The European Rail Timetable, more commonly known by its former names, the Thomas Cook European Timetable, the Thomas Cook Continental Timetable or simply Cook's Timetable, is an international timetable of selected passenger rail schedules for every country in Europe, along with a small amount of such content from areas outside Europe. It also includes regularly scheduled passenger shipping services and a few coach services on routes where rail services are not operated. Except during World War II and a six-month period in 2013–14, it has been in continuous publication since 1873. Until 2013 it was published by Thomas Cook Publishing in England, and since 1883 has been issued monthly.
In 2013, Thomas Cook discontinued publication of the Timetable, in accordance with a decision to close the company's publishing business altogether, and the final Thomas Cook edition was published in August 2013, ending a 140-year run. However, within a few months a new company, European Rail Timetable Limited, was formed to take over publication of the Timetable. The first issue compiled by the new company was published in March 2014, with the publication title now being European Rail Timetable. In 2016 digital editions were introduced, and the number of printed editions per year was reduced from 12 to 6, but with digital issues thereafter being published monthly. In early 2025, the number of printed editions per year was further reduced, to just two – in January and June each year (named the Winter and Summer editions) – while digital editions continued to be published every month.
The Timetable has been recommended by several editors of travel guide books for Europe, one of whom described it as "the most revered and accurate railway reference in existence".
History and overview The idea that Thomas Cook & Son should publish a compendium of railway and steamship timetables for continental Europe was proposed by Cook employee John Bredall and approved by John Mason Cook, son of company founder Thomas Cook. The first issue was published in March 1873, under the title Cook's Continental Time Tables & Tourist's Handbook. The first editor, part-time only, was John Bredall. The title was later altered to Cook's Continental Time Tables, Tourist's Handbook and Steamship Tables. Publication was quarterly until the beginning of 1883, and monthly thereafter. Except for a break during World War II, publication has continued to be monthly ever since 1883. The Timetable has only had seven editors-in-chief in its history. John Bredall was followed in 1914 by C. H. Davies. Later editors were H. V. Francis (1946–52), John H. Price (1952–85, then Managing Editor until 1988),"John Price" (obituary of). Tramways & Urban Transit magazine, December 1998, p. 478. Ian Allan Publishing. . Brendan H. Fox (1985–2013), John Potter (2014–2024), and Chris Woodcock (since 2025). So as to remain sufficiently compact that it can be easily carried by a railway traveller, the Timetable does not show every scheduled train, every line and every station for each country, but shows all major lines and most minor lines. It has always been a softcover book.
World War I did not interrupt publication, but emphasis during the war was shifted more to shipping services, the result of disruption of rail service in several countries. During World War II, however, the timetable's publication was suspended, the last prewar issue being that of August 1939. Publication resumed in 1946. June 2011 marked the 1500th edition.
Cook's chief competitor, Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, also ceased publication in 1939, but did not resume after the war (A Bradshaw Guide covering just the United Kingdom survived until 1961). This improved the potential for significant increase in sales of the Cook's Timetable in the postwar period, and Thomas Cook began to offer it in the form of a monthly subscription, in addition to selling individual copies.
Title changes Although minor changes to the publication's title have been made over the years, every version included "Continental", rather than "European", from 1873 to 1987 — except for a brief period (1977–1980) when the coverage was expanded to worldwide and the name became the Thomas Cook International Timetable. The longstanding inclusion of "Continental" in the title reflected the fact that coverage was, for many years, mostly limited to continental Europe. From 1981, most non-European content was moved into a new publication named the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable. "Rail" was added to the title only relatively recently, in 2005, making it the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, but its coverage continued to include some non-rail content, such as passenger shipping and ferry timetables.
From January 1919, the title was altered slightly, to Cook's Continental Time-Table. The apostrophe was dropped in 1956, and "time-table" also became one word. Subsequent name changes were made as follows: Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, mid-1974 through 1976 Thomas Cook International Timetable (), 1977–80 Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, (), 1981–87 Thomas Cook European Timetable (), 1988–2004 Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable (ISSN unchanged), 2005–13 European Rail Timetable ( until 2021), 2014–
The "International" name was short-lived, as the non-European content that had prompted the adoption of that name was moved into a new publication at the beginning of 1981, the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable ().
The Continental Timetable became the European Timetable in January 1988. Although "Rail" was added to the title in 2005, the Timetable continues to include principal passenger shipping services and a few coach (intercity bus) services, as before, and its ISSN did not change in 2005.
Content and format changes Coverage of the United Kingdom was originally very limited, and in the period 1954–70 it was excluded altogether. Bradshaw's Railway Guide had been publishing railway timetables for Britain since 1839, and continued to do so until 1961. British Rail was publishing its own timetable book, so even after Bradshaw's ceased publication, Cook's Timetable continued to cover only the continent. However, by the end of that decade Thomas Cook Publishing had decided it would be worthwhile to include in its Timetable a section covering the principal British services, and 64 pages of tables were added for this purpose in 1970.
Following the example of some of the national railway companies on the continent (starting with Italy in 1898), the use of a 24-hour clock for train arrival and departure times was adopted by Cook's Timetable in December 1919. It was the first timetable book in Britain to adopt this practice.
Although railway timetables have always been its predominant content, the Cook's Timetable included a substantial amount of other information during the first decades of the 20th century. The August 1939 edition, for example, devoted 48 of its 520 pages to general travel information, and regularly scheduled passenger shipping routes took 130 pages. In later decades, content other than railway timetables has continued to be included, but on a smaller scale. Shipping services consumed only about 30–35 pages in 1963Cooks Continental Timetable, February 1963 issue. and general travel information consumed about 15–20 pages after the post-war resumption of publication.
A longstanding regular inclusion was a section giving passport and visa requirements for each European country, as applicable to travellers from different countries, taking about 4–8 pages. Other longtime regular features included a summary of baggage and customs regulations for each country, information on foreign currencies and a table giving the annual rainfall and average monthly high and low temperatures for each of about 150–200 European cities.Various issues, Cook's Continental Timetable and Thomas Cook European Timetable. Some of these features, although included in the Timetable for more than a century, were scaled-back in the 1990s or 2000s, after such information became available in greater detail on the Internet, or because of the simplification of border control and currencies under the European Union. Added in about 1990 was a brief, five-language glossary of words often used by railway travellers. A one-page list of scenic rail routes is another regular inclusion. Included since at least 1949 is a multi-page section with small maps of several cities that have more than one station, showing the locations of the principal rail lines and stations — and also showing metro or tram lines connecting stations, where available, to help travellers who need to go between stations to continue their journeys. The number of cities covered by this section has varied over time, between about 30 and 60.
Among the changes implemented in the immediate post-war period was that timetables were numbered, by route. Previously, tables had been simply headed by the names of the major cities served by the route. Numbering of timetables is a common practice now. Initially, the maps for each country or region remained unaltered, not showing the timetable numbers. This changed with the issue of 23 May 1954, which introduced a set of 15 new "index maps" – in place of 10 maps previously included – all drawn in a new style, showing only the railway lines covered by the Timetable and with individual timetable numbers marked for each line on the maps.Price, J. H. (May 1954). "Stop Press [regular section summarising significant changes in each issue, mostly to transport services]: New maps". Cook's Continental Timetable, 23 May – 17 June 1954 issue, p. 8. Thomas Cook & Son.
Sections in which timetables for certain types of long-distance services are grouped are another longtime regular feature, with a section on "car–sleeper trains" and one covering major named international trains. After the launch of the Trans-Europe Express (TEE) network, a section covering just TEE trains was added, designated Table 10, and this table was changed to a EuroCity table when ECs replaced most of the then-remaining TEE services at the start of the railways' summer timetable period on 31 May 1987.Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, May 1987 issue, pp. 65 and 472.
The February through May editions include a section, at the back of the issue, giving planned schedules for the forthcoming summer timetable period on main international routes, for the benefit of persons doing advance planning of a summer travel itinerary, subject to the railway companies of the various countries providing the information sufficiently far enough ahead of time for this "supplement". Similarly, the October and November editions include a supplement showing the planned winter schedules on major routes, for the railway operators' winter timetable period. This practice of including advance summer and winter supplements in Cook's Timetable in the 2–3 months before those seasonal changes took effect started in 1958.
Around 1970, listings began to use local place-name spellings instead of anglicised versions for some – but not yet all – cities for which an English spelling existed. For example, the Hague became , and Munich became . This change was made in steps, not all at once. It was applied to all Italian cities, such as and , with effect from the 26 May 1974 edition.Price, J. H. (March 1974). "Editorial". Cooks Continental Timetable, 29 March – 30 April 1974 issue, p. 6. By mid-1975 the transition to local place-name spellings throughout the book had been completed. Distances between stations, shown in each route's timetable, were expressed in miles until the 1970s, but were changed to kilometres in 1976.Price, J. H. (July 1976). "Editorial". Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, July 1976 issue, p. 6.