railways

This morning, Keleti station appears to be operating almost as normal.

The subterranean area which was the refugee "camp" has been cleared up almost completely.

International trains to Bratislava/Prague and Vienna/Munich are again departing from the central platforms, 7 and 8, in the main station area, again allowing barrier access control by police.

For the 11:10 Railjet to Munich, passengers (mainly, but not all, refugees) queued up patiently behind the barrier. The train was shunted into the platform at about 10:45. Then "ordinary" passengers were allowed to board (the distinction seemed to depend on the police, no IDs were requested), while refugees (I would say there were about 100-150 for this train) waited to one side. Then, about 10 minutes later, they were allowed to board. There was no rush or panic, it all went smoothly.

SuperG1955

We arrived yesterday morning from Prague with no problems.

I didn't notice the arrival track number but it was at street level. We were met by our driver before we reached the front of the train and we exited to a taxi parking area.

I didn't get to see what the main station area was like.

railways

Unfortunately, the train situation has deteriorated.

There are again no trains between Hungary and Austria via Hegyeshalom.

The situation is worse than last time in that Austrian trains are not running through to Hegyeshalom. There is no service at all across this border at the moment.

MAV is running local trains to Hegyeshalom in place of Railjets. From the Austrian side, Railjets from Munich are terminating at Wien Hbf. OeBB is (presumably) running local trains through to Nickelsdorf, the last station before Hungary.

So there is a 4-km "no train zone" between Hegyeshalom and Nickelsdorf.

The alternative to get to Vienna is to take the EC from Keleti (every 2 hours - 07:25, 09:25 etc) to Bratislava. From there, take the hourly regional express to Wien Hbf.

railways

From Friday, Railjets should run as normal between Budapest, Vienna and Salzburg according to OeBB and MAV-Start. However, the service will still be disrupted between Salzburg and Munich.

Trains from Vienna to Budapest will start to run as scheduled from today (Thursday) afternoon, with RJ 65 leaving Wien West at 15:48.

Metropolitan Airlines

So looks like it is now the traffic between Germany and Austria got problems.

How can passengers go from Salzburg to Munich at the moment without driving then?

salty749

yes, how will this work now? We have tickets on Railjet #60 from Vienna to Munich next Friday, the 25th.....will we get stuck in Salzburg?

Revilo199

Nobody can say what happens until next Friday. My guess though is that you have good chances of rail services resuming until then.

At the moment there are no services at all between Germany and Austria via Salzburg. If this situation doesn't improve until next week you can get a refund for your ticket in any train station or maybe rebook on the ICE via Passau, which seems to be running. You'll then need to change trains in Nuremberg to get to Munich.

Whatever happens until next week, you can surely expect to be held up at the border either way for more than one hour.

Metropolitan Airlines

I wonder if you can go first stop Innsbruck then Munich? It looks to me that refugees are mainly using the most direct route from Budapest, first stop Vienna, then Salzburg and then Munich.

So perhaps if you do a detour it will be fine? I remember there're trains to Innsbruck without going inside Germany. Then you can change at Innsbruck for a connecting bus into Munich?

railways

That would take absolutely ages. The direct trains from Salzburg to Innsbruck - which normally run through Germany - are being diverted via Zell am See which takes 90 minutes longer. That means from Salzburg to Innsbruck alone takes about 3h 30m. Then Innsbruck is miles from Munich anyway.

The Passau line seems to be the best option, but via Nuremberg would also be quite a detour. If the Passau line is open, best to change there for a direct train to Munich (Passau - Munich, about 2h 15m).

Revilo199

Yes you can, Innsbruck - Munich trains are running. It's faster to go via Passau though, as pointed out by German Railways:

http://www.bahn.de/blitz/view/fernve...bersicht.shtml

Metropolitan Airlines

It is also interesting to note that according to DB, there's another recommendation that you can catch S3 train (Suburban trains) from Salzburg to Freilassing (Oberbayern) Bahnhof, which is inside Germany.

So has that suburban service been cut as well? Otherwise I suppose you can still railjet to Salzburg, then suburban S3 to the German boarder and then catch a bus or other local transport to Munich city centre?

Also I am interested to know if S3 is running how does the border control works there at the moment?

railways

According to OeBB, S3 is not running over the border. The only public transport currently operating between Salzburg and Freilassing seems to be the number 24 bus.

At Freilassing, there shouldn't be a problem in getting an onward train to Munich.

The corridor trains between Salzburg and Innsbruck are apparently operating as normal again through Germany.

salty749

I think we have decided to skip the train from Vienna to Munich at this point....can anyone offer advice on how to get our tix cancelled/refunded?

Thanks

Revilo199

Well, no need to do so, the connection via Passau is easy and fast.

If you really want to cancel just go to any big station in Vienna (Westbahnhof or Hauptbahnhof for example) and go to ÖBBs customer service center there.

They are obliged to offer a full refund under EU passenger protection laws since the journey you booked can not be completed. I guess they have already handled quite a few of those cases over the past few days and weeks so I think it won't be too much of a hassle to get a refund.

stockmanjr

Looks will the suspension will be in place till Oct 4th for now on the Munich-Saltzburg route.
Cheers
Howie