The Sunday timetable belongs in the day-trip plan

Choose the service day before choosing the hour

The retained D40 PDF has 23 pages. Its Sunday tables occupy pages 18–23, with separate northbound and southbound headings. Open the page that actually says Sunday and the direction you need. A time found by searching for “Silver Spring” is incomplete until its day, direction and column heading have been checked.

The document also uses a school-day qualification elsewhere: an S-marked trip operates only on public-school open days. That is a qualification on a marked trip, not permission to use a weekday column on Sunday. None of the Sunday trips selected below is being borrowed from that school-day table. Nor does an unfilled cell create a time that can be reconstructed by adding minutes from another row.

Read the outward trip across one row

For the outward example, use the Sunday northbound table on PDF page 18. The row lists 9:00 a.m. at “9 St + Constitution Av NW (Archives)” and 9:46 a.m. at “Silver Spring Station (200 Level).” Read horizontally across that same row, keeping the two timepoint labels with their times. Do not pair a departure on one row with an arrival on the next.

The scheduled difference is 46 minutes. It describes this published pairing, not a promise about traffic or the time needed to reach a particular destination after leaving the bus. The example ends at the station timepoint; it does not add an invented museum reservation, walking duration or guaranteed connection.

Write the outward note in full: “D40, Sunday northbound, December 14, 2025 edition: Archives 9 St/Constitution 9:00 a.m.; Silver Spring Station 200 Level 9:46 a.m.” The longer note prevents a bare “9:00” from losing its place and direction when copied into a phone calendar.

Build the return from the southbound Sunday page

On PDF page 23, the Sunday southbound row gives 5:20 p.m. at Silver Spring Station’s 200 Level and 6:15 p.m. at the Archives timepoint at 9 St and Constitution Avenue. That is a published return option to the named timepoint used for departure. Its scheduled difference is 55 minutes; it need not equal the outward journey’s 46 minutes.

A second row gives 5:35 p.m. from Silver Spring and 6:30 p.m. at that Archives timepoint. It is a separate scheduled option, not a promise that a missed bus will always be replaced after fifteen minutes. Both pairs must stay on their own rows. The later arrival is also a different outcome if something else is planned for the evening.

In an original planning example, Avery chooses the 5:20 departure as the intended return and records 5:35 as another published option. Avery has not ridden either bus or checked live disruptions. The useful plan now contains a stated departure location and two complete return pairs, rather than “come back whenever” or an unsupported claim about the last service of the night.

Leave the timetable and the day’s operation distinct

Before relying on the plan for an actual date, check the operator’s current timetable and service information. A retained effective-date edition answers what it publishes; it does not establish that a holiday, temporary diversion or later schedule change leaves the chosen journey unchanged. Likewise, the station label does not establish every detail of boarding access or the time needed to reach the stop.

If a return changes, revise its departure and arrival together. Keeping only the old arrival in a calendar would hide the changed journey. The practical deliverable is modest but complete: one documented service day, two directions, an outward pair and actual return alternatives with their named timepoints attached.