European Timetables

I am looking into purchasing the Thomas Cook European Timetable and I am wondering If I should hold off until December. From what I have read December is when most if not all of the European Railways adjust\change their timetables. My question is how much do the Timetables change? Here in the states Amtrak TT Changes are usually very minor or non-existent. Is it a similar situation with the European Timetables or are there often more drastic changes.

For that matter is there any other source people would recommend other than Thomas Cook?

Thanks!!

amtk136west wrote:I am looking into purchasing the Thomas Cook European Timetable and I am wondering If I should hold off until December. From what I have read December is when most if not all of the European Railways adjust\change their timetables. My question is how much do the Timetables change? Here in the states Amtrak TT Changes are usually very minor or non-existent. Is it a similar situation with the European Timetables or are there often more drastic changes.

For that matter is there any other source people would recommend other than Thomas Cook?

Thanks!!

Here's a useful site.
http://www.seat61.com/

i dont know if you have actual thomas cook branches in the states , ( im not even sure we have one here nowdays ) , but when i was travelling , they were quite happy to give me a slightly out of date copy for a much reduced price . if you can pick up a june and a december one , it should be enough to give you an idea of what runs at different times of year .
i dont think any line closes down completely , i think the most obvious change is to through trains ,for example something like London to Blackpool may have direct trains in summer , but drop to having to change trains in Winter . generally for only one or 2 trains a day though .
most lines have enough service to make a timetable somewhat redundant . but it is handy for getting an idea of the last train off a branchline for example .

Instead of spending money on European timetables every six months, I just consult the very good online timetables to plan my trips.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en? Deutsch Bahn

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en Austria SBB

http://www.nachtzug.de/nachtzugreise/view/index.shtml for sleepers.

The DB site takes care of most of the continent, though you can also find online for France, Spain, and Italy.

http://plannerint.b-rail.be/ is anotheer one

I always find a printed timetable useful in the initial planning stages- nothing beats it in user friendliness and ease of finding route options and connections quickly. With practice it will beat a general on-line search anytime. However, once you know your general plan, the online resources are good for finding exact, comprehensive, up to date train schedules. Also, a paper timetable is useful to carry with you- no electricity or internet connections needed.

amtk136west wrote:I am looking into purchasing the Thomas Cook European Timetable and I am wondering If I should hold off until December. From what I have read December is when most if not all of the European Railways adjust\change their timetables. My question is how much do the Timetables change? Here in the states Amtrak TT Changes are usually very minor or non-existent. Is it a similar situation with the European Timetables or are there often more drastic changes.

For that matter is there any other source people would recommend other than Thomas Cook?

Thanks!!

First off for a better understanding of the reminder of my response, in the Netherlands trains run on at least hourly interfalls from the early moring until late at night, so you most of the time only have to memorize the minuts like .03 or .33 since you know from there on it is 07.03, 07.33, 08.03, 08.33, 09.03, 09.33 etcetera. International trains and a few peak hour trains are excluded.

As to the changes that come with a new eddition of the time table it depends: a few years ago the Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) desided to have a good look at there old time table and the resulting changes where quite dramatic so you needed to buy a new time table. But generaly speaking the changes that come with the new time table are minor for interior trains: a matter of minutes like .05 instead of .03. But as to international trains the effects often are quite dramatic: trains that are dropped, rerouted, additional destinations, loss of destinations and seasonal trains (wintertime or summer time destinations).

Most of the time I carry a paper version of the timetable with me when travelling. But the main advantace of an on line- time table like

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

is that does take into account reroutings due to schedueld work as I expirienced first hand.

Gijs

Some European railways publish useful timetables in PDF.

Austria: http://www.oebb.at/pv/de/Servicebox/Fah ... /index.jsp

France: http://www.ter-sncf.com/

Sweden: http://www.resplus.se/Resplus/Flersprak/English/

Switzerland: http://www.quadri-orario.ch/index.cfm?o_lang_id=2 (it has also some Italian (not always), French, German and Austrian timetables)

For France, first select a region on the map on the top right corner, then search for "télécharger fiche horaire" (literally, "download file timetable") or something similar. It shows only regional trains (no tables for TGV, etc).

I had found also Polish and German tmetables, but I don't remember the link.

For German timetables, you can start with the interactive map at

http://kursbuch.bahn.de/hafas/kbview.ex ... K_strecken

You zoom in a couple of levels by clicking on the map at the location you want to examine more closely. At this level all the lines are labeled with timetable numbers. Clicking on a timetable number downloads a PDF file with that timetable.

Last summer I was also able to download the complete German Kursbuch (timetable book) as a huge PDF file (or maybe two or three sections for regions of the country), but I can't find a link to it any more.

Slovenia: http://www.slo-zeleznice.si/sl/potniki/ ... -relacijah