Courtesy of thetrainline.com Google Maps has now launched information and timetables for mainland Britain. Now train travellers are able to search to journeys across the country here with more than 2,500 stations and 170,000 trips nationwide at their fingertips, in addition 8,000 bus stops and over 250 tube stations. The website also gives users full information on walking directions and some bus timetables for connections, as well as the opportunity to click through to thetrainline.com to book tickets.

Searching for travel information across Greater London was already possible but now internet and mobile users have access to timetables and train information for routes across the whole country.

Richard Rowson, Product Development Director at thetrainline.com said: “We’re delighted to be providing train travel information through Google Maps for the first time. We want to make sure that consumers are always able to consider rail options when making a journey and this innovation will help train travellers nationwide to do that by planning their route more easily. This is a fantastic partnership and demonstrates what two market leading brands working together can achieve.”

Ed Parsons, Google UK’s geospatial technologist, said: “Google Maps seeks to provide a wide range of relevant local information, and public transport station and schedule information is definitely a part of that. It is great to be able to partner with companies like thetrainline.com and have their schedule information available in Google Maps for the whole of Britain. This means we can reach and help a larger number of people with useful national rail train information.”

Google Maps is available in over 50 languages, so as London gets set for the 2012 Olympics and an even bigger influx of tourists, it is hoped that this technology will help them to find their way around the city and country.

Christopher Rodrigues, VisitBritain Chairman said: “We want to encourage visitors to explore the whole of Britain. With the Olympics less than 200 days away Google’s new initiative is exciting news. Millions of visitors plan their itinerary using Google maps and this additional information will act as a catalyst and inspire them to discover all that is wonderful about our great country.”