Help & FAQs

Why isn't my bus showing?

The most common reasons are:

• We cover North East England and Yorkshire so far. We're adding regions one at a time so each one is accurate rather than covering everywhere badly.
• The stop has no scheduled departures left today. Late evening, the next bus may be tomorrow morning.
• The operator hasn't published that service. We can only show what operators publish to the Bus Open Data Service.
• You're at a different pole. Big stops have several poles (one per direction), each with its own times. Check the nearby stops list.

What does "live" mean here?

Two different things are shown, and it's worth knowing which is which:

• Scheduled times — the timetable the operator published. Departure times on stop pages are scheduled times.
• Live buses — actual GPS positions of buses running right now, shown on route pages. These are real vehicle locations, updated roughly every 15 seconds.

We do not currently show per-departure delay predictions ("3 minutes late"). We'd rather show you an honest timetable than a guess dressed up as a live prediction.

Why can bus times change?

Timetables change regularly — seasonal changes, roadworks, school holidays and operator revisions. We refresh our timetable data from the Bus Open Data Service, but there can be a short gap between an operator publishing a change and it appearing here. Always allow a few minutes' margin for an important journey.

How does 'use my location' work?

Location is entirely optional and never requested automatically. Nothing asks for your location until you tap "Use my location".

• Your browser asks your permission first.
• Your coordinates are used to find the nearest stops, and remembered in your own browser for 12 hours so you don't have to tap it on every page.
• We don't store your location on our servers or link it to you.

You can use the whole site without it — search by postcode, town, stop or route instead. See our privacy policy.

How do I find my nearest bus stop?

Use Nearby — it lists the closest stops with walking distance and the routes serving each one. You can also search a postcode (for example DH1 5HY) from any search box, or browse bus times by area.

How do I report incorrect information?

Please report an issue. If a timetable is wrong, it usually means the operator's published data is wrong — but tell us anyway and we'll check whether it's our problem or theirs.

Is NextBusTime free? Do I need an account?

It's completely free and there are no accounts. Favourites are saved in your own browser, not on our servers — so they stay on the device you saved them on.