routes that I am aware of. Therefore if I was undertaking a journey involving a connecting bus I would search the local authority's website for bus timetables - perhaps search "Oxfordshire bus times" or similar. Some local authorities are very good and keep an upto date library of bus timetables (Derbyshire being about the best), others just list services with operator name and an indication of frequency, and some refer you to Traveline (like Oxfordshire). Incidentally Oxfordshire also offer bus maps on their website.

One of the least enjoyable pleasures of the world wide web is the amount of outdated, inaccurate and misleading information that is still accessibile in search engines and caches even though it may not have been valid for many years.  This looks like a good example of that.

The RailBus website does contain up to date information - see http://railbus.co.uk/bus-times/cotswold-line-railbus-times/

It does now. It's changed since my last post - many thanks to whoever read this and did something about it.

This link no longer works - anyone find an updated site?

https://bustimes.org.uk/services/set_2-X8-A-y08  [valid October 2016]