Hungary and Austria (advice)

[northwichcat]

Someone I know is planning to join a land only tour in Budapest which requires her to be in Budapest for late afternoon on a Saturday in December. However, due to flight times she will have to fly in the previous day. Instead of just flying in to Budapest a day early she is considering the option of flying in to Vienna on the Friday which would arrive at around 5pm, going by train to Gyor, spending the night there, spending the next morning exploring the town and then travelling by train to Budapest in the afternoon. However, she has a couple of concerns - one being are walk-on tickets available for Vienna to Gyor trains as obviously the flight could be delayed and the other being is the service relatively reliable considering it'll be mid December.

 

[30907]

No specific experience, but I can't see a problem on either count. Walk-up fares are standard in Central Europe, and you can get delayed anywhere...

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

In answer to your questions, 'Yes' and 'Yes'. The Wien - Gyor ticket will be a little more expensive than an ordinary one as only RegioJet trains operate the route and they charge a supplement.

In Hungary, be careful not get to confused with the word 'Gyors' which appears on many indicates and simply means 'fast': otherwise you might think that most MAV trains go to Gyor. Took me about five years to work that out!

 

[43096]

In answer to your questions, 'Yes' and 'Yes'. The Wien - Gyor ticket will be a little more expensive than an ordinary one as only RegioJet trains operate the route and they charge a supplement.

RailJet, not RegioJet. There are one or two “conventional” services as well.

 

[Segedunum]

RailJet, not RegioJet. There are one or two “conventional” services as well.

There's also a fairly regular local service with a change at Bruck/Leitha (direct Wien-Győr locals look to be 0717 and 0917) although I'm not sure what sort of saving this offers over catching the RailJet.

 

[dutchflyer]

IF that she is >65, and as long as UK is not going Brexit yet, she can travel for free in HU (supplmts for gyors and Ic-trains have to be paid).
Note that she from VIE-airpt first has to go into Wien/HBF and then take the wished for train. There are slightly cheaper local (euregio or so) fares for Wien-Györ, but this may be for returns only. She should be able to buy through tickets at Airport (though I recall actual selling facilities there are very limited-the red OeBB machines should also be able to deliver, but may have rather odd and hard to understand ways to get to that fare.
In ages-old cont.EUR TCIV (=INternational ticketing) a normal (mostly now called FLEX) fare Wien-Bp is valid for now just 2 days (was once 2 monthes) and allows unlimited stops en-route, valid in all types of train. However, a seat-RES for IC-trains (this is also the RailJet from Wien) must be made-can easily be done at the self-serve yellow machines in Hu (cost about 350HUF=1GBP), or use the supplmt. free hourly local trains (FLIRT, but these take over 2 hrs). Its probably not cheaper as paying again locally in HU, as fares there are extremely low by western standard.
BTW-if she is confident enough that the plane will arrive that day-most of these fares are not train-bound, but valid on any train on the day and can easily be ordered online from oebb.at with self-print or on smartfone.

 

[cactustwirly]

Just to point out that the RJ trains from Vienna to Budapest, have compulsory seat reservations.

 

[northwichcat]

IF that she is >65, and as long as UK is not going Brexit yet, she can travel for free in HU (supplmts for gyors and Ic-trains have to be paid).

Unfortunately or fortunately she is too young to that advantage of that.

 

[Segedunum]

Just to point out that the RJ trains from Vienna to Budapest, have compulsory seat reservations.

Incorrect. Reservations are compulsory within Hungary as a means of adding a supplement to the cheap domestic fares. Reservations from Austria to Hungary are not compulsory as the fare is higher. I can say this from experience of travelling from Budapest to Vienna with no reservation. Conductor didn't care.

 

[87015]

Just to point out that the RJ trains from Vienna to Budapest, have compulsory seat reservations.

Only for internal MAV journeys, not international ones. Same goes for the few traditional ECs that fill in some gaps, now the Wien-Bucharest has MAV coaches attached that isn’t compulsory res either like it used to be when it was just CFR operated.

It’ll always show as recommended because the train will be a wedge, but it’s not compulsory

 

[cactustwirly]

Incorrect. Reservations are compulsory within Hungary as a means of adding a supplement to the cheap domestic fares. Reservations from Austria to Hungary are not compulsory as the fare is higher. I can say this from experience of travelling from Budapest to Vienna with no reservation. Conductor didn't care.

Right, I was going off the info in the interrail app.
When I travelled it did look like reservations were compulsory, as the reservation screens changed after Vienna saying something like 'seat may be reserved'

 

[Segedunum]

Right, I was going off the info in the interrail app.
When I travelled it did look like reservations were compulsory, as the reservation screens changed after Vienna saying something like 'seat may be reserved'

Yes I had to get that clarified with OEBB- but if you whack in, say, Budapest to Graz, no compulsory reservation services, it routes you via RJ. It says 'reservation compulsory on part of journey' rather than plainly 'reservation compulsory'. Some busy services may be reservation compulsory as when I travelled from Innsbruck to Bregenz, that was compulsory reservation (albeit seemingly on the fly as I boarded without one and just asked the conductor- he said first class was set to have nobody else joining so sit anywhere)