How to travel from Berlin to Wien / Vienna by train

Share this journey with a friend...

Berlin to Wien / Vienna by train

Not very many years ago the direct trains between the German and Austrian capitals had disappeared from the timetables, but now there are four very different options to choose from when taking the train from Berlin to Wien / Vienna.
When you look up this journey on the ticket booking websites you'll also see a swathe of other journeys which involve making connections between trains.
So these direct trains can be tricky to spot amidst all of those other options, so you can use this info to find them more easily.
(1) The first train of the day is an Austrian Railjet train, which take a more scenic river valley route between Dresden and Prague.
(2) There is an ICE train - but it spends less than 25% of its journey travelling at high speed.
(3) In the early evening there is departure by a Nightjet and this is the train to take if you want to travel from Berlin to Vienna/Wien in a bed in a sleeping cabin, or on a bunk in a couchette.
(4) The final departure is a nightly IC train, it's a train usually used for daytime services, which happens to travel through the night.

Routes you can take to go from Berlin to Wien / Vienna

When travelling between most cities by train there is only one logical option, though on other journeys there is a choice between different trains or alternative routes. If different options are available you can use the info to decide which is best for you.

Choose one of the following options:

Route Information

Option 1: the daytime Railjet train takes a scenic route
Travel Time (approx)

8hr 25min (approx)

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

1 x direct train per day, usually
Due to the length of the journey, this train can be susceptible to alteration

Route Information

Option 2: Travel by day on the ICE train
Travel Time (approx)

7hr 40min

Frequency

Daily

Travel Info

2 x direct trains per day

Route Information

Option 3: travel overnight on a train with sleeping cabins and couchettes
Travel Time (approx)

12hr 20 min

Frequency

Nightly

Travel Info

1 x train per night

Route Information

Option 4: save by travelling through the night in a seat
Take the stress out of your journey Everything planned to your specification, so sit back and relax… Try Concierge
hand-money

Please support ShowMeTheJourney

Help keep us advertising and paywall free!

Donate

This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.

We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.

Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.

So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.

See if there’s a unique journey guide for your trip, featuring info on the trains, tickets & stations.
Leaving From
Going To
ShowMeTheJourney

This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.