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Travel from the Belgian capital to the capital city of Austria by train
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Bruxelles / Brussels to Wien / Vienna by train
On three nights per week it's possible to take a direct train from Brussels / Bruxelles to Vienna / Wien. though there is also the daily option of travelling across central Europe on a combination of two smart ICE trains.
Routes you can take to go from Bruxelles / Brussels 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:
Looking for connections?
Route Information
Option 1: on a overnight direct train
Station Guides
Travel Time (approx)
13hr 47min
Frequency
Not Every Day
Travel Info
Departs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Purchase Tickets
OBB Guide
OBB is the national rail operator and its booking service offers journeys by express trains within Austria, as well as international journeys which don't involve making a connection outside of Austria.
It pays off to book online, as the discounted 'Sparscheine' tickets are only ever made available on the website, and when making international journeys to and from Austria, these Sparscheine tickets tend to be cheaper.
OBB can offer particularly good value for money when travelling with children on international rail journeys, but something to watch out for when travelling between Austria and Germany on daytime trains, is that reservations are an optional extra; but if you book 1st class tickets with the Germany railways website DB, the reservations are complimentary.
OBB often takes a unique approach to its booking path, but a key thing to keep in mind is that the first price you will see for any journey is that of a Second Class seat.
The costs of upgrading to first class, a reservation, or a sleeping cabin etc, is then added to this price.
OBB operates the Nightjet trains and it's bespoke booking path for these trains is particularly easy to follow, with detailed explanations of the accommodation options.
Nightjet Guide
Booking places in the sleeping cabins
When entering 2 travellers as 1 male and 1 female, you will automatically be given the option to book a 3-bed cabin for the sole use of the two of you - the 'double' cabin option.
So you will be in the cabin together with no other travellers.
3 men + 2 women or 3 women + 2 men = three beds in a triple cabin + two beds in a double cabin is what you will be offered, though the cabins will then be male and female only.
So if the combination of travellers is 1 male/female couple + 1 male/female couple and a child, you will need to make two separate bookings so that the two couples can each share a cabin.
When 4 Adults are travelling together you will be given the option of booking double or triple cabins.
If you select 'Double' you will automatically be assigned 4 beds in two double cabins.
Because the Triple cabins are segregated into male and female, when two women + two men are in the travel party, the two men will be sharing a triple compartment with another traveller, as will the two women
When 3 men + 1 woman or 3 women + 1 man are the travel party, the fourth person will then be sharing a three bed cabin with two other people.
Travel Information
Bruxelles/Brussels has rejoined the European night train network, thanks to the restoration of a direct overnight train to Wien/Vienna from the Belgian capital.
Though the service is available on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings - it had previously Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings.
The train has an early evening departure time, it will usually be scheduled to leave Bruxelles/Brussels Midi station around 19:30 and will arrive in Wien/Vienna just after 09:15.
Final Destination: Wien Hbf
The train also calls at: Bruxelles-Nord and Liege and Linz and St. Polten and Wien-Meidling.
The quickest journey from Brussels city centre will be to take one of the frequent trains from Bruxelles-Cenral station to Bruxelles-Nord in order to join this train when it calls there.
As all accommodation on this train has to be reserved, you can be sure that your booked place will be available if you opt to board at Bruxelles-Nord station.
The journey experience is dependent on the type of accommodation you choose to travel by on the train, click on the Train details to discover more about the available options.
This is a direct journey
You will be travelling on one of these trains...
Journey Features
Good to Know
On departure from Bruxelles the coaches heading to Linz and Wien will usually be joined to another part of the train heading to Innsbruck via Munchen.
So if you see a train heading to those cities on the departure screens - the info will also apply to this train to Wien.
Your reservations(s) will be in the coaches heading to Wien via Linz and the train manager will also greet travellers who have booked to travel in the couchettes or sleeping cabins.
Tickets
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open:
6 months ahead of the travel date on OBB
The national rail operator in Austria is OBB and it manages these trains.
The train conveys:
- Compartment Seats (Sitzwagen)
- Couchettes (Liegewagen); 4 berths AND 6 berths
- Standard sleeping cars (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins
- Deluxe sleeping cars with showers (Schlafwagen) with 3 bed, 2 bed and 1 cabins
The first price you will see on the OBB ticketing site will be for the compartment seats.
Using rail passes:
Rail pass users must reserve before boarding this train.
You can now book rail pass reservations without paying booking fees on the OBB website (OBB operates these trains
Though the process for doing so isn't particularly obvious, hence this step-by-step guide.
Route Information
Via stations: Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
Option 2: travel by day
Station Guides
Travel Time (approx)
10hr 25min - 10hr 40min (approx)
Frequency
Daily
Travel Info
3 x optimum connections per day
Purchase Tickets
ShowMeTheJourney earns a small commission on Trainline ticket sales. It can be a particularly good option for: Comparing different train services; Booking international journeys with connections; Travelling between the UK to destinations beyond Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris - and for international travellers who don't reside in western Europe.
Trainline Guide
Exclusive for New Customers: Receive a 10% discount by using the code 24NOV on any purchase with a maximum total price of £100, until 28 November 2024 (11:59 pm CET). Limit one coupon per qualifying booking. Cannot be combined, transferred or exchanged.
Omio Guide
Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.
The three key advantages of using Omio are
- it offers prices in multiple currencies
- it usually offers price comparison with other modes of travel including flights and buses
- when visiting Europe, you can book journeys in multiple countries in one transaction.
The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.
Travel Information
The simplest option for travelling by day on trains from Brussels to Vienna involves making just one connection in Frankfurt (Main).
Making the transfer will typically be straightforward, because Frankfurt (Main) hbf is a terminus station at which all of the gleis (platforms/tracks) leading off of it on the one level, so the connection will simply involve walking from one train to the other.
The time between trains will typically be around 45 minutes, which allows for more than 30 mins of contingency should the train from Bruxelles be delayed.
This journey is made up of 1 change.
Train 1
Between Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel Zuid and Frankfurt (Main) HbfYou will be travelling on one of these trains...
Journey Features
Good to Know
Final Destination: Frankfurt (Main)
Departing from Bruxelles:
The ICE trains also depart from Bruxelles-Nord station.
Tthe quickest option for a Bruxelles-Central station to Frankfurt (Main) journey is to connect at Bruxelles-Nord .
At Bruxelles Midi/Zuid station you will usually* have to pass through security checks before boarding these trains and queues can build up at busy times.
The security checks are at the entrance to platforms/tracks/voies 3 -6 and these ICE trains can be scheduled to depart from this part of the station.
But check the departure screens before heading for the security checks, these trains can occasionally be scheduled to leave from platforms/tracks/voies 7 or 8.
This train journey from Bruxelles to Frankfurt is usually a great showcase for 21st century European train travel.
The sleek ICE 3 trains give any journey a wow factor and on virtually all of this route they're either travelling on a custom-built high speed line, or on a conventional railway that has been re-engineered so that the trains can travel faster.
The fastest part of this trip comes between Seigburg/Bonn and Frankfurt Flughafen, when the train will travel at up to 285 km/h on Germany's fastest high speed line.
Train 2
Between Frankfurt (Main) Hbf and Wien Hbf/HauptbahnhofYou will be travelling on one of these trains...
Journey Features
Good to Know
Final Destination: Wien Flughafen (airport) or Wien Hbf
All trains also call at: Linz and St Polten connect for the Mariazell Railway
Arriving in Wien/Vienna
Check the location of your final destination in Wien/Vienna.
If you're heading to the south west corner of the city, or the area on the ring road around the Opera House, then it's likely that you'll have a faster and more convenient journey if you leave the train at Wien-Meidling station.
Journey description:
This is a journey of nine distinct phases: (the videos were filmed from a train travelling in the opposite direction)
-
Between Frankfurt (Main) and Aschaffenburg the railway passes through a string of commuter towns.
-
Then east of Aschaffenburg, is a scenic and slow part of the trip as the railway follows a series of valleys.
-
As the River Main comes into view on the right, the train will speed up before bridging the river and entering a tunnel which will link it to the high speed line.
-
The train will spend around 10-15 mins on the high speed line as it nears Wurzburg, just before the station look out on the right for a brief panorama over the river and city.
Because the train will spend such a small percentage of the journey on the high speed line, this hasn't been classed as a high speed trip -
On to Nurnberg the train will be on conventional railway tracks.
-
Between Nurnberg and Regensburg the train travels across a rolling landscape of hills.
-
Between Regensburg and Passau the railway line is beside the River Danube, which can be seen on the left.
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Tickets
Online bookings open:* up to 6 months ahead of the travel date
This booking period tends to be shorter when looking up journeys between mid August and mid October.
A choice of tickets on the DB website
Three types of tickets are always available: Sparpreis and Super Sparpreis and Flexpreis.
A key difference between these types of tickets is refunds:
- Super Sparpreis tickets are cheapest, but they can't be refunded at all.
- Sparpreis tickets can be refunded for a fee, but the refund will be in the form of travel vouchers to be used for alternative / future journeys.
- Flexpreis tickets can be refunded at no additional charge.
The other key difference is that both types of Sparpreis tickets are only valid on the specific departures selected when booking, but the Flexpreis tickets live up to their name, as they can be used on any departure on your travel date.
Note that none of the tickets can be exchanged to a different departure.
There's no need for this to be available for Flexpreis tickets, as they aren't train departure specific.
If you book a Sparpreis ticket and want to travel by a different departure you can refund it and then use the travel voucher towards the cost of the new booking.
Super Sparpreis tickets can't be exchanged or refunded.
Seat reservations
Seat reservations are optional on ICE trains.
They cost €4.90 when travelling in 2nd Class and €5.90 when travelling in 1st class - if you add them when making an initial booking the fee will cover both trains.
They are included within the cost of booking 1st class Flexpreis tickets.
When booking Super Sparpreis, Sparpreis and 2nd class Flexpreis tickets, you have the option of purchasing seat reservations later.
It can be worth re-looking up a journey a week or two ahead of travel, because the DB website will indicate how busy a departure will be.
Though in general reservations are highly recommended for this journey, particularly if you'll be travelling 2nd class; it's worth it to ensure that you have an assigned seat for the entire trip.
Rail pass users:
As explained on our guide to using rail passes on German trains, a tick in the box for travelling by ICE trains, is that except when travelling between mid-June and mid-August, you won't have to make a seat reservation.
However, opting to make the reservation on these trains is recommended, if you want to be sure of having a stress-free journey.
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.
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