A key volume for all rail travellers in Europe, the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable has been published monthly for 120 years. What happier way to spend a long winter evening than in perusing this compendium of transport wisdom? The timetable includes all mainline services plus some lesser routes; it also includes a useful compendium of principal international ferries services within Europe. The December edition each year gives the first comprehensive overview of services for the year ahead. _

Takes a bit of getting use to, but this site is a superb tool for working out the standard train fare from X to Y. Covers most of continental Europe from western France to central Russia (and beyond), and from southern Scandinavia to Sicily and Turkey. A wonderful distraction from real work! See our account of this site in hidden europe 11 (November 2006). _

Nicely eccentric and impressively detailed site with a focus on how to travel by train (and ferry) from London to anywhere in Europe - and most other points on the planet too! Also includes basic info on rail travel within most European countries. _

Conceived with train buffs in mind, but actually a hugely valuable resource for the ordinary traveller. This website is always bang up-to-date and gives a wealth of info on European railways - arranged on a country-by-country basis. _

A super easy-to-use site for checking train schedules across a large part of Europe - and within Germany it includes local buses and trams too. Fare information is given for all longer distance train journeys wholly within Germany, and for selected international routes (only to and from Germany). As one moves east to Russia and the Balkans, note that only principal train services are shown in many regions. _