Edinburgh to Ostrava: train from Vienna to Ostrava

[eoff]

I'm planning a trip to Ostrava from Edinburgh in November and the options are not great.
One option is to fly to Vienna and get a train, this has the advantage that you can start the journey by train at Vienna Airport instead of bus to train transfers from say Prague.

Can anyone offer advice on the best site to research and purchase a train ticket?

I found https://www.cd.cz/en/default.htm

I was looking at the faster direct connections (EuroCity?)

I see that trainline also offers tickets but it is not consistent with the site above in saying that you can choose any seat instead of saying you need a reservation.
I think I also need a flexible ticket on the outbound in case the plane is delayed.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Trains to Ostrava also run from Warsaw, Katowice and Krakow, all with flights from the UK, also from Bratislava and Budapest with longer train legs.
The Prague-Ostrava/Bohumin Pendolino is pretty good.
I'd use the DB planner to start with, then cd.cz for the detail.
From Vienna Airport you'd have to change at Hbf for a train to Ostrava.

 

[Struner]

Fly Scotland Stansted Ostrawa?
(not sure about your preconditions )

 

[eoff]

Fly Scotland Stansted Ostrawa?
(not sure about your preconditions )

Ryanair had no availability when I looked and then there are the preconditions:

Don't do a connecting flight with Ryanair
Don't do an airline that can't accept my standard backpack (that takes 3 days clothes and my laptop) as cabin baggage.
Don't do Ryanair...

 

[Struner]

Ryanair had no availability when I looked and then there are the preconditions:

Don't do a connecting flight with Ryanair
Don't do an airline that can't accept my standard backpack (that takes 3 days clothes and my laptop) as cabin baggage.
Don't do Ryanair...

Fly Katowice & train Ostrawa

 

[eoff]

Fly Katowice & train Ostrawa

Mmm, connecting through WAW, looks expensive but avoids airlines that don't do safe connections, looking into that.
Still interested in any advice on the best site to book the trains.

 

[nwales58]

General rule for an international rail journey is try both ends' operators. They may be identical or may price very differently.

Connecting with aircraft, you may prefer flexible walk-up fares to ones bound to a specific train.

For Austria-Czechia, CD are usually (always?) cheaper than ÖBB. On recent journeys I've found CD slightly cheaper on walk-up fares but their 'First Minute' advance fares are much cheaper than ÖBB's Sparschiene and still available very close to departure.

To/from Wien Flughafen buy the leg to Hbf separately on the day, only Hbf-Czechia will be cheap. Although Flughafen-Hbf is Railjets the local fare is valid.

If over 65 on CD you save on the bit within Czechia in 2nd, but not 1st I think.

Poland others know far better than me.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Oct 2024 ==

I'd look at Prague too as it has many UK routes and higher frequencies. Also Wien-Ostrava is every 2/3 hours but Prague is more than one per hour with a choice of CD, RegioJet and Leo Express so very much turn up and go.

 

[eoff]

I see the point about the higher frequency from Prague. Does a CD-purchased Flexible ticket allow you to travel on all the train operators? That was not clear to me from the website.

 

[30907]

I see the point about the higher frequency from Prague. Does a CD-purchased Flexible ticket allow you to travel on all the train operators? That was not clear to me from the website.

You need to pay the One Ticket price which is higher than Flexi.

You don't need reservations in AT or CZ, except in SC trains where they are included in the supplement (35CZK). The ECs are nice, especially if you can pick one with a Polish restaurant car, and IME not as crowded as the Prague route.

 

[nwales58]

In Czechia I really don't bother buying in advance. Usually I just buy on the day as we used to in this country, but generally using the CD Muy Vlak app on the way to the station. E.g. Prague-Ostrava on the next train bought now is less than GBP 20, tied to EC117. Similar price on the next Leo Express.

A few of the busier CD IC/EC on the Bohumin route now have compulsory reservations, used to be just the Pendolinos, so again just buy on the way to the station. Leo and RegioJet are notionally compulsory resrvation but I would just buy online when I know for sure which I want.

As @30907 wrote, take your pick of your favourite format: Pendolino, hauled CD or PKP stock with real restaurants, Leo's FLIRTs or RegioJet's whatever we picked up cheap stock.

Czechia really is a very easy to use turn up and go railway. Just buy on the way to or at the station, or for cross-operator flexilibilty use OneTicket. Cross-border bought on CD is as easy, including Railjets no matter whether CD or ÖBB.

Although some of the res-comp trains can be full, especially RegioJet, my experience is that it's not a big problem in the way getting to Madrid on a Sunday can be (everything full days in advance).

 

[eoff]

In the end I went via Vienna, as I had a preference for the flight options.
Used the dead time created by the 2 hour EC service to have lunch in Vienna on the way from and to the airport.
Only annoyance about the trip was that I had got used to not having to pay to use public toilets in UK stations I use, you have to pay in Vienna hbf.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Only annoyance about the trip was that I had got used to not having to pay to use public toilets in UK stations I use, you have to pay in Vienna hbf.

I've got a CHF 1.50 charge on my bank card for contactless access to the toilets at Bern station ("SBB Bern WC").
It's a bit like collecting ticket stubs of old.
Spotlessly clean, of course.