Bolzano/Bozen to Innsbruck by train
 

I am working out the train options for our rapidly approaching trans-alpine trip. For the Bolzano/Bozen to Innsbruck leg it is possible to take a Eurocity train without connections. There are also regional services connecting from an Italian train to an Austrian train in Brenner. The connection time is six minutes. Can we buy a ticket for the Austrian train at the Italian train station or do connecting passengers need to scramble to buy a new ticket in Brenner? Obviously the EC train would be a bit easier but in the interest of flexibility I like to understand the options.

We are not staying long in Innsbruck, just long enough for lunch and walk around before moving on. Any tips on a nice spot for lunch where best to walk are welcome.

In the end we opted for the simplicity of a pre-booked one train trip and that worked out fine. For fun at the the Bolzano/Bozen train station I attempted to buy a ticket to Innsbruck from a ticket machine and found Innsbruck to be unavailble as an option. An agent saw what I was doing and helpfully told me that such tickets could be bought on the train from the conductor.

The two hour layover in Innsbruck worked out nicely giving us a chance to walk around and have lunch there. Breakfast in Italy, lunch in Austria and dinner in Germany made for an interesting day.

Sorry I didn't see your question till today, otherwise I would have replied earlier. I'm sure that you only have to buy a ticket direct to Innsbruck rather than separate tickets from Bolzano to Brenner and from Brenner to Innsbruck. I am also shocked that the option to buy a ticket to Innsbruck was not available from the machines at Bolzano. I thought that you always had to have a ticket before boarding the train. Maybe this only applies to regional trains whereas for Euro city trains you need to buy before you board.

Glad you worked it out in the end and enjoyed your trip.

If you're shocked, jimmybog, you haven't been keeping up with European railway politics! ;0)

The Verona-Innsbruck-Munich EuroCity trains are now run by OBB & DB on an 'open access' competitive basis, with no involvement of Trenitalia, who regard them as the 'enemy'.

In fact, Trenitalia has taken OBB/DB to the Italian rail regulator, claiming that the DB/OBB service is abstractive of revenue (even though it's a continuation of a service that was always there, and which trenitalia pulled out of as it had no interest in it), and trying to get it stopped.

The Trenitalia ticket offices and machines at Verona or Bolzano will most emphatically NOT book this 'enemy' train. DB and OBB have therefore had to implement a 'buy on board or online' policy, when normally boarding any European train without a ticket is not a good idea.

Welcome to the new EU rules on railway operation! This is the first of many such operations...

Last August we had some difficulty with booking our no-change trip from Verona to Munich for the reasons cited above. Eventually, our rail travel agent managed to do it and the trip was otherwise completely uneventful (aside from the usual great scenery along the way)and other than being told about this state of affairs (by the agent) we would never have known.

My original question was about the Italian and Austrian regional trains connecting in Brenner not the OBB/DB "enemy" train. I now strongly suspect that the helpfull Italian agent was assuming that we were aiming for the "enemy" train since it was the next one coming (and had an online ticket for). It would have been an interesting conversation with the conductor of the Italian regional train to Brenner had boarded it without a ticket on the strength of the advise of the agent in Bolzano/Bozen.