What is the Journey Planner?

Merseytravel's journey planner is a web based tool to help you plan journeys by public transport. You can use the “Travel Preferences” menu to choose your preferred modes of travel, walking distances and any mobility restrictions. The journey planner also features an interactive map to show your route from start to finish.

How is the Merseytravel Journey Planner different to the North West Traveline Journey Planner?

The Merseytravel journey planner provides information for all licenced public transport services available in the Merseyside region (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral).

• It offers trip options for the following means of transport – bus, coach, ferry and train.
• You can create a journey plan based on your current location, an address, a post code, a street name, a bus stop or a point of interest.
• You can select your preferred route type - fastest route, least walking or least changes.
• You can select your walking speed between stops and between your origin and destination.
• You can add in any mobility restrictions – use of stairs, escalators or lifts.
• You can use the option to walk to an alternative stop at the start or end of the journey if it offers a better journey option.
• Real time bus information will be displayed when available.
• The “Departures” feature enables you to see scheduled and real time information (where available) for your location or a specified stop.

What advanced features does the Journey Planner provide?

The journey planner will offer a few suggestions for trips based on the settings provided (e.g. quickest route, prefer not to use the train). It will provide an overview of each suggestion that you can open and see the detailed steps of that particular journey. You will be able to use the map to zoom in and out to see the overview and detailed steps of the trips suggested. When available, real time information will be displayed alongside the timetable information.

The Departures is a new feature that enables you to see the next bus or rail departures from your current location or a specified stop.

How is my use of the Journey Planner tracked?

The journey planner site uses temporary cookies for internal tracking purposes to improve your customer experience. We do not collect or retain any information related to any users.

Can I send a journey plan to others?

Yes, you can press the ‘Email my journey’ on the top yellow header and send it to them by email.

Can I download a bus timetable?

Yes, from the journey plan detail, you can click on a bus or train and press ‘Download Timetable’. This will download a pdf copy of the timetable.

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What can I use as the start and end points of the journey?

The journey planner will search for bus and rail stops, post codes, addresses or points of interest (POI). It will also search using the current location option if you press the button. POI information available includes hospitals, tourist attractions, sports arenas etc., and is updated twice a year.

How far in advance can I plan a journey?

The journey planner allows you to plan a journey some months in advance, however, as bus operators change timetables on a regular basis, please always check the journey plan again nearer the time of travel in case any changes have been made.

What are the default settings?

The journey planner will calculate trip plans based on the default settings below until you make a change to them via the “Settings” menu.

• Depart at the current date and time
• The fastest route is selected
• Travel via all modes of transport
• Walking speed of ‘normal’ (4km/hour)
• Max walking time of 20 minutes
• Allow walk to alternative stops
• No restrictions to use of stairs, lifts or escalators

What happens if the results don’t match what I expected?

The journey planner uses all the settings to calculate the journeys that match your requirements (e.g. mode of transport, departure time and maximum walking time). If the journey planner can’t find trips that match the criteria exactly, it will try and find a best match and sometimes trips may not seem to be the most logical. In these instances you may wish to alter the settings such as the allow walk to alternative stops

Sometimes it may be quicker to travel by two buses than by a direct bus, especially if the real time feed shows that the direct bus is running late.

How can I change the journey plan or see other options if the first results don’t match what I expect?

You can press on the ‘Earlier’ or ‘Later’ buttons to see earlier or later trips with the same settings, or you can change the settings via the “Travel Preferences” menu. Alternatively, you could consider reviewing the origin or destination details you have entered. The ‘allow walking time to the best stops’ setting works in conjunction with the maximum walking time setting when you have chosen to travel from a bus stop (red circle) – the option must be ticked for the journey planner to consider trips that call at nearby stops.

Can I plan a cycle journey?

We are unable to offer this facility at the moment. The option to walk will be offered for shorter trips, taking into account the maximum amount of time you have specified in the settings.

How accurate are the walking times?

The walking times may be slightly faster or slower than reality and are approximate times only. They are calculated from the walking speed you select in the “Travel Preferences” menu and from a suggested route to walk. In reality you may choose a different route which may be quicker or slower, or there may be footpaths missing from the journey planner. If you notice anything wrong, such as the suggested route is via a blocked footpath or there is a much easier route, please let us know via email to Comments@Merseytravel.gov.uk.

Can I use the map to plan a journey?

Yes, you can use the map to plan a journey. Please use the zoom facility to make sure that the correct place on the map is selected. Right click the place you wish to start or end your journey and choose the option that pops up. If you press the wrong location by accident, start again by pressing the map in the right location and repeat the process

Why is the journey planner sometimes slow to respond?

The journey planner runs some complex calculations and communicates between our servers and your internet or mobile network at various stages in the journey planning process which can affect response times.

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Plan a Journey:

Type the address into your web browser - http://jp.merseytravel.gov.uk

Start typing in the ‘From’ menu.

The journey planner will offer suggestions as you type. Bus stops and train stations are shown as a red circle. A Point of Interest (POI) is shown as a grey pin. An address, street or postcode is shown as a house.

Once you have chosen your origin, the Departure Board will appear at the bottom of the screen.

If real time information is available for a bus service, it will be shown below the bus detail and the time on the left will be updated with the new expected time. If a bus is running late it will be shown in red, if it is on time or early it will be shown in green. In the example above, the 79D to Winster Drive is running 3 minutes late.

You can change the date and time you wish to travel, and can also choose whether you want to arrive or depart at that time.

Remember to press the ‘update’ button if you change any of the settings.

Use the “Travel Preferences” section to select or deselect your means of transport, simply tick/un-tick the boxes.

Use the Walking Speed section to specify how fast you walk.

Use the ‘Allow walking time to the best stops’ option in conjunction with the maximum walk time to choose the maximum amount of time to walk at the start or end of the journey or in between journey steps. If you are travelling from a bus stop and prefer not to walk to a nearby stop even if it would enable a quicker or easier journey, remove the tick in the ‘Allow walking time to the best stops’ check box. In some instances this might offer journeys with many more interchanges, or send you in what may appear to be the wrong direction, so only un-tick this if you really intend to go from the stop you selected.

Use the ‘Route options’ to choose whether you want the quickest route, one with the least changes or least walking.

You can also use this section to add in any mobility restrictions.

Remember to press the "Update" button if you change any settings, or they won't be included in the journey options presented to you.

Once you have chosen the destination, the journey planner will offer a few suggested routes.

From this page you can choose to email the journey plan by clicking on ‘E-mail My Journey’.

You can also print the journey by clicking on the printer icon.

Click on one of the summary lines to see the detailed journey plan. If real time information is available, the updated time will show on the left in a different colour (red for late running buses, green for on-time) and the scheduled timetable time will show below.

To download a timetable, click on the bus service (or train/ferry/coach service).

To view the part of the journey in an area map, click on the icon to the right of the journey step.

Here is an example of the area map.

To view the journey in the interactive map, click on the interactive map icon.

Here is an example of the interactive map.

Use the map controls to zoom in and out of the map, and to navigate left, right, up and down. Alternatively you can double click with the mouse, and drag the map to navigate.

You can hover over an icon on the map to see what it is. You can also hover over a bus stop to see the next departures. You can also use the interactive map to plan your journey.

Help and Information

Hover over the help icons in each section of the journey planner for help on the options available.

You can contact us easily via the ‘Share your comments and suggestions’ section.

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What are the main features of the map?

The main purpose of the map is to display journey routes to help you with your journey. The more you zoom in, the more detail you will see, such as bus stops. You can press a bus stop on the map to see departure information for that stop. You can press a Point of Interest (POI) such as a school on the map to see what it is. The map can also be used to plan your journey.

How do I use the map?

Press on the double upwards facing arrow on the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen and the map will be displayed on half of your screen. Press the double up arrow again to make the map full screen. Press the double down arrow to minimise it. You can scroll left, right, up and down on the map, and also to zoom in and out. The more you zoom in, the more detail you will see, such as street names, bus stops, Points of Interest (POI) such as doctors, schools etc.

What can I do with the map?

You can use the map to plan a journey by pressing on it for 1-2 seconds and choosing one of the options that pop up – departure point, origin or destination. If you have not zoomed in enough, the journey planner may not choose the right area, so make sure you are at the right zoom level. To change what has been selected, repeat the process above.

Map symbols

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If you have any comments on our services that you would like to share, please click here to contact our feedback team. Please note that if you are commenting on services provided by a third party operator or supplier, we will pass your details and comments on to them for a response. We aim to acknowledge your comments within two working days and provide a full response within 21 working days.

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