class book
A course book is a directory of timetables for a specific area - usually a country - and a specific period . The timetables of the train routes (and bus routes) contained in the timetable are each shown individually in tabular form. Each route is given a number with which each railway or bus line can be easily found in the usually very extensive course books, for example course book line 440 for the Ruhr-Sieg line in Germany or timetable field 600 for the Gotthard Railway in Switzerland. In Austria the term timetable picture is used for this.
Since a timetable route can include multiple physically existing lines, can handle more Kursbuch distances over the same route and distances have no timetable number without passenger, is in the course book stretch strictly speaking defined in the timetable lines ; in the course book route numbers by their line names.
Course books are regularly reissued or updated at the beginning of a new timetable period .
The importance of printed course books has declined sharply with the advent of (dynamic) electronic timetable information and the publication of (static) timetables as PDF files or HTML documents on the Internet; the German Bahn AG presented the publication of the printed complete course book the end of 2008 and replaced it with an "electronic course book" on the Internet. At the end of 2006, the ÖBB in Austria published the last classic foreign course book and replaced it with a kind of travel catalog with the 2007 timetable period. This also no longer exists since 2009. The state railways in France, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands also no longer publish printed course books. The official timetable for Switzerland was discontinued after the end of the 2017 timetable period, and that of the Czech State Railways České dráhy was last published in 2019.
Norms
The International Union of Railways UIC issued a recommendation on the design of course books since 1952. The 6th and last edition of this UIC Leaflet 411 Design, content and structure of the course books was valid from 1978 to November 1, 2002 and was then deleted without replacement.
The German Institute for Standardization was with the standard DIN 66359: 1997-11-00 Public transport passenger information - content, structure and design - Timetables 1997 and the successor standard 66359 of the same name: 1999-05 two years later as a recommendation for course books out.
Country specifics
Country-specific details can be found in the following articles:
- Kursbuch (Germany)
- Austrian railway course book
- Course book (Switzerland) and list of timetable fields
- Spoorboekje inland in the Netherlands
- Course book Europe
- Overseas course book
literature
- Course book . In: Meyers . 6th edition. Volume 11, p. 869 .
- Hans-Joachim Ritzau, Franz Garrecht: Course books - mirrors of their time (= The railway scene yesterday - today . Volume 3 ). Verlag Ritzau, Pürgen 1994, ISBN 3-921304-91-1 .
Web links
- List and distribution of all European railway course books (no more distribution of current course books)
- Timetables from all over the world
Individual evidence
- ↑ International Union of Railways: Codex 411 Design, content and structure of the course books. 6th edition, 1978.
- ↑ International Union of Railways - Railway Technical Publications: Rescission of the UIC Code 411. ( Memento of November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) June 6, 2002, accessed on November 1, 2013.
- ↑ Beuth: DIN 66359: 1999-05 Information in public passenger transport - timetable books - content, structure and design. Retrieved November 1, 2013.