Standards
of Time:
BST:
British Summer Time (GMT+1)
WEST:
Western European Summer Time (GMT+1)
CET:
Central European Time (GMT+1)
NEST:
Netherlands Summer Time (GMT+1:20)
EET:
Eastern European Time (GMT+2)
Summer
Time (Daylight Savings Time) is in effect as follows:
United
Kingdom: April 16-November 19, 1939
France:
April 16-November 18, 1939
Belgium:
April 16-November 19, 1939
Netherlands:
May 15-October 8, 1939
All DST
offsets are +1 hour.
NOTE for Ostend-Vienna-Orient Express at London: "On Saturdays until Sept. 2 [1939], leaves London at 14.30. [
2:30 p.m.]"
NOTE
for connecting steamer service at Constanza: Ships depart Constanza
Thursday only, arriving Istanbul Friday morning. Ships depart Istanbul
Saturday only, arriving Constanza Sunday morning.
ORIENT EXPRESS.
1st and 2nd class.
From Calais and Paris to Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
From Paris to Istanbul Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Bucharest to Paris and Calais [sic], Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
From Istanbul to Paris, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
OSTEND—VIENNA—ORIENT EXPRESS.
1st and 2nd class.
From Ostend-Budapest Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
From Ostend-Istanbul Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
From Amsterdam to Bucharest Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
From Istanbul to Ostend Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
From Bucharest to Amsterdam Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
From Budapest to Ostend, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
This is it. The most famous train ever to ride the rails. Its earliest incarnation left Paris for Giurgiu, Romania (with connecting ferry and train service onward to Istanbul) in 1883; by 1889 it was running through to Istanbul directly. It was from its inception operated directly by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, Europe's equivalent of the Pullman company, through arrangements with the various national railway operators of the countries through which it passed.
The train's success spawned a veritable franchise for the Wagons-Lits company; my 1939 copy of Cook's shows no less than four different trains with "Orient Express" in their names. Two of them are shown here, the original Orient Express from Paris and Calais to Istanbul via Munich and Vienna, and the Ostend-Vienna-Orient Express which took a slightly more northerly route from Belgium and Amsterdam through Germany to connect with the original Orient Express in Vienna.
This timetable shows the trains on the eve of World War II; this would in fact be the final issue of Cook's Continental Timetable published before the outbreak of hostilities as Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Publication, along with international train service, would resume after the war but the Orient Express's heyday would be over. Through service to Istanbul (via the southern route through Italy) would end in 1977 but a remnant of the original train continued in service for many years; however the last edition of the Orient Express would make its final departure on December 12, 2009 (see the next timetable).