Schedules are a necessity for riding any form of public transit. They not only tell you when the next vehicle is coming, but they also govern the two major operating costs associated with transit: vehicle work assignments called blocks, and operator work assignments called a duty.
Public transit schedules started out and still are printed on paper. This means new schedules have to be printed for every change in arrival time or a route. But with the advent of trip planning apps, the humble paper public transit schedule is a new creation. It’s now a massive digital repository, which puts the world’s transit schedules at your fingertips. Despite the differences in scale, both types of schedules (printed and digital) are still made the same way: in a transit agency.