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Trains from Bacharach to Berlin to Dresden to Prague to Vienna

Posted by (Seattle area) on

We just got back from a trip that started along the Rhein, then Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Vienna. We traveled by train, second class. We booked most of our tickets using the Deutsches Bahn website, no problems with printable PDF tickets or using American credit card over the web. The Prague to Vienna ticket we did thru Austrian Rails website (OBB), again no problem. We paid for seat reservations when they were available. All of the train tickets for two people added up to about 220E. Would have been less if we hadn't delayed purchasing the Rhein to Berlin ticket. When we first looked, it was around 50E, a couple weeks later I paid 80. Live and learn.

We had a few issues. We left Bacharach early on a Saturday figuring we would stop off in Mainz before going on to Frankfurt and getting on our ICE to Berlin. The Regional Express from Bacharach to Mainz was on time but had quite a few well lubricated soccer fans. We ignored their singing and got to Mainz okay. After a couple hours there we went back to the station to get the RE to Frankfurt. The 10 minute transfer time in Frankfurt for ICE to Berlin didn't allow for the RE to be 10 minutes late getting to Mainz where it disgorged a whole lot more soccer fans. Late leaving Mainz, and we just missed our train in Frankfurt. DB gave us new seat reservations for a train that left an hour later, so we arrived in Berlin later than we wanted but not too bad.

Berlin to Dresden, Dresden to Prague, Prague to Vienna. Each of these trains was really full, especially Prague to Vienna. We were very glad we had seat reservations. Folks who didn't had a hard time finding places.
Berlin to Dresden - Didn't quite figure out which end of the car to get in, and it had compartments with a narrow aisle. It is quite a scene when you have people going in both directions with lots of luggage trying to get past each other looking for their compartment.

The skinheads on the train from Dresden to Prague were somewhat annoying and when one of them answered his phone with "Heil Hitler" I felt a little ill. The route along the Elbe from Dresden was beautiful with tree covered mountains and your occasional castle.
Prague to Vienna - Boarding this train was total chaos, though I did manage to find the correct end of the coach to enter. People without reserved seats were scrambling trying to find a place. It is a long ride but with some pretty scenery.
The trains from Berlin to Vienna were all Czech railways. Prague to Vienna was Railjet, but really just Czech rail train.

Posted by
4637 posts

"Prague to Vienna was Railjet, but really just Czech rail train." ??
True, there is an Austrian and Czech Railjet trains and there is no difference between them other than Czech train is blue and Austrian red so you were not shortened on your experience by going by Czech train instead of Austrian one. But it's possible you could have been shortened of your money by buying your ticket from Austrian website instead of Czech rail website. They sell usually cheaper tickets.

Posted by
14980 posts

Hi,

"...from Berlin to Vienna were all Czech railways." I assume you did not take the Berlin to Vienna night train which does go through Czechia. You mean by "all Czech railways" the entire route was done by a Czech CD train, not the EC train?

"Berlin to Dresden"....you went straight, ie no transferring in Leipzig? If so, that was an EC train. Good that you had reservations, otherwise you sit on the floor or stand. I went through in June this packed train situation both in RB and the ICE trains.

Posted by
4637 posts

Fred, EC train = Eurocity and could be DB, CD, OeBB etc. trains.

Posted by
14980 posts

Thanks, I am aware of that. More puzzling is whether the entire train was a Czech CD one?

Posted by
4637 posts

Fred, that I don't know but of course it is possible that the train was run by CD or DB or OeBB. I don't think they mix them.

Posted by
14980 posts

@ Ilja...Thanks, puzzling, isn't it? Of the day trains I've seen at Berlin Hbf, they are mixed when going to Prague or Budapest. since they are EC. By definition, the EC and EN are mixed anyway.

Posted by
10 posts

Just to clarify, we stayed in Berlin for four days, then got a train to Dresden where we spent three days. Then we traveled to Prague for four days and then on to Vienna. So each of the train trips was separate. The coaches on the Berlin to Dresden said Czech Railways, but on the schedule it was an EC train. The train from Dresden to Prague was also an EC train with Czech coaches. The train from Prague to Vienna was run by Railjet, but the coaches said Czech railways. Whose name is on the coaches probably has zero impact. Whether a train is EC versus other designations probably means something, but I don't really know what.

I was mainly trying to report on our experiences as not very experienced travelers. On our previous trips we used Rail Europe to buy tickets in France and Spain. We had read about some people having problems with the DB website and US credit cards but maybe that is all fixed. We looked at the Czech rail website to get our tickets from Prague to Vienna, but it was a little confusing so we went with OBB. Maybe paid a little more, but not enough to fret about.

We learned to allow more than 10 minutes when taking a German Regional Express train to connect with another train, because crazy crowded trains can happen. Any other day but Saturday with a soccer game the RE probably would have been on time and a 10 minute connection would have been fine. I will probably continue to get seat reservations for travel, it made life a lot easier and the cost wasn't too much. We were gone for almost three weeks and the cost of our train tickets for four trips was a pretty small fraction of out total cost. Of course with seat reservations you have to pay attention to coach numbers, look at the platform maps for an indication of where they will end up when the train stops and to try to get on at the end of the coach nearer where the seats are.
Another observation from some people we met is that a party of four or more can save money by using limo services for intercity transport versus the rails, especially on the Berlin-Dresden-Prague-Vienna-Budapest corridor.

Posted by
4637 posts

Yeah, you are right, Fred. Now I remember seeing train mixed with MAV and CD carriages.
TommyMac, EC, IC etc. is a category of the train. CD, DB, OeBB tells us which national railroad company runs it. Rail jet is run by Austrian and also Czech railroad company as I already said.

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