With the winter evenings drawing in, one looks to harmless pastimes to pass the hours. A time perhaps to plan future journeys. There is no knowing what untold pleasures might be found within the dogeared pages of the Slovakian railway timetable. But websites have their place too in travel planning, so here is a moment to divulge one of our favourites. It is a simple little thing devised by the Czech railway administration - yet one that is strangely unknown to the general public.

The question "What might it cost to go by train from X to Y?" is surely one posed daily by millions of travellers across the European mainland.