The town printed a new bus timetable and promised it would be easier to read. The old one had tiny columns, footnotes, and a star beside the Saturday service that nobody could find an explanation for. The new one used large type and bright colors.
On Monday morning the driver, Bill, noticed two departure times beside his route: 8:10 and 8:15. He called the depot.
“Which is it?”
“Eight ten,” said the dispatcher. “Eight fifteen is the arrival time at the next stop.”
“The next stop is twenty minutes away.”
There was a pause. The dispatcher promised to check. Bill drove at his usual speed. He reached the next stop at 8:30, where three passengers waved the new timetable at him.
“You’re fifteen minutes late,” one said.
“I’m exactly on time according to the road,” Bill replied.
At the third stop a woman complained that the bus had left before the printed arrival time. Bill explained that the number she was reading belonged to the route going in the opposite direction. She showed him the color key. It appeared to say otherwise.
By lunchtime Bill had collected seven different interpretations of the schedule. He asked the depot for a corrected copy. They sent him a PDF of the same timetable, only harder to read on his phone.
On Tuesday a council officer rode the full route to investigate. She observed that the 8:10 bus reached the station at 8:52. The new timetable promised 8:35. Bill pointed to roadworks, a school crossing, and the fact that buses could not travel through parked cars.
“Could you take a shorter route?” the officer asked.
“We could,” Bill said, “but the passengers might prefer to be on it.”
The council held a meeting. Someone suggested adding footnotes. Someone else suggested a QR code. Bill asked whether they might simply print the times he actually reached each stop. The officer said those times varied with traffic. Bill said the variation was precisely why the old timetable had allowed a few extra minutes.
They agreed to conduct a trial. For a week Bill recorded each arrival in a notebook. He wrote down roadworks, weather, and the day a passenger had tried to bring a wardrobe aboard. His average times were remarkably consistent, except for that wardrobe.
He also recorded suggestions. Mrs. Green wanted the bus to wait until she could see it from her kitchen window. A student wanted a stop closer to school. An elderly man asked whether Bill could pause outside the bakery on rainy days. Bill showed the council how many things a timetable could not promise. They added a column marked “estimated,” which made the printing clearer but the journeys no shorter.
The council published a revised schedule based on his notes. On Friday, Bill found a stack of copies on his seat. He read the first line and called the depot.
“It says the bus leaves the garage at 8:10.”
“That’s right,” said the dispatcher.
“It takes ten minutes to get from the garage to the first stop.”
Another pause. “Can you leave at eight?”
Bill looked at the clock. “I can,” he said. “But then you’ll need a timetable for the bus that gets me to work.”