European rail timetable

Will you have a phone, tablet, or laptop with you while traveling? I find that so much easier than a printed book. (Plus, wouldn't the digital version be more likely to be up to date?)

I always the Deutsche Bahn site (www.bahn.com) as a starting point for checking train schedules...but I have found cases where it wasn't up to date or accurate for every country. So I always go to the actual country's rail website to confirm the schedules.

Paper train schedules are out of date. Use internet for local rail is best and most accurate.

I used to travel around Europe with the Cook's Timetable in my suitcase. Even I have switched over to using the rail companies' websites.

I used to have a subscription in this office to the Thomas Cook version of the monthly European Rail Timetable but never recommended it to casual users as "easy to comprehend." There are a lot of footnotes and small print to follow and pages to flip to, whereas DB normally shows you a simple view of exactly what connections you need on the travel date you request. DB has lots of info if you want to drill down to see all stops of the train, plan a detour, etc. The only thing the printed timetable had extra was a few private railways and ferry schedules.

I am travelling with an iPad mini and a small screen iPhone. The former is ok for reading ebooks using the Kindle app. The iPhone is only ok for foreign language apps and a couple of. other apps which should be useful for travel.
Your answers have confirmed what I suspected.: That the guide will be superfluous to my requirements. As there is a wealth of informational European country and city websites I will restrict myself to probably just one comprehensive European guide in ebook format.

In Germany I look at the electronic board to get the latest information on train departures and so on. I also check what possible routes and future departures are available by using the DB ticket machine, ie as long as no one else is waiting for it. The most obviously way to get information on the latest changes from printed schedules or whatever is to listen to the announcements.

Another way if you want paper schedules, they still exist in Germany. They are the little schedules part of the "Städteverbindungen, say from Munich to Stuttgart, Bremen to Duisburg, Berlin to Magdeburg, Hamburg to Köln, Heidelberg to Munich, etc. In the big stations inside the Reisezentrum is where these little paper schedules can be found. Are they useful? That depends on your purpose.

When using the DB website be sure to go into the "show details" and click on "Days of Operation". Not every train time runs every day of the week. Do not rely on the time only! I agree with others, DB is a first start and then go into the country specific train website.

When using the DB website be sure to go into the "show details" and click on "Days of Operation". Not every train time runs every day of the week.

That is beneficial to know. I will do a few practice ticket purchases till I think I have mastered the app or the website,

@ Fred, what exactly are Stadteverbindungen? It translates as city connections but I think that the word probably has a more precise meaning than that. Is it something like a thin giveaway paper with a smattering of news stories, a lot of ads and other bits of miscellaneous information?

It is exactly as described in the name. For a particular station (or city) all the major trains and connections are printed, by destination.

For a smaller city it will be a small booklet. For a bigger city it will be bigger.

It is almost always pocket sized, on thin fairly flimsy paper.

For those of you who have, or have seen the new hardcopy books, are they just as comprehensive as the old ones? I used the old ones for references for routes, maps, timing and the info in the front on airport connections, etc., even when they were out of date. Plus actually enjoyed looking at the whole routes to see interim stops etc. Yes, I know its all on line, but sometimes the old ways are more fun.

@ istvan....In the 1980s and '90s I used the book "Städteverbindungen" all the time while traveling in (west) Germany and then in the reunited Germany. It was a book available at the "Reisezentrum" for a small price (5 DM) and sometimes in Amer. Express offices, where it was free. I got one there one time.

I don't know if the book still exists but the little schedules certainly do in the Reisezentrum. You can inquire at a Reisezentrum about the book. The little schedules are located on a rack, lots of them, showing from city X to city Y, accessible for those inquiring, as I pointed out by some examples above. You don't need to ask a DB staff person.

I hardly ever use them now. When I want to get from place X to place Y, I just look it up using the DB ticket machine to get the latest info, say the night before for a day trip from Hamburg to Cuxhaven, on departure times, how frequent the trains run, the connections and times, what type of trains, (IC, ICE, RE, etc), and obviously, the price so that I can decide to pay by inserting the US credit card plus punching in the PIN or putting in cash.
RE these little schedules: people still use them. Like the book (back then), these schedules are all written in German. They're free.

@ istvan...Very true, not all trains doing a specific route run daily or every week. You look that up on the yellow "Abfahrt/Departure" sheet posted. Read the foot notes

First, just because the Bahn site says a train in Germany doesn't run every day, doesn't mean that that train doesn't run on other days, it might only mean it doesn't run on that same schedule every day. On another day, it might just run on a schedule that differs by a minute here or there.

Second, when you specify a certain date and the Bahn shows the train running on that day, but the foot note says it doesn't run every day, it does run on the schedule shown on that date. So it's important that you specify the date that you want.

Consulting with national railway websites is the best thing to consider in my opinion. Its either DB,NSB or Italotreno/Trenitalia.

Any rail research can benefit from www.seat61.com who in spirit at least is the modern-day Thomas Cook.