The internet may be a wonderful source for train schedules, but so often on our journeys around Europe we resort also to printed timetables. It is not simply a matter of being able to take something along in a bag when we are travelling, but also that the tabular format of a good printed timetable allows the reader to discern the pattern of train services (and the connections between trains that serve any particular route) in a manner that simply cannot be detected from online listings of arrival and departure times. The visual layout on the printed page is critical. So no surprise that we judged it to be a decidedly backward step when the railways of Great Britain announced a while back they would no longer publish a comprehensive printed timetable of all passenger services.

Three cheers therefore for Vic Bradshaw-Mitchell who stepped into the breach and in December 2007 produced Rail Times, a single volume that includes timetables for every regular rail service in Britain.