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Train travel between Prague and Salzburg

Posted by on

I'm planning a trip in September that will involve taking a train from Prague into Austria, with the goal of spending a few days in Salzburg. I will rent a car in Salzburg during that time in order to sight see in that portion of Austria.

What I'm finding is that while there are no direct trains from Prague to Salzburg, one can take a direct train from Prague to Linz, Austria, where you can then change for a train to Salzburg. The problem with that is that I loath relying on train connections, as there can be delays.

One alternative I'm considering is to instead pick up my rental car in Linz and then drive to Salzburg. When my stay in Salzburg is done, I'd return the car to Linz before taking a train to Vienna and then Budapest for the remainder of my trip.

My question is: is there a good rail site showing a map of the different routes? I found the Prague-Linz-Salzburg connections via a site called "Rail Europe", but a map would be much more helpful in terms of understanding the available routes & cities/stops.

Thanks.

Posted by
5687 posts

I always go to the German Bahn.com site as my "go to" website for checking train connections in Europe. A quick check shows your best bet is probably the 10:01 out of Prague, connecting in Linz with a 21 min layover, into Salzburg at 15:38.

Not sure I understand your reluctance to make a train connection. 21 minutes is probably enough time, but if you miss the connection, you'll just take the next train on to Salzburg 20 to 30 minutes later. Why worry about it?

Posted by
136 posts

Andrew H- Thanks for that!

My reluctance was borne out of not having a solid schedule. I'll check out the site you mentioned and thanks again!

Posted by
21269 posts

Don't use Rail Europe for any reason. If you look at www.bahn.com, they will show all the routes.
The best way is with a single change in Linz, where you connect to Salzburg on a Westbahn train. There is a Westbahn train to Salzburg from Linz every 30 minutes, so if you missed the connection because of a late inbound train, the longest you would have to wait is 30 minutes for the next one.

Rail Europe does not show all the options. There is a single change route via Landshut, Germany, but it takes 1 1/2 hours longer than going through Linz, and the change in Landshut is only 6 minutes, and that one would worry me.

Posted by
905 posts

Last spring the last leg or two in the CR was under construction/maintenance and it was by bus into Linz. I'm not certain if the rail construction is complete, so you may want to check that as well.

Posted by
8889 posts

When you go to the DB website ( https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml ) and search for a train (Praha to Salzburg)
For your desired train, click on "show details".
At the bottom of the details section, click on "map view"
And it shows a route map for that train. It is only approximate, as it draws straight lines between the stations the train stops at, but it might be what you are looking for.

Also in the details section, if you click on one of the train numbers, it shows all the stops for that train and the time at those stops.

"The problem with that is that I loath relying on train connections, as there can be delays." - have you had bad experiences? On something like this route, where you are changing onto a route with many trains (Vienna - Linz - Salzburg), I do not think missing your connection would be an issue.

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