trip to Hallstatt from Vienna

jenny, It would help to have some further information. Which train station will you be arriving at "early in the morning"? You can check train information and departure times by using the German Rail Website. I'd suggest buying return tickets to Hallstatt, as the small rail station there is not usually staffed. When you arrive at Hallstatt, you'll have to walk down the hill to the boat dock and take Stefanie across to the town. Keep your Camera at hand as the dock by the station is a great place to get pictures of the town. Happy travels!

we will take the overnight train from Prague to Vienna, so I think we arrive at Westbahnhof around 6 or 6:30am. Our plan is to go on from there to Hallstatt, if we can leave short after we arrive.

From Westbahnhof, you'll go by express train to Attnang-Puchheim and from there by regional train to the Hallstatt Hst, across the lake from Hallstatt. The entire trip from Westbahnhof to Hallstatt takes about 4 hr, plus or minus. The first express train in the morning leaves Westbahnhof at 5:44, so you won't get that one. The next one leaves at 6:44 from track (Gleis) 10, going ultimately to Innsbruck. Your night train is scheduled in at 6:30, so you will have 14 min to get on the train to A-P. The night train arrives on track 11, which should be across the platform, so the change should be easy. If the night train is late and they don't hold the connecting train, there is another train to A-P at 7:40, going to Bregenz, with a stop in A-P. That will be on a different platform, but you should have plently of time. The 6:44 connection has 13 min to change trains at A-P at around 9 AM. The schedule shows the train from Vienna coming in on track 3, and the train to Hallstatt going out on track 21. I couldn't find a station plan, but the station schedule for A-P only shows trains using tracks 1-3 and 21. I suspect tracks 1-3 are main tracks through the station and track 21 is a stub track off to the side somewhere. Same thing for the 7:40 connection.

It looks like the first connection out of Hallstatt in the morning leaves at 7:06, getting to Vienna at 11:18, again with a change at Attnang-Puchheim. Added: After looking at some websites and satellite photos, it looks like tracks 1, 2, & 3 are indeed through tracks in front of the station. Track 1 has a platform adjacent to the station building; tracks 2 and 3 share a platform next to track 1. Track 21 comes in from the right, as you face the station buildings from the tracks, and ends against the building. This web page has some pretty good pictures of the station in A-P. The next to last picture (l-r) on the next to bottom row of pictures shows track one to the right of the platform with two and three on the platform to the right of it. Track 21 must be one of the platforms to the far left of the picture.

thank you very much for the replies!