Will Fly Småland

I haven't seen this mentioned here, but I think it should be.

For 140 years, Thomas Cook published a monthly timetable covering essentially every main railway line in Europe. Not comprehensive, of course, but surprisingly complete. I usually kept a copy in my bag when traveling by train. You get an overview that on-line search engines simply cannot give you. In addition, empty smartphone/laptop batteries or no cellular service are never a problem. Sadly, the August edition of last year became the last, as Thomas Cook shut down their whole publishing department.

Now, luckily, one of the former compilers, John Potter, has bought the rights and hired people from the old team. Their new European Rail Timetable had its first edition in March this year and the April one is now for sale. It's just as good as the old Thomas Cook one and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

http://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/

Giggleswick

I honestly thought that this post was an April Fools' Day joke. So I looked at Stanfords site to check, and sure enough, there it is for sale.

I realize that this confirms my antediluvian status, but no online searches ever give me the sheer travel-porn delight of combing through my (now outdated) Thomas Cook red paperback and imagining all the journeys I could make, had I enough time. I'm glad the timetable's back.

Will Fly Småland

LOL, didn't think of the date. No joke, it's real.

I think there's a place for both the on-line planners and the printed time-table. The former a great for giving you the best connection point to point. The latter is better for two opposites on either side of that : 1) Overall planning where it is feasible to go at all. 2) When you are out traveling and miss a connection, to see what other options there are.

nrr

When I first used a Eurailpass in 1964, "information agents" in European rail stations did NOT dispense accurate information (especially for intl. connections) [they couldn't read their own timetables]. It wasn't until I found out about COOKS, that I was comfortable riding the (super) European train network.
The big plus for Eurailpasses (then) was the ability to take "interesting" trips on ANY train (except for TEEs, reservations were never required). COOKS listed lots of these. Also, by reading the footnotes for various itins you could track a train car and get from point A to point B, without changing trains (you would stay in that car).
Example: There was a rail car, that would start in Locarno (Switz), and end up in Bayreuth (Germany) [Wagner summer opera festival city]--that car moved from train to train, but the traveler could ride without changing trains.^

Steve Weagant

I enjoyed the cooks timetable too. I ride a through car from brig to ventmiglia on one trip. I had planned a connection in Milan and the found this through car. That was a fun trip.

When I went to England I purchased their time table. That thing was thicker then cooks timetable. They gave me three or for smaller books that were called supplements. These showed schedule changes.

Guy Betsy

Can't they make a downloadable version for devices?

Steve Weagant

There is an app called irail that is pretty good.

Will Fly Småland

I think they have mentioned this in one of the interviews as something they are considering. You would no longer be independent of electric power, but you would still get the nice overview that a point-to-point travel planner can't give you. And updates would be really easy.

Sure, there are lots of apps available. The one from Deutsche Bahn does the same as the one you mention, but is free. Another good one is the Rail planner from Interrail/Eurail. It has a downloaded database so that you can use it off-line.

Steve Weagant

Oops. Forgot I paid for irail. I've tried them all and each had issues. The rail planner works great too.

jetblast787

Anyone know when we'll be able to purchase the June version and recieve it before 31st May when I go on my trip?

Will Fly Småland

Judging from the two editions published until now, that probably will be hard. They started sending out the March edition on 4 March and the April edition on 29 March. But who knows, as they get up to speed, perhaps they will be able to ship out coming editions a little earlier. You can always ask them.

Will Fly Småland

They have updated the homepage now. The June and summer editions will be sent out starting 3 June.

nrr

Another comment or 2 re Cooks. I was impressed with the accuracy of the footnotes. I was taking an overnight train through Germany, the train was split; the conductor on the platform was wondering why certain cars were missing...Cooks showed that from that date on, those cars would NOT run (they knew, the conductor didn't).
Assembling an issue must be a relatively expensive operation, I can't see that they would have app which didn't cost money. [DB is running the trains, so free apps = more ridership.]

KQ321

I agree it's great news the European Rail Timetable has been resurrected.

I use the bahn.de journey planner for planning trips, and the DB Navigator app for when I am actually travelling. The DB app can also be used offline, as it includes a 'Make available offline' option, so you can save specific routes to your device, and access them when you don't have an internet connection. However, this only helps if you have thought to download the required route before you find yourself needing it (so I tend to pre-emptively download a wide range of routes that I might possibly need...)

Another very useful travel planning tool was the 'Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe' - for seeing where it is possible to go, for understanding the route produced by a journey planner, and for finding alternatives to missed connections. The good news is that European Rail Timetable Ltd are going to continue producing this map as well - with the new version hopefully available later this year.

ToGo

dont use the German Railway there are a lot of Ads use the fahrplan.oebb.at its much better!

there are some time tables from the öbb:
http://www.oebb.at/de/Services/Neu_f...eich/index.jsp
http://www.oebb.at/de/Reiseplanung/F...ahrplanbilder/