We will be in Salzburg for a couple of days in late April and then want to go to Lake Bled. I can't find anything on bus schedules and the train is quite a long day with 2 transfers. Anyone know about bus lines that travel from Salzburg to Lake Bled ?

Or has anyone rented a car to do this trip ? I understand that drop off fees for rental cars are prohibitively high.

Where are you going after Lake Bled? How many people traveling together? Some friends were 4 and decided that the couple of hundred dollars cross-border fee was worth the extra $50 per person. If renting in Austria, you might be able to go back to southern Austria to drop off the car if continuing on to Italy.

We are going to Lubljana after Bled. i have looked at renting a car but the cost is prohibitive. Still hoping for some sort of public transportation.

If you take the train to Lesce Bled instead of Bled Jezero it takes around four hours with one transfer. You can get a bus or taxi from Lesce to Bled proper. (See bahn.de and wikitravel) Actually, you can do it to Bled Jezero with only one change but it takes five hours. Can't imagine a bus would be any faster, and would probably require a change in Ljubljana.