Reading Timetables the Easy Way (Bus, Train and School Examples)
A timetable looks like a wall of numbers at first glance, but almost every question about one comes down to the same simple job: finding the gap between two times, or adding a length of time onto a starting point.
Once a child can confidently work out the time between a departure and an arrival, reading any timetable becomes far less overwhelming.
Working out journey length
A bus departs at 09:15 and arrives at 10:05. From 09:15 to 10:00 is 45 minutes, then a further 5 minutes to reach 10:05, giving a total journey time of 50 minutes.
Working out a longer journey
A train departs at 14:20 and arrives at 16:05. From 14:20 to 15:20 is exactly 1 hour. From 15:20 to 16:05 is a further 45 minutes. Added together, that's 1 hour 45 minutes.
Working out an arrival time
A film starts at 19:20 and lasts 2 hours 10 minutes. Add the hours first: 19:20 + 2 hours = 21:20. Then add the minutes: 21:20 + 10 minutes = 21:30. The film ends at 21:30.
Real-life example: an overnight flight
A flight departs at 22:40 and lasts 3 hours 25 minutes. Adding the hours: 22:40 + 3 hours = 01:40 the next day, since the clock rolls past midnight. Adding the minutes: 01:40 + 25 minutes = 02:05. The flight lands at 02:05, on the following day.
Reading a repeating timetable pattern
Many bus timetables list departures at a fixed gap, like every 20 minutes. Starting at 07:00, the next departures follow by adding 20 minutes each time: 07:00, 07:20, 07:40, 08:00.
Practice questions
- A bus departs at 08:30 and arrives at 09:10. How long is the journey? Answer: 40 minutes
- A train departs at 13:45 and arrives at 15:00. How long is the journey? Answer: 1 hour 15 minutes
- A film starts at 19:20 and lasts 2 hours 10 minutes. What time does it end? Answer: 21:30
- A flight departs at 22:40 and lasts 3 hours 25 minutes. What time does it land? Answer: 02:05 (the next day)
- A bus leaves every 20 minutes starting at 07:00. What are the first four departure times? Answer: 07:00, 07:20, 07:40, 08:00
Common mistakes I see in the classroom
The most common one is treating time like ordinary decimals when subtracting across the hour mark — working out 14:20 to 16:05 as if it were 16.05 minus 14.20, rather than handling the hours and minutes separately.
Another frequent mistake is forgetting that a journey can cross midnight, especially with overnight travel, and not rolling the hour back round past 23:59 to 00:00.
Tips for parents
Real bus or train timetables, found online or in a station, make excellent practice material. Planning an imaginary day trip together and working out journey times along the way turns the skill into something genuinely useful, not just a worksheet exercise.
Tips for teachers
I like handing out a real local bus timetable and asking students to plan a journey with a connection, working out both journey times and the wait between buses. It combines several small skills into one realistic task.
How step-by-step learning tools help
A step-by-step maths tool can break a timetable question into its separate hour and minute steps, showing exactly how a journey time or arrival time was worked out, with unlimited fresh timetable questions at a child's own pace.
Frequently asked questions
How do you work out how long a journey takes from a timetable? Find the gap between the departure and arrival times, working out the hours and minutes separately rather than subtracting the numbers directly.
Why are timetables usually written in 24-hour time? It avoids confusion between AM and PM, especially for journeys that might run late into the evening or overnight.
At what age do children learn to read timetables? This is usually introduced around age 9 to 10, once telling the time and basic time conversions are already secure.
What happens when a journey crosses midnight? The hours keep counting past 23:59 by rolling back round to 00:00 the next day, so the arrival time might show a smaller number than the departure time.
Is reading a timetable the same as converting the 24-hour clock? They're related but different — converting the clock changes how a single time is written, while reading a timetable usually means finding the gap between two times or adding a duration onto one.
Every Timetable Is a Subtraction in Disguise
Once a child sees that almost every timetable question is really just finding the gap between two times, or adding a length of time onto a starting point, a busy-looking timetable stops feeling like a wall of numbers and starts feeling like a short list of familiar little sums.