Each new edition of the European Rail Timetable (ERT) includes a really useful section called Newslines. Compiled each month by ERT editor Chris Woodcock, Newslines highlights significant new developments in European rail travel and previews upcoming changes in service patterns. As a courtesy to readers of our Europe by Rail book, we present here the Newslines files which you can download below. We count as a great privilege to have enjoyed, over many years, good relations with the ERT team, and we've realised just how appreciative they are when we feed them industry intelligence about new or revised rail services. But the ERT team are the experts. We learn far more from them than they ever do from us.
The monthly Newslines column is of course no substitute for acquiring your own copy of each new edition of the European Rail Timetable. The book is a masterpiece of compression and, even in these days of information overload on the internet, we would never dream of setting out from home without the latest copy of the ERT.
In our Newslines archive, you’ll find every monthly edition since the ERT resumed republication in March 2014. You’ll also find a piece of publishing history, as we also reproduce below the last 28 editions of Newslines from Thomas Cook days. Brendan Fox compiled Newslines until Thomas Cook closed its publishing division in late summer 2013. Our archive thus also includes the monthly Newslines from May 2011 until August 2013 inclusive.
Please note that due to the Coronavirus pandemic, no issue of the ERT was produced in the months of May, June and July 2020. The Newslines covering these months are missing accordingly. A comprehensive update on new services was compiled in mid July and appeared in the special seasonal edition of the ERT published on 22 July (referred to below as the Summer 2020 edition). There is therefore no August 2020 edition. But regular monthly publication (on or around the 1st of the month) is expected to resume with the September 2020 issue.
We, like so many dedicated rail travellers in Europe, are mightily grateful to John Potter, who took the lead in creating the new company which has published the European Rail Timetable since 2014. John, Chris, Brendan and their fellow compilers at ERT do a brilliant job in perpetuating a publishing tradition which goes right back to the 19th century. The very first issue of Thomas Cook's European Timetable was published in 1873.
Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner (updated July 2020)
