Austria-Czech Trains
 

Hi Everyone.
I'm having such a tough time finding trains that'll get me from Salzburg to Vienna. Hopefully you can provide me with some sites for an affordable ride.
And following which, I need to get from Vienna to Prague, Czech. Plane tickets are really tough to find, so if you know of cheap trains to get there I'd appreciate it!
Thanks.

If you are really looking for cheap, you can go from Vienna to Prague by bus for about half the second class train fare. The train, while more comfortable will only save you about twenty minutes. I've gone both ways and the bus comfort is OK and a reasonable budget choice.

I don't understand how you can have a tough time finding trains from Salzburg to Vienna. There are many all day long, probably dozens. It's a short trip, about 3 to 3.5 hours.

There is only one train system, so if you don't like that price, that could be a problem, but the fare isn't too expensive on Austrian railways for that short trip. I believe it is around 40 euro second class. You can try searching www.bahn.de for your schedules and fares.

There are two primary sites for finding train schedules for Vienna - Prague and Salzburg - Vienna. They are the German national rail web site and the Austrian site.

The English version of the German site is

http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

The Austrian rail site is

www.öbb.at

Either include the o umlaut with the Alt 148 notation or type oebb.

The Austrian site also has English captions is you click on the drop down box that says Sprache/Language. Click on English.

I think you will find your cities easier if use the German spellings of Wien and Praha.

There is at least a train every hour from Salzburg to Wien Westbahnhof with departure starting early and going late into the evening.

From Vienna to Prague, there are trains from the Südbahnhof (South) at
6:08, 9:08, 11:08, 15:33, 18:33. There a couple of others that leave from the Floridsdorf station, which is well out from the city center but reachable easily by U-Bahn.

The travel times to Prague Holosovice station are about 4 hours, 17 minutes.
The 15:33 departure takes 4 hours.

The travel times from Salzburg to Vienna vary anywhere from 3 hours 30 minute to less than 3 hours depending on which train you take. The 11:00 departure takes the shortest time at 2 hours, 35 minutes because it only makes 2 stops on the way.

Here is hoping you will find all the information you need at the Austrian site. I find it most reliable for all Austrian trains.

thank you so much.
checked out the website.
they do not provide prices or booking online. So would the prices vary terribly over the day? And also, would there be a problem securing the ticket only once I'm at the station?
Thanks again.

Davina,

Tickets are good for travel on any train between Salzburg and Vienna. When you buy a ticket it is not for a specific train, or even a particular day, so the price will not depend on the time of travel.

If you wish to reserve a seat on a particular train, you must buy a separate seat reservation (3 Euro).

No need to buy a ticket before you get to Salzburg - just pick one up at the train station when you arrive there, or even just before departure.

For this route, I would not even reserve a seat - just hop on the train and take any un-reserved seat (see the little card in the cabin window). If you feel you must reserve a seat, do so a day or so ahead of time once you arrive in Austria.

thanks so much! appreciate the information. first europe experience.