NEW MAY 2025. This is the official LNER public timetable for what it describes as its Continental services - in other words, shipping plus connecting rail services on both sides of the North Sea.  What makes this edition of special interest is its date: 7 October 1946 until further notice.  It gives a picture of the Company trying to get back to some sort of routine in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.  (Compare that with the services as they had been at their peak - our File TP038 provides this information for summer 1937.)

The copy scanned is in surprisingly good condition, though ineviably its 68 pages are printed on poor quality and now ageing paper.  It names the ships which are to be used. Much of it details services via Harwich, but it also covers routes from Newcastle to Bergen and Hull to Rotterdam (and even mentions sailings from Goole on cargo steamers with limited passenger accommodation).

The book lists agents for all these services, and points out that passengers are responsible for passports plus visas or military permits as necessary.  There were strict restrictions on travellers as to the amount of both money and food they were allowed to take out with them.

Also included is a twelve-page booklet described as "Supplement No. 1 to the Continental Services Handbook dated 7 October 1946".  It is undated, but probably came out later in 1946.  It records amendments that rapid developments had necessitated, not least a rise in many of the quoted prices.  It also gives information about restored through services from the Hook of Holland to Scandinavia and Switzerland, in both cases passing through Germany on the way.

 The file is word-searchable.  It will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.