Vienna night train to Lucerne?

I thought you already decided to cut Austria out:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/switzerland/lopped-austria-off-the-itinerary

@Carrie - Well, with 4 adults planning this trip it can take some negotiating! So, its back on the drawing board.

If you click on the construction notice on the nightjet site it reads-

Due to construction work, the long-distance trains will run between Wien Hbf (U) and Salzburg Hbf from 12/05/2025 through 05/06/2025 at different times. The night trains and the long-distance trains are redirected between Wien Hbf and St.Pölten Hbf. Some long-distance trains cannot operate. Connections cannot be guaranteed. Due to the construction work, there may be some restrictions when booking seat reservations.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

[IE- the train is being diverted onto a different route than normal taking apparently 23 minutes longer than normal to Salzburg , hence why it is bookable.] . The Nightjet waits at Salzburg for two hours in the small hours waiting for train EN40462 from Budapest, leaves Vienna two hours after the Night jet- the cars off that train are attached to the Nightjet at Salzburg. But the EN train presents a second chance for the journey (too far out yet to book it).

@isn31c - you are very knowledgeable! If you wanted to take the most expedited route from Vienna to Lucerne - would you go directly (even if its a 9 hr daylight train) OR spend the night in Salzburg? I'm so thoroughly baffled by the logistics.
I appreciate your help very much!

If I didn't want to (or couldn't) take the night train (and after the two sleepers there is a midnight all seated alternative, several changes train) then I would without a doubt take the 9 hour day train straight through.

However in the hypothetical case that I wanted to break the day journey up it wouldn't be in Salzburg. Not because I don't like Salzburg, or I don't think it is a worthy place (the opposite is true), but it is only two hours into the 9 hour journey.
Personally my cholce of an overnight break of journey would therefore be Innsbruck because it is 4 hours from Vienna, so pretty much the mid point of the journey. The other benefit of that approach is that if the main line from Vienna to Salzburg was blocked for some reason there are two, three or four (depending how you count them) other (much) slower routes from Vienna to Innsbruck, avoiding Salzburg entirely.

Likewise between Salzburg and Innsbruck if that section was blocked then there is a slower route between the two cities.

So I would feel that all possible scenarios were covered.

@isn31c. Thank you so very much for your thoughtful reply. Visited Innsbruck to ski 35 years ago so that might be a fun revisit.

For a trip of 10 to 12 days, I would stay in Switzerland the entire time. It’s such a short time in Austria and then to spend one day on a train seems like a wasted day.

If some of your group are interested in adding another country to Switzerland, I would suggest Colmar, France and/or Freiburg, Germany. Both are less than an hour over the Swiss border from Basel, Switzerland.

You could do Basel, Murren, and Lucerne. I did something similar my first trip.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/still-dreaming-of-switzerland-a-trip-report

Or you could keep it a Switzerland only trip and make it Montreux, Murren, and Lucerne. Similar to my last 2 trips:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-switzerland-my-trip-report

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-switzerland-june-2024-my-trip-report

There’s so many great options in Switzerland.

Or you could do Austria with Munich, Germany. Save Switzerland for next time.

Thank you @ Carrie