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Transportation Between Vienna and Munich with Railjet Service Not Available

Hello. We had planned on taking the train from Vienna to Munich on Oct 29, 2018 after our tour ended to take our plane back to USA from Munich on October 30. We tried reserving a Railjet seat and making a reservation both on the German and the Austrian sites and the message was that we could not make a SEAT reservation at this time. When we contacted the sites, we were given this message by both ticketing offices:
“Thank you for your message.Track works are scheduled for this time. They may not know exactly how this route may be affected and have therefore locked the train for reservation. We do not know when the train will become available to reserve. Please try again at a later date or choose an alternative connection.”

We are now wondering what our best option is for getting back to Munich, with having to travel on October 29 because our plane from Munich is on October 30th? Are there trains other than the Railjet or other routes that someone could recommend? If we had more days, we would pick a different stop over. But we have to be in Munich on October 29, as our flight on October 30th is early in the morning. Thanks for any help.

Posted by
8889 posts

I think they have answered your question. There will be trains on that date, they just don't (yet) know the exact timings.
Just keep checking back every few days. This is still over 7 weeks away, so plenty of time.

Posted by
19637 posts

www.bahn.com provides this note on Railjet listing for October 29.

RJ 60: Linz Hbf->München Hbf: Construction work. The stop Salzburg Hbf is omitted. Please check your itinerary again shortly before departure.

Westbahn is operating with a train change at Salzburg Hbf to the Meridian train to Munich, but maybe they just are not up to snuff on the planned track work.

Also, if you specify a stopover in Passau (0 time), you can be routed with a train change in Plattling completely by passing the track work. It only adds 20 minutes to the travel time over the direct Railjet. The regional connection from Plattling also stops in Freising before Munich, and you might consider staying there, then taking the short bus ride to Munich airport in the morning.

By saying you cannot get a seat reservation, does that mean you already hold a ticket on the Railjet? It all may just be a tempest in a teapot. Give them a little time to sort things out. Have no fear that you can get from Vienna to Munich on Oct 29.

Posted by
1875 posts

Don't panic. If you look on OeBB's website it will show you a large number of train connections for that day. If you accept one train change (instead of a direct train) there are still bargain tickets ("Sparschiene") for €29. Choose your train, book the tickets. If you can't book a seat reservation right away, it doesn't matter. You can book the seat reservation one day before departure at the latest, either online or at the ticket counter. Unless it is a heavily booked train, of which you will be notified, you may go without a seat reservation. It can be annoying to walk through the train with your luggage searching for a non-reserved seat, though.

https://www.oebb.at/en/

Posted by
5 posts

Thanks for the input. I really appreciated the Westbahn and Meridian tips and pursued that solution to insure that I could book this ahead and get a seat reservation as well.
I ended up going to the WestBahn website and booking from Vienna to Salzburg only so that I could keep the Salzurg-Munich leg more flexible with the hourly departures between those cities, using a Bayern ticket from Meridian.
I used this info at seat61.com to learn about the flexibility of the Meridian and to get additional info.

I love the seat61 website and have used it to get information for any train travel.
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Vienna.htm#Vienna-Germany

Thanks everyone.

Posted by
2308 posts

Also, if you specify a stopover in Passau (0 time), you can be routed with a train change in Plattling completely by passing the track work.

Actually, there is no train change necessary. RJ 60 is redirected via Wels-Passau-Plattling (no stops in Passau and Plattling) and takes 20 min. longer than usual.