I'm arriving in Vienna at 7:55 from Venice on a sleeper train and trying to choose a connecting train to Budapest. There is a Eurocity (EC) leaving at 8:42 and a Railjet at 9:42. Does it matter which one I pick? Is Railjet much nicer? Normally I would leave an hour, but in this case I don't see much of a difference.
Thanks,
Arie
Why to wait another hour? It's a relatively short distance. I would pick the one which goes sooner, in this case EC. There is not such a big difference. EC usually has compartments, RJ does not.
Its been years since I have been on a railjet. I use either an IC or EC maybe once a year or so and they are both comfortable. One of the big selling points of the RailJet is the speed, but unfortunately, on Hungarian tracks, they don't move any faster than the EC trains. Both trains you are looking at take 2.5 hours. If it were me I would want the extra hour in Budapest. Well, to be honest I would take the 17:42 train the night before so I could see the lights of Budapest that evening and start the day in Budapest early the following day.
Photos of the Railjet are here:
http://www.seat61.com/railjet.htm#.Vxio6j_Vzoo
Here is some further information about that journey:
http://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Vienna.htm#Vienna-Budapest
The travel times are identical. You'll be exhausted. I can't imagine sitting in the train station for an extra hour for a slightly newer train is worth it. I'd get on the 8:42.
if the night train is on time
The only trains that were significantly late that I have ever been on were in Germany. I would have bet against that but..... Still, I would rather arrive on a train that was late the night before than one that was late on my day of sightseeing. When I can, and when I have no particular reason to want to sleep in the current location, I try and move on to the next town in the evenings. It just works better for me to wake up and start exploring.
Part of the fun of this forum is sometimes we all learn together. I’ve been on a number of the EC trains, but didn’t know much about them other than they were comfortable and efficient and that there really wasn’t much difference between 1st and 2nd class; but 1st was so cheap I did it anyway. Now I know:
In 1986 the European Railway comittee decided to establish a network for the most important rail connections, which is called EuroCity (EC). The central of this organization resides in Netherland. This organization gave a strict criteria for these EC trains, which is periodically checked.
The criteria used for the EC evaluation for Hungary (1993-1995):
• Minimum 90km/h travelling speed (average). The trains should be pulled at the maximal allowed speed.
• Max. 5 minute late allowed, but the train should be on time in the 80% of the month.
• The coaches should be climatised UIC Z1 type, and not older than 15 years.
• The train should go with a dining car. This car is located in the middle of the train, between the 2nd and the 1st class coaches.
• The stop time mustn't exceed 3 minutes, except the border stations, where 10 minutes allowed (or 15, when the engine is changed).
• etc.
The first EC trains has started to run in 1987. MÁV has joined to this network in 1988. Now five EC trains come to Hungary:
photo: http://www2.chem.elte.hu/gigant_club/pix/electric/Foreign/1014/1014ec62.jpg
