train from vienna to ljubljana

my question is why was this not mentioned at any time by anyone?

What did the train or station staff say?

If you had bought your tickets from the actual train company instead of a 3rd party, then things would probably have been clearer. I've taken that train before and it was clear to me from the signage on the train cars where I should sit. Were the announcement about the dining car in English or German?

The train and station staff had problems with English and were not that helpful at all. Austria pointed the finger at Slovenia and vice versa. There are well trained thieves on the train and I believe the train employees must be involved as we notified them immediately after it happened and they still could not find our luggage. Announcements were in English and German. I do think that if I bought the tickets myself they would have said something at the station or on the ticket about the split. I think Go Real screwed up and they did reimburse us $1200 for the screwup.

When did this travel occur? What was the $1200 for? Were your items stolen or left on the wrong train? While one should always keep an eye on belongings, theft on trains for this route are very unusual.

I believe it is unusual for splits not to be announced on the train in English, but given the quality of the PA systems on some trains, it's possible to overlook them. The main clue is that the destination of each car is normally posted on the door used for entry or displayed on an electronic sign near the door. Sometimes there's split information included in the electronic signage on a platform, but in my experience that's pretty subtle; you could overlook it if you don't already know the train was going to split. I've also heard announcements related to which car passengers should choose for specific destinations while waiting for the train to arrive, but I think that was in the UK.

I have traveled a lot and not particularly noticed train splits being announced onboard nor mentioned on tickets. (I’ve also not spent much time in dining cars.) If you have a reserved seat, then it would be reserved in the correct car. But splits are a fact of life, a “known issue” to Europeans, and are mentioned in other places like destination signage on each car and sometimes on platform signage. Rick’s advice about this is at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/getting-on-the-right-train.

The most memorable way to learn is by making mistakes. That's what we tell our children. It still holds for adults.

1. Never ever buy train tickets via a reseller.
2. There is a display in the departure area and/or the platform showing the arrangement of all cars of a train, giving their number, the destination, and location at the platform.
3. There is a sign outside on every car giving its destination.
4. Modern cars have displays inside the car giving all information during the ride.
5. If you had a seat reservation it would have placed you into the correct car.
6. Never ever leave any belongings in a train unattended.

Complaining about allegedly missing announcements and information by the staff unveils a major difference in mentality and social behavior between Americans and Europeans. America is very service oriented, people are very helpful, (over)friendly, etc. You get used to it, being guided everywhere, sometimes treated like a child (e.g. hot warning on a coffee cup), often just to avoid being sued for damages.

Europe is different. They expect a reasonable amount of common sense and the ability to read and gathering information which is obvious. Americans then often have the feeling that staff, waiters, supermarket cashiers, etc. are treating them in a rude manner, which is not perceived in the same way by locals.

By the way, this kind of culture shock has been brought now directly to the US by the German supermarket chain "Aldi" having opened several outlets. Aldi's staff has to work and to behave according to the German rules. In social media you can find a lot of comments by aghast customers.