When I got my bus pass, after a little investigation, I discovered that it entitled me to ride on 'local buses' not just in my local area, but all over the country!

Of course, I immediately thought 'Wow - that means I could go on a grand tour around the country!', 'I could have summer adventures travelling to bits of the country I've never been to', etc. A little more research revealed that many, other people have had the same idea, often doing North to South, Land's end to John o'Groats, all round the coast, etc etc and often sponsored for charity, or as a personal challenge.

A little more research revealed that this sort of trip is more of a challenge than you might think, because of the way local buses are organised (or not) in the UK. The actual bus services are delivered (i.e. run) by commercial businesses. Many smalll companies run just a few - sometimes only one - bus routes, whilst others are large concerns running many routes around the country. Nearly (but not all) of them have a website where you can see their routes and timetables, and some of the bigger ones even have an app which you can use on your mobile phone.

There are route planning services - traveline, google maps etc, where you can plan a route from A to B (as long as they're not too far apart), and there's lots of information available from individual operators.

But what there wasn't was a national map of the UK showing all the local bus routes, where you can zoom in and out and click on routes to see the bus stops, operator details and timetables. Where you can see all the routes available in any area, to get you from A to D via B or C or wherever else you like. So that's what the Double Decker Checker is for.