Train Schedules

The complete paper train schedule of the German rail system alone has got the size and format of the New York City white pages... Are you sure you want to carry on a "Europe-wide train schedule"?

Andreas is right; that's too much! Are you really in need of all of it? You can access the schedule on line if you need it and I did print out the schedule for the cities I was planning to travel from and took that with me instead of the Eurail book. If you want to be spontaneous just go to the station in your city and check.

I got one of those schedule books with my one-and-only rail pass in 2000. Seems it only covered the fastest trains on a few routes between major cities in Europe - not very useful for someone wanting to get away from big cities and experience real Europe.

Early in this century I found a printed schedule book for rail in Germany at the station shop in Freudenstadt Hbf. It was about the size of an almanac and it seems to me it cost about €5 (they were still using DM at the time). I bought it and carried it for a few days, then deliberately left it in the bookcase of the pension I was staying in. I don't know if they still sell those schedule books.

DB sells a CD with schedules all over Europe. It's by Hafas, the same company that does their website. It should sell for €5 in Reiseburos in Germany. I don't know about outside of Germany. If you take along a laptop, you can load the program and have schedules whenever you want them, independent of cybercafes.

The Thomas Cook European Timetable costs about $25. Years ago I would buy them, but now with the internet and Hafas, I no longer do. I just make searches and print them

Here's where you can buy the timetable in the US:

http://www.thomascookusa.com/

There is ordering information for the Hafas schedule CD on the DB website.

For English, from the homepage, click on "Internat. guests" > "Help" > "how to get information". There is a number you can call in Germany to order the CD.

For an online form (auf Deutsch), from the homepage, click on "Planen&Buchen" > "Mobile Services" > "Palm OS oder Windows CE", then on the word "Hier" under Hafas Pocket... .

Or go to the seller's website at www.cedion.de/produkte/fahrplan.html.

The CD has schedules all over Germany and Europe and runs on PCs. The CD aslo has a version that runs on handhelds with Palm OS or CE (Vers 3 up).

When I ordered the CD, with shipping and handling and currency exchange, it came to a little over $20. They sent the CD by mail and invoiced me by email. I had to FAX them my CC# in order to pay the invoice.

Thank you for all your help!