Austrian Rail Travel

It's probably an "open" ticket, available on any train. If you paid extra for a reservation, only the reservation fee would be lost if you didn't take that train. I left Hallstatt by bus from Lahn, at the south end of town by the end of the tunnel and the parking. I went around the south end of the lake to Obertraun (€1,30), where there is a manned station and bought my ticket to Hall. There is probably an automat in the Hallstatt station (across the lake). You buy a ticket for the boat, then go to the station and buy your next ticket from the automat.

Thanks so much for the information Lee. Since you say there probably is an automated ticket service, if there is not can you buy a ticket from the conductor or would you incur a fine. Thanks for your help.

Nancy, you might want to read this page from the Austrian Rail website.

Nancy, you might want to consider this. I feel quite sure that the Hallstatt Bhf will have a ticket automat, but I'm not sure it will have Melk as a destination. It might only sell tickets to nearby destinations. The connection from Hallstatt to Melk has changes in Attnung-Puchheim and St. Pölten. Some connections show 20 minutes between trains in Attnang-Puchheim. If all you can get from Hallstatt is a ticket to Attnang-Puchheim, will there be enough time in Attnang-Puchheim to buy the ticket to Melk? But there is a train from Attnang-Pchheim to St. Pölten every hour. If it takes more than 20 min, just get on the next train. The Austrian Rail website (www.oebb.at) says online booking of a "non-stop" ticket from Hallstatt to Melk is not possible. I looked at the German language side, and the word they use for non-stop is "durchgehendes", which to me means "through". You can't book online a through ticket from Hallstatt to Melk, but you can book online tickets from Hallstatt to St. Pölten and from St. Pölten to Melk. So, if you are willing to go through the trials of online ticket booking, you could do it that way. If I look at Hallstatt to Hall in Tirol, which I did last year, I get the same non-stop ticket not possible message, but I was able to purchase the ticket from the manned counter in Obertraun, so I would presume that you could do it that way, as well. Of course, the other options would only be necessary if Melk were not listed as a destination on the Hallstatt automat. I wish we had a way of knowing.

Didn't see a ticket machine at the Hallstatt Bhf across the lake, we bought tickets after we got on the train, from the conductor.

Pam, To where did you buy your tickets? Do you think he would sell tickets to anywhere in Austria, or does he just sell tickets to places that train goes to, like Bad Ischl and Attnang-Puchheim?