How to take the rail journey from Salzburg to Innsbruck

Final Destination: Bregenz or Zurich or Innsbruck

All trains call at: Wörgl - connect for Kirchberg in Tirol and Kitzbuhel

Every other train calls at: Kuftstein

Every other train calls at: Jenbach - connect for Mayrhofen

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

The discounted tickets are the 'Sparscheine' tickets and they can be booked online up until the day of departure, but they can't be booked at stations, so booking last minute at the station is always more expensive.
Though you'll usually need to book the 'Sparscheine' tickets at least a couple of days ahead to obtain them at the cheapest possible price.

Trains departing at different times can also be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.

It can pay off to take a look at the guide to Austrian train tickets - it should help you save time and money and confusion.

Exchanges

No tickets sold for journeys by Railjet trains within Austria can be exchanged in the typical sense, instead the policy is that the more expensive type of tickets can be refunded - and then having done so, you can re-book for an alternative departure.

Refunds

• Standard-Ticket Gruppe; the most expensive type of ticket = You can also cancel and obtain a full refund at any time pre-travel date.
• Sparscheine Komfort tickets; mid-priced tickets (typically offered as an upgrade to Sparscheine tickets) = can be cancelled free of charge up to 15 days ahead of the journey, but if you cancel it with 15 days left to go, you'll receive up to* 50% of what you paid for it
• Sparscheine tickets; lowest priced, heavily discounted tickets = cannot be refunded at all.

Seat reservations

Seat reservations are not automatically included when booking tickets for this journey by the Railjet trains.
They have to be proactively added when making a booking for an additional charge, but they're generally recommended for this journey due to its length.

Note that reservations will also be required any children aged 5 to 15 - children aged 4 and under don't require tickets, but the expectation is that they will be travelling in the adult's lap

Child tickets

When booking 'Sparschiene' tickets each adult (aged 15 and over) can take up to four children aged 14 and under for free!
These children will still require tickets, but there will be no charge for them.

When not booking 'Sparschiene' tickets;

• Children aged 5 and under travel for free
• Children aged 6 – 14 travel at half-fare

Bike tickets

You will need purchase both a bike ticket AND a reservation for your bike prior to boarding; more info on how to do this is available on the [bikes on trains guide](/travel-info-and-tips/taking-a-bike-on-a-european-train/).

Dog tickets

If your dog is too large to be taken in a pet carrier you will need to add a dog ticket when making your booking;

Rail pass users

If you have a valid Eurail or InterRail pass you can opt to make reservations for this journey but you can simply board with a pass and hope that seats will be available.

Final Destination: Bregenz or Innsbruck

All trains call at: Kufstein, Wörgl and Jenbach

Book early and save: Yes

The train service between Salzburg and Innsbruck is split between other Railjet trains operated by OBB and these trains operated by Westbahn
Tickets for these trains operated by Westbahn are not available on the OBB ticket booking site and vice versa, tickets for the trains operated by OBB are not available on the Westbahn site.

However the tickets those OBB (Railjet) trains and these Westbahn trains can be directly compared on Trainlin.

The limited numbers of discounted 'Sparpreis' Westbahn tickets are cheaper than the discounted 'Sparschiene' tickets, which are made available by OBB for the Railjet trains.
However, these Westbahn 'Sparpreis' tickets can sell out faster than the 'Sparschiene' tickets, so the taking the Railjets can be the cheaper option.

Like those ''Sparschiene' tickets, the 'Sparpreis' tickets for these Westbahn trains, are specific to the departure you select when making a booking.

Last minute tickets booked at the station are more expensive than either of these discounted tickets.
Though if you want to leave booking tickets until the day of travel, it's highly likely that you'll save by taking the Westbahn trains.

Seat reservations

In contrast to the taking the Railjet trains, specific seats are automatically when assigned booking tickets.

Using Eurail/Inter Rail passes

Users of 2nd class Eurail and InterRail passes can board into the 2nd class seats on the Westbahn trains without paying a seat reservation fee.

However, holders of 1st class Eurail and InterRail passes should avoid the Westbahn trains, as reservation fees aren't mandatory when travelling in First Class on the alternative Railjet trains
That's because to travel in First Class on the Westbahn trains, users of 1st class class rail passes need to pay a comparatively expensive €9 supplement.

To avoid paying this fee on the Westbahn trains, users of 1st class Eurail and InterRail passes can travel in 2nd class, but the clear better value for money option is to travel in 1st class on the alternative Railjet trains.