Looking at taking an EC train from Verona to Rosenheim, Germany that arrives in Rosenheim at 5:45pm. Is there much/any chance of this train being late? Just how punctual are these trains? I ask because we are picking up a rental car and the office closes at 6:00pm.
Good luck. Not familiar with that particular route but I booked the Milan to Zurich with an eleven minute train change to the Paris high speed & didn't come close to making it two weeks ago. Half an hour late. I'd say you're screwed. Sorry.
Where are you going from Rosenheim? There is a good chance you can do this without a car, anyway.
We are staying at our friend's home which is located out in the country near Niederaudorf. From there, we're visiting some other friends who live in the Austrian countryside.
Is the rental car office located in the train station in Rosenheim? If not, you still have to get there, probably by taxi. On one of our trips, we knew we were going to be late. We were on the train and then had to get a taxi to the rental agency. Using a cell phone, we called the rental office and they were more than happy to wait for us. Of course, you never know. Can you inform them ahead of time that you will be coming on a train that arrives at 5:45?
Is it possible your friends could pick you up in Oberaudorf? It's only about 8 min by regional train from Kufstein, which is a stop for the EC from Verona.
It looks like Niederaudorf is only about a mile from the Oberaudorf station.
Thanks everyone! I will try to call the rental agency local office tomorrow morning to see how late they would wait in case of a late train as it looks like there is a possibility of the train being late. And actually, our friends won't be there to pick us up as they are currently living in the US (long story) so we do need to find our way there.
If this can't work out, we have a "Plan B", which involves making the trip into two days with a stopover in Innsbruck. Our schedule is very flexible at this point.
" to see how late they would wait in case of a late train as it looks like there is a possibility of the train being late. "
We are talking about Germany here. Having lived there for several years, I bet that the door will be locked at the stroke of 1800 hours.
According to the station plan for Oberaudorf, there is a taxi stand in front of the station. In fact the picture of the station even shows a taxi at that stand. Often these station plans will even have the phone number of the taxi company, but I don't see one here.
The website for the town of Oberaudorf (www.oberaudorf.de), which is next to Niederaudorf and has the train station, gives two taxi companies in town,
* Hinterberger
Bad-Trißl-Str. 5, Tel. 1427
* Pfeiffer
Schulweg 6, Tel. 2169,
but do you know enough German to phone for a taxi? The Oberaudorf website is also in English and has a kontakt form. You could write and see what they say.
BTW, DB reports the status of trains on their website, but only for a few minutes around that time. For Rosenheim, at 7:45 PM German time, 5/25/2010, they were reporting that EC 86, the train two hours behind your, would be 25 minutes late today because of a "blocking of a route".
You can find this information here. Check it around 9:45 MDT each day. Put in Rosenheim, the date, and 17:43.