How to take the rail journey Salzburg to Linz

Final Destination: Budapest or Flughfaen Wien or Wien Hbf or Bratislava

On the Salzburg to Linz route the Railjet services comprise:

• non-stop RJX services, some of which will be heading to Budapest or Bratislava.
• RJ services which are slower by around 10 mins, because they make some station calls, including at Wels.
  These slower RJ services tend to depart from Salzburg only 4 mins after the RJX services.

Also of you're booking in advance online, the ticket prices tend be cheaper on the slower RJ services; though overall the prices depend on demand per departure and not the journey time; so the RJ trains aren't always cheaper.

Also if you don't want to bother with a reservation, it can be worth targeting the RJ departures.
Most of the RJ departures commence their journeys in Salzburg so finding spare seats on these trains is virtually guaranteed.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

The train service between Salzburg and Linz is split between these trains operated by OBB and alternative trains operated by WestBahn.
The two train services have similar journey times, the difference is generally less than 10 mins, though OBB's fastest trains have the edge.

The limited numbers of discounted 'Sparpreis' tickets for those alternative Westbahn trains, are cheaper than the discounted 'Sparschiene' tickets which are made available by OBB for these Railjet trains.

However, those Westbahn 'Sparpreis' tickets can sell out faster than the 'Sparschiene' tickets, so taking the Railjets can be the cheaper option; the 'Sparschiene' tickets can be booked online up until the day of departure.

Tickets for the trains operated by Westbahn are not available on the OBB ticket booking site and vice versa - tickets for these trains operated by OBB are not available on the Westbahn site; but both services can be directly compared on the Trainline website.

Last minute tickets booked at the station for journeys by these Railjet trains are more expensive than booking the discounted tickets in advance online.
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.

Exchanges and Refunds

Book a Non-Flex ticket or a Semi Flex Ticket and it will be specific to the departure you selected when making a booking
Meaning that if you arrive at a station too late to board a train because your taxi got stuck in traffic, or there was a fault on the tram etc, you will have to pay the full price at the station for a replacement ticket.

The only scenario in which these ticket types can be used for an alternative, later departure is IF your journey involves more than one train AND a delay to an OBB train causes you to miss the departure you were booked on to.

Non-Flex and Semi Flex Ticket tickets also can't be exchanged to an alternative departure pre-travel.
However, if post-booking you subsequently change your travel plans, you can cancel a Semi Flex ticket and receive 50% of your payment, but Non-Flex tickets can't be refunded at all - And that is the key distinction between the two types of ticket!

These terms also apply if you want to use Semi Flex and Non Flex tickets to travel in First Class!

If you will want to have the freedom to both refund your ticket and take any train on your travel day, you will need to pay extra for a Flex ticket.

Seat reservations

Reservations are available, but optional for journeys for journeys within Austria by Railjet trains.

Therefore, seats on the train you will be travelling are NOT absolutely guaranteed if you haven't reserved.
Though the OBB online booking service now indicates whether a specific departure is proving to be exceptionally busy.

Reservations in both 1st class and 2nd class cost €3 per person when booking Non-Flex and Flex tickets, but are included as a complimentary benefit when booking Semi-Flex tickets

Reservations for travel in Business Class cost €15 regardless of the type of ticket booked.

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..

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: Wien- Pratersen or Wien Westbahnhof

An odd feature of this route between Salzburg and Linz, is that these Westbahn trains make the same station call as those slower RJ departures, but they come close to matching the journey time of the non-stop RJX services.

If you want to look up this journey before heading to the station, these Westbahn departures can be compared with OBB's trains on the Trainline website, see below.

Book early and save: Yes

The train service between Salzburg 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 Trainline Österreich; see below.

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.