Austria is a beautiful country and has a very efficient rail system allowing one to see the sights. It is also a major connection point between major cities such as Budapest, Venice, Prague, and Munich. The national railway system is the OBB (Oesterreichische Bundesbahnen). It is a state-run railway. In addition to the state-run run railway, there are also many private railways servicing smaller branches. While Austria’s rail system is efficient, its public transportation network is not quite as advanced as Switzerland’s.
In Austria, when you are on a rail journey that is greater than 101 km, you can actually stop at stations on the way and take a maximum of two months to finish the entire journey. It has also been reported that if you are riding on a small local train that you have to push a button so that the driver will stop at the next station.
Similar to Germany, the train stations are known as bahnhof and hauptbahnhof and abbreviated by Bf and Hbf respectively. You will definitely want to look for the arrivals and departures in each station so look for the sign Ankunft for arrivals and Abfahrt for departures.
Austria is very nicely located in the core of Central Europe so naturally it gets included in a variety of rail passes such as the Eurail and InterRail passes. Austria has its own national railpass as well for those who want to find value when wanting to see this entire country by rail. You can also buy individual tickets and get up to a 45% discount on them through the Vorteilscard (a discount card) which is valid for a period of one year.
You can buy an Austria rail pass that will give you 3 to 8 days (depending on how many travel days you purchase) of rail travel to be used within 15 days. The passes can be for first or second class and add value and convenience for those who want to do some serious exploration of Austria. Austria does not have as many rail passes as Switzerland but there are two worth mentioning here.
First, there is the Austrian Rail Pass. This pass is good for 3 days of unlimited rail travel and you have 15 days in which to use them. You can purchase as many as 5 extra days when you order the first pass. Available are first and second class passes and the first class is priced about 50% higher than the second class. There is not really much difference in terms of comfort between first and second class however it terms of crowds, the first class is less crowded during holiday periods and the summer season.
If you like to ride the bicycle, the Austrian Rail Pass also gives a 40% discount when you rent a bicycle at the station. You can also get discounts on river and lake steamboats and there are even slight discounts on a couple of the mountain railways using cogwheel rail systems. Discounts for children on the Austria Rail Pass are half-fare for children 6-12 years of age and children under the age 6 ride free.
If you are thinking about traveling by rail throughout Central Europe then you might consider the European East Pass. This is a first-class pass and only exceeds the equivalent Austrian Rail Pass by about one third of the latter’s price. This pass is like its name: it is used in the Eastern Europe countries namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. It gives you 5 days of unlimited travel by rail in Austria and these countries.
You have 30 days in which to use the pass and you can buy 5 additional days of travel when you order it. You get the same discounts as the Austrian Rail Pass to include those on bicycle rentals, cogwheel railways, and steamers. For children aged 4 to 12, fare is half off and those children under the age of 4 ride for free.
So take advantage of the great offers the Austrian Rail Passes have and get the most out of your visit to this country.