Salzburg to Vienna, Seat Reservation Necessary?

I never make train reservations in Europe unless its overnight....Rail Europe is in the business of making money and I would not deal with them......

Hi Lee,

As this is a train wholly within Austria, take a look at the Austrian rail website for a schedule search. Even though the website has an English version, it is not 100% English.

I did a search for this route on a random day at a random time. Half of the routes that popped up have a warning in German underneath it that says "Starker Reisetag - bitte unbedingt Sitzplatz reservieren!!!" Google Translate loosely translated that into "Strong travel - reserve seats please!"

So take a look at that site and search for the day/time that you were planning on travelling as the website will let you know if reservations are recommended for that route or not. You can even try to reserve it on their website (and not pay Rail Europe's markup fee) but I have never tried it through them so I do not know if foreigners can or not.

absolutely not required.

There are trains nearly half hourly on that route so it makes little sense to tie yourself down to a specific time.

Lee,

How many days are you going to be in Salzburg? I'd suggest taking a few minutes when you arrive and buy your tickets to Vienna then. The helpful OBB staff will be able to explain the ticket choices to you, and whether reservations are required. As I recall, the ticket offices are just inside the front door, to the left.

Travel on a Friday afternoon in August may be busy, but there are lots of trains on that route so you shouldn't have too many problems getting a ticket.

Happy travels!

Thanks all for your comments.
I did follow Steven's suggestion and checked the Austrian Railways site. I found my preferred route, Friday (8/7) at 3 PM (via railjet) did not require reservations; but the 3:08 PM route (via IC) that takes 30 minutes longer does recommend making reservations. Both have zero transfers and have the same fare. Why do you think one recommends the reservation and the other doesn't (specifically, the slower route recommends the reservation)?
I will only be in Salzburg overnight before moving on to Vienna. However, I will be arriving in Europe 10 days prior to training to Salzburg. Should I consider making reservations soon after I arrive in Frankfurt? Austrian railway reservations can be made in Germany, can it not? I would make reservations (whether recommended or not)if it insured that my family of four would be able to sit together.