Swiss Rail Schedule

European Rail Timetable

I haven't seen this book in decades. It used to be published by Thomas Cook, and I did use it back in those days.

You can probably get one there at the train office; or you can download and print them at home

https://www.sbb.ch/en/timetable/printed-timetables.html

I'll add that 99% of Swiss railways follow a predictable pattern with trains on each route always leaving at the same minute past the hour. Doesn't help for the major lines served by several routes, but works perfectly otherwise.

and how thick would a book like this be? how much would it weigh? You know, there comes a time when you just have to give in and get with the electronic age...no matter how much it hurts. And believe me, I know it can hurt.

I really, really miss the Thomas Cook timetable, but back in the days when I carted it around Europe (along with some paperback books to read), I wasn't carrying a cell phone and a tablet and related electronic gear.

I liked to have and read the old Thomas Cook European Timetable books, just for fun. Lots of good info besides the schedules. The link acraven provides is a UK company that continues to publish them, just not under the Thomas Cook name. I cant vouch for it, but the man in seat 61 refers to it, so that's a good endorsement. The old TC book covering all of Europe was about the size of a RS guidebook, because it was in very fine print.

I just want to put in a plug for some features of the Swiss Rail website that a printed timetable cannot duplicate, and that are not evident if you don't know to look for them.

1) If you put in full addresses, it will give you exact directions including local trams, walking, etc. For instance, instead of entering "Zurich to Luzern," put in your exact address in Zurich and your exact address in Luzern.

2) If you pick a specific route and look at the details, then scroll down, it will give you the option to download these details as a calendar entry for your phone's calendar. I found this unexpectedly handy for complex connections. If, for instance, I wasn't sure if I was going to get the 10:02, the 10:32, or the 11:02 train to a place, and each of these involved slightly different connections or platforms, I would download them all and put them in my calendar. Then, I could access all the details without needing a data connection!

Another trick I learned on this forum: if you want to get to the Swiss Rail website quickly, just type rail.ch, and it will automatically shift over to the full URL (https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html)

The SBB stopped printing the complete timetable in one book in 2016. The VCS (a pro-transport group) took it over and still publishes it.
On sale here at CHF 19.80 + p&p (CHF 50 p&p outside Europe): https://www.verkehrsclub.ch/unterstuetzen/kursbuch-bestellen/

As well as looking up times on the SBB website ( https://www.sbb.ch/en ), and printing out "personalised timetables",
A) Free booklets for each route are generally available at the stations on that route.
B) You can download and print out individual pages from the timetable, i.e. a list of all trains on a route, from this website: https://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/en/welcome.html

BTW, Swiss railways change times on 2nd weekend in December. The 2019 timetable is valid until then (14/12/2019), the 2020 times are not yet published. Expect them some time in October.