Vienna Travel Forum

Hello,

My friend and I plan to take a trip to Austria next week. We will stay in Vienna, Hallstatt,
Salzburg and Innbruck. I have printed out train schedule for each trip between the cites.
Using eurail pass, I wonder if we need to make reservation or just hop on.
I read the pass travel guide but still wonder how we know which train needs reservation.
Is there any indication in the timetable? Or we just go to ask at the ticket office?

Thank you very much!

It has been a couple of years since I used the Eurail pass but I will help as best I can. On most trains within Switzerland there was no need for a reservation to go with the Eurail pass.I do recall catching the overnight train from somewhere in Switzerland to Amsterdam and I think there may have been a reservation required. Best way is to stop at the ticket counter at one of the stations and just ask but I would say as a general rule you will not need to reserve unless it is an internation route or perhaps overnight. Dont sweat if you get on a train and discover you needed a reservation. The condutors are pretty understanding and if you simply explain your sitiuation they normally will refrain from booting you off a moving train..... ;]

If you use the online timetable offered by the OeBB you will always be informed on which trains reservation is compulsory. As far as I know no domestic trains in Austria require reservation. However, if you look up times you might see a note next to some trains saying "reservation recommended" as OeBB often has a good idea how many people are expected on a particular train.

in fact there is a problem of not enough seats at some trains, mainly at the weekend, so it makes sense to reserve seats ! It did happen in the last months that people were asked to leave the train again and take the next one, because there were too many people in that train already !
This is mainly for main lines like Vienna-Salzburg-Innsbruck
a reservation makes 3 euros and when you take a look at
www.oebb.at
all trains that are mostly overcrowded are marked there !
Hallstatt is a sidetrain-line, there it is less important to reserve !

For your information, I simply hopped on with an Austrian Rail Pass in between these cities without any problems in September.

Thank you very much for your kind answers!
I feel more relieved and ready to go now (I will get on the plane this Wednesday)