[3] Although minor changes to the publication's title have been made over the years, every version included "Continental", rather than "European", from 1873 through 1987 — except for a brief period (1977–1980) when the coverage was expanded to worldwide and the name became the Thomas Cook International Timetable.

From 1981, most non-European content was moved into a new publication named the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable.

The Timetable has been recommended by several editors of travel guide books for Europe, one of whom described it as "the most revered and accurate railway reference in existence".

[5][6] However, within a few months a new company was formed to take over publication of the Timetable, having secured permission and legal rights from Thomas Cook Group to do so.

[6] The first issue compiled by the new company was published in March 2014,[7] with the publication title now being European Rail Timetable, no longer including "Thomas Cook" in the name.

The first issue was published in March 1873,[2] under the title Cook's Continental Time Tables & Tourist's Handbook.

During World War II, however, the timetable's publication was suspended, the last prewar issue being that of August 1939.

However, by the end of that decade Thomas Cook Publishing had decided it would be worthwhile to include in its Timetable a section covering the principal British services, and 64 pages of tables were added for this purpose in 1970.

[2] Following the example of some of the national railway companies on the continent (starting with Italy in 1898), the use of a 24-hour clock for train arrival and departure times was adopted by Cook's Timetable in December 1919.

Other longtime regular features included a summary of baggage and customs regulations for each country, information on foreign currencies and a table giving the annual rainfall and average monthly high and low temperatures for each of about 150–200 European cities.

[15] Some of these features, although included in the Timetable for more than a century, were scaled-back in the 1990s or 2000s, after such information became available in greater detail on the Internet, or because of the simplification of border control and currencies under the European Union.

[19] The February through May editions include a section, at the back of the issue, giving planned schedules for the forthcoming summer timetable period on main international routes, for the benefit of persons doing advance planning of a summer travel itinerary,[4] subject to the railway companies of the various countries providing the information sufficiently far enough ahead of time for this "supplement".

This practice of including advance summer and winter supplements in Cook's Timetable in the 2–3 months before those seasonal changes took effect started in 1958.

Since 2005, the cover does not carry advertising and, in the final years of publication by Thomas Cook, instead featured a monochrome photograph – changed with each issue – of a train of one of the railways of Europe.

[15] In 2013, the European Timetable started to include a Route of the Month article in each monthly edition; it features narrative travel writing describing a particular European rail journey, usually with cross-reference to particular table numbers in the timetable section of the book.

The legacy publication, independently published since March 2014 and now titled European Rail Timetable, continues to carry a Route of the Month in every issue.

[2] In January 1981, the non-European content was taken back out, to be included instead in a new bi-monthly publication entitled the Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable (ISSN 0144-7475), which averaged about 420 pages and included many more coach services, in countries where intercity rail service was very limited or non-existent.

These editions are intended mainly for sale at book shops[2] and each one is given a distinct ISBN, in addition to the ISSN of the series title.

This section appears in every issue but rotates among six different regions of the world outside Europe, with each area being included only twice per year, six months apart.

[5][6] However, at the end of October it was announced that publication would resume, independent of Thomas Cook Group, in February 2014 as a result of agreements that had been reached allowing the formation of a new company for that purpose, European Rail Timetable Limited.

The first issue compiled by the new company was published in March 2014, with the publication title now being European Rail Timetable.

In autumn 2021, in response to a widespread drop in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn put a strain on ERT's financial situation, the company reduced the number of print editions per year from six to four (one per season), but with digital editions continuing to be published monthly.

[13] In Europe Through the Back Door 2005, Rick Steves wrote that the Thomas Cook European Timetable is worth considering by any rail travellers who prefer a book format over Internet sources, when planning or taking a trip.

[34] Guide-book editor Stephen Birnbaum described the Timetable in 1991 as "a weighty and detailed compendium of European national and international rail services that constitutes the most revered and accurate railway reference in existence.

[16][17] A writer in a different genre, British novelist Malcolm Pryce, listed the Thomas Cook European Timetable as one of his favourite travel-related "reads" and suggested that it would appeal to those who are nostalgic for the romance of railway travel.