How to take the rail journey from Venice/Venezia to Vienna/Wien

These trains are usually scheduled to depart from Venezia S. Lucia station daily at around 09:55 and 15:50.

Final Destination: Wien Hbf

These trains also call at: Villach (connect trains to Salzburg and buses to Ljubljana), Klagenfurt, Leoben, Bruck an der Mur (connect for Graz), Wiener Neustadt and Wien Meidling.

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.

Wien Meidling is connected to line U6 of the Vienna Metro, which serves the western side of the city centre.

These trains also call at Venezia Mestre after they depart from Venezia St Lucia, which is the station in the historic heart of Venice/Venezia.

If you will be heading from historic Venice/Venezia take care when booking online, or using an agent, that your ticket is valid FROM Venezia St Lucia.
Booking agents can enter Venezia to Wien into their systems and see that journeys from Venezia Mestre are faster AND assume that you want to join the train there.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date*

*3 months ahead on Trenitalia

When looking more than 5 months ahead on OBB, if you only see 1st class tickets available for sale , check back a few days later to see if the 'Sparscheine' 2nd class tickets have been added to the booking service.

Booking with OBB

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

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.

• Sparscheine tickets = cannot be refunded or exchanged at all.
• Standard-Ticket = can be cancelled and obtain a full refund at any time pre-travel date.
  Instead of an Exchange policy the idea is that once a Standard ticket has been refunded, an alternative ticket can then be purchased.

Booking with Trenitalia

The discounted tickets are the 'Europa 1 tickets', but they cannot be exchanged and refunded.
The more expensive 'Standard tickets' can be refunded.

Child tickets - booking with OBB

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

Note that when booking with Trenitalia, there is seemingly no cheaper child rate on its discounted Europa tickets.
Its more expensive Standard Tickets will be discounted by 50%, so booking with OBB is the cheaper option.

Bike tickets - booking with OBB

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 - booking with OBB

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;

Reservations:

These Railjet trains are operated by Austria's national rail operator OBB, but unlike the other Raijet services, seat reservations ARE now mandatory on these trains when travelling from (and to) Italy.

If you book tickets online, the seat reservation should be automatically included.

Using rail passes on the Venice to Vienna trains:

The rules are different to the norm when using a rail pass to travelling within Austria by these trains.
Rail pass users must pay a supplement of €15 in 1st class and €10 in 2nd class.
However, there are two elements to the rail pass supplement; the seat reservation and the rail pass surcharge for travelling on an express train in Italy.

You can pay a single charge, which covers both elements, by using the Eurail reservation service or the InterRail reservation service - though you will be charged a €2 booking fee per reservation, per person

Paying the 'supplement' at a Trenitalia ticket desk is a more expensive option, as in addition to the supplement costs you will also have to pay a €2 booking fee for using the ticket desk + the seat reservation will cost an additional €3.50; as per the info on this page.

OR if you book the 'Tarvisioverkehr Pass1' supplement on the OBB website, the instructions are here, you will need to also select the seat reservation and pay the additional €3.50 cost.

But there is an option for avoiding all rail pass fees when taking this route.

The train is usually scheduled to depart Venezia S. Lucia at 21:05 and and arrive in Wien Hbf shortly before 08:00.

Final Destination: Wien Hbf

The train also calls at: Linz*, St-Polten, and Wien-Meidling

*It takes a different route to the daytime trains, which don't travel via Linz.

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

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.

Click the train details for more info including the rail pass reservation fees:

Rail pass users must reserve before boarding these trains.

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.

OR reservations can be arranged and paid for at Venezia S.Lucia station, or at the reservation desks at major Italian stations (ideally do this when you first arrive in Italy on your itinerary).

Making the rail pass reservation in advance is particularly recommended if you will be traveling between June and September.
If you wait until arriving in Venezia/Venice to reserve, your first choice of accommodation may have sold out.