I'm traveling from munich to zell am see for a few days. Then we train on to salzburg for a few days. Then it is off to Prague. And then finally back to munich.
I've been looking at the Deutche Bahn, OBB, and Czech railways websites and seeing different prices. If I buy through say OBB, does that mean I'm on an OBB train, regardless of where it originates? Or, am I potentially buying a ticket on the Czech railway? Thanks for the duh question help.
https://img-scoop-cms.airweb.fr/uploads/sites/17/Plan-ligne-115.pdf
Not necessarily. Train operators from any of the connections could be from any off the countries.
Example: One itinerary I see from Munich to Zell am See has a connection in Graz, When I click on "further information" on the Bahn website, the first train is operated by Deutsche Bahn and the connection is operated by OEBB. When I look at the next itinerary 45 minutes later, the connection is in St Veit and both trains are operated by OEBB.
All the operators sell each other's tickets between adjacent countries. Czech trains are often cheaper when you buy from CD.
It's a shame you're traveling by train. You're going to travel through an incredible region to visit by car.
South of Zell-am-See is the Grossglockner High Alpine High which may be about as high as any road in Europe. It's simply the most beautiful place I've ever seen.
Your trip from Salzburg to Prague is not easy. You'll have to take the train to Linz where you'll switchover to a tour bus that'll take you the rest of the way.
Some people take shuttle buses Salzburg to Cesky Krumlov, spend a day or two and then take another shuttle bus into Prague.
Thanks David. You’ve made some assumptions about our trip and you’ll be happy to hear that we are driving grossglockner. I’m confused though about your statement about trains. I’m seeing many that go from Linz to Prague.
Basically trains are operated by the national railway (or a local railway) of the country they operate in. So a train from for example Munich to Vienna is operated by DB while in Germany and OBB while in Austria. If you travel on that train you will see that the German crew will be replaced with an Austrian one in Salzburg.
But railways can act as each other's agents. You can actually buy a ticket from, eg. Prague to Munich at the ticket office in Vienna Central station without any issue. The railways do operate (To a certain extent) as a Europe wide network. Especially in Central Europe. As a result buying a ticket from OBB does not automatically mean you travel on an OBB train. That is only the case if you buy a ticket for travel in Austria.
What however happens is that often railways have special discounted tickets available, that they only market themselves. That is why you can sometimes find cheaper prices for Prague - Munich on CD than on DB for example.
Note that Salzburg - Prague, while not particularly fast, is not difficult. It is indeed train to Linz, where you change for another train to Prague. But changing trains is a normal and expected feature of train travel. Do not worry about that.
My general advice is:
- Book your ticket with the national railway of the country where the trip starts. That way, if there is an issue you can just go to the ticket office at the station and talk to a human...
For any train travel into or out of the Czech Republic, there are great savings to be had by buying standard class tickets online as far in advance as possible directly from the Czech National Railway Company, Ceske Drahy (“CD”). Tickets bought from OBB tend to be much more expensive than advance tickets available online from either Deutsche Bahn or CD for their respective trains. The exception is Railjet trains. The deep discounts on the Czech trains can only be bought at www.cd.cz/en.
www.Seat61.com has detailed information.
Railjet is an Austrian train. Its the brand name of OEBB's long distance trains.
Regiojet is an independent operator. https://regiojet.com/
They run 4 trains a day between Prague and Vienna. Unfortunately, only buses to Munich, but they are about 1 hour faster than the train.
Between Prague and Vienna the Railjets are a mixture of CD and OBB sets. But anyway operated by CD while in the Czech republic, regardless of the branding shown on the vehicle.
