Hi,
I am trying to reach OBB Austrian train customer service through phone (+43 51717). When I dial and get connected, the voice is talking in German language. Since, I don't know German, I am not able to proceed further, how do I reach a customer support agent who speaks English.
Did you try written contact through the webpage contact center? That is in English:
https://www.oebb.at/en/reiseplanung-services/kundenservice/allgemeine-anfrage
Alternatively, did you listen to the German long enough to see if they offer an option like “press 2 for English”?
Customer service of OeBB can be of a pain, even in German. There are a lot of problems at the moment, because the latest snowfall and ice had damaged several trains, which are now missing.
What is your problem?
the trains are missing? Like they can't be found under the snow?
The trains are missing in the regular schedule. OeBB has 60 RailJet trains, 5 of which are under repair. There are no spare RailJet trains available, so older outdated trains have to be used instead, having less comfort and capacity, leading to a lot of complaints.
The problems are on the south route mainly (to Graz, Klagenfurt, Venice). On the western route everything is fine, because there is competition by Westbahn, and OeBB does not want to loose passengers to them.
thanks. I was having visions of Donner Pass.
Often people get confusing messages from the railway (the Railways are good at this, DB being the undisputed champion here) and get a bit in an unnecessary panic.
What you have to know is this: You have not bought a train ticket. There is no such thing as a train tickets. Train tickets do not exist. Railways will not sell you train tickets.
What you have bought is a ticket for a route. Eg. You may have a ticket for Vienna - Prague. And you probably did select a train during the purchase process. (That is relatively new, I can still remember that all you needed to enter was origin and destination). And you may have obtained a discount that is conditional on trying to take that train you selected.
You may also have bought a reservation. That gives you a seat on a particular train.
Now it is possible that for some reason the train you wanted to take is not operating. It is for this reason that railways always tell you to check the actual schedule on your day of travel. Things may change. And in Austria, (as well as eg. in Germany or Switzerland) if a train is cancelled all you do is just take another train on the same route. You do not need to have your ticket changed for that, as it is after all not for a train, but for a route. So as long as you stick to the route on the ticket you are fine.
We still don't know what the OP's problems are.
The problems are on the south route mainly (to Graz, Klagenfurt, Venice). On the western route everything is fine, because there is competition by Westbahn, and OeBB does not want to loose passengers to them .
It has been a month and the OP Funzee has never come back since their first and only post 5 days before Christmas. I expect, good or bad, they have dealt with their problem
