Rail tickets through Ricksteves.com question

Ricksteves.com is not a railway company so I don't know what kind of journey they are suggesting, but I can't see a problem with a 10 minute change.

There are also direct overnight trains from Paris to Vienna.

Ten minutes is plenty of time for the average person to make a change. In fact you will find that in many cases the amount of time allowed for a change is even less.

Rick Steves doesn't sell rail tickets. I think you are looking at a link on this site to RailEurope? I would not do that.
You were told about Seat61 in another post. Please look at that before buying tickets.

Interchange means leave one train and board another. 10 minutes is ample time unless your first train is late.

I am going to suggest that you look directly to the providers to buy your tickets, much like one does with the airlines. Rick Steves doesn't sell train tickets, but it does have a marketing agreement with Rail Europe.

Some on this forum really like using Trainline.com as the 3rd party agent for purchasing train tickets.

Don't use Rail Europe. You won't be see all the available trains. (It's where you are sent from the Rick Steves website.)

Go here:

http://www.bahn.com/en

It will let you know all the trains available and which company is operating the train. You can then go to that company to buy the tickets.

The Seat 61 site is probably the best one for train information.

Many people here also use Trainline for tickets. I personally like to buy directly from the train company but Trainline does make it easier.

So many thoughts here….

1. 10 minutes is plenty of time and 1 hour/3 minutes is absurd. This isn’t air travel.

2. Just fly from Paris to Vienna. Seriously.

3. Never buy tickets from Rick Steves or Rail Europe. They are travel agencies, they do not operate the trains.

I have tried Trainline, through the Seat61 site and directly to their site, both signed in with my account as well as not signed in, at least eight times, starting yesterday. The exact same malfunction occurs - after very briefly "searching" (for 15-30seconds) a screen pops up that says

"Sorry! Your booking took a little too long...We’ve updated our available tickets. Search again to get your booking back on track. Search!".

A grayed-out list of trains is visible behind the pop-up, but I can't really view the list, let alone continue to the next step. Since this has happened repeatedly, I gave up on using Trainline, despite all the recommendations here.

Does anyone have an explanation for this, or know what stupid mistake I must be making?

Emily, I'm trying to take the train for the pleasure of the train ride through parts of Europe I haven't seen on my prior six trips to Europe. The one hour wait in Munich is a small price to pay for what I'm trying to do. I am flying from Amsterdam to London on this trip, and have flown to/from other cities when that suited my schedule. One of the benefits of a forum is for others to learn from the discussion. Not the case for me, but some people just don't fly.

I understand 3rd party seller issue. It seems there's some convenience involved in using them, if the cost difference isn't too great, which it doesn't seem to be. I'm getting a bit of a late start on planning this trip, so the convenience aspect has some value to me.

If I went to the French train company (aren't there several?) would their sites tell me about the connections for trains in the other two countries?

How far out are you trying to book? Is it possible your dates are still too far out? I had no problem finding trains and prices on the SNCF ebsite, but only checked up to April 1.

Yes, you can check where your connections will be and how long they are.

There are also trains that go Paris-Mannheim-Munich-Vienna. They might give you better connection times.

Booking April 14, 2023.

I am flying from Amsterdam to London on this trip

From Amsterdam to London, the train is a better option in my opinion.

I'm seeing trains available on the SNCF website for April 14

The Germans are famous for punctuality

That may be true, but for the German Bahn, not so much recently.

Riley, there are plenty of pro-train folks here. It makes sense if you're not trying to make the best time. RailEurope doesnt always show all the train options. That term "interchange" does seem confusing and it's not used on other sites.

Take a look at schedules using the Bahn.com website. That is Deutsche Bahn, the German rail company. They cant sell tickets for trains they dont run, but their website is usually the most comprehensive. I looked and see a two-change (Stuttgart, Munchen) route, with change times 30-45 minutes at each. Pretty clear on this site that it is a transfer to another train. You'll often see transfer times of 4-5 minutes when trains will be just across the platform from each other, and people make it.

For many regional trains, a few minutes is all you need. It's not like boarding aircraft - its more like using city buses or the subway. Nobody is checking tickets or touching your luggage. Just be prepared to get off your train with your luggage before it reaches your transfer station, so that you don't get caught in a crowd of slow-moving folks blocking the aisles.

The Seat 61 site is probably the best one for train information.

Actually for this route Seat 61 directs you to RailEurope to buy tickets because, according to them, you can buy it as one routing all the way. On the individual train sites I believe you have to buy the segments separately. I looked on SNCF for the OP's date and it does not show a train from Paris all the way to Vienna on their site. Maybe I did something wrong.

Riley,
I've just tried Trainline (I'm in the UK) and can't replicate your problem. It lets me go all the way through a dummy booking.

SNCF Connect (the French railways website) is much cheaper than bahn.de (German railways) for identical trains.

I'm seeing 2 trains- the 0720 and the 0906 - both offer the options of 2 changes (at Mannheim and Munich- both doable but tight) or a one change (of just under 90 minutes) at Frankfurt., or a 1020 change at Zurich or a 1055 -two 1/2 hour changes at Kalsruhe and Munich.

Your choice.

I've just looked at Rail Europe and they are way cheaper again than SNCF, by some margin,

So my thought is use Rail Europe (I never thought I would say that, rather than an operator's website or a specialist agency I use in the UK) and get booked on whichever of the trains suits through. Some of the connections may look tight by US standards but they are official.

The other option is Nightjet- but you obviously wouldn't see the countryside then- 1858 from Paris, arrive Vienna 1013- very competitive pricing as against the day trains. It is so good to see sleeper trains back in Europe. They have their own website.

I am really puzzled by the Trainline computer problem. My laptop seems to be working fine, and I've been using computers since the 1980's, including booking travel in the US many times and in Europe several times, most recently in 2014.

Thanks, everyone.