Originally Posted by
an_asker
I am neither a newbie nor super experienced with Europe trains... but this is the least time I've ever had for a connection. We are going from Prague to Vienna. Should I be worried?
I purchased this ticket on Ceske Drahy following the instructions on seat61, and it is a connection ticket as sold by CD. However, isn't three minutes cutting it too close? I am especially antsy because the ticket has a section that says the connection (i.e., the train we are connecting to) is "obligatory" - does that mean that we are on the hook if the train from Prague is late, and we miss our connection? Or does the ticket permit us to take the next train should the train from Prague be late?
Of course, our best case scenario would be if the train via Breclav to Vienna is on the same track/platform - but when I looked at the google maps for Breclav, it appears that there are at least four platforms.
At Breclav, this is a standard connection time between the Prague/Poland to/from Budapest trains and the Prague/Poland to/from Vienna trains. Under normal operating conditions, the connection is an easy cross-platform transfer. The trains usually wait for a few minutes if either is delayed. Presumably, you are booked on a Prague - Budapest train as far as Breclav.
If you miss the connecting train, you can catch the next train which might be a regional express (REX) stopping train, which could actually be preferable depending on where you are staying in Vienna, since it stops at several stations in Vienna before the Hauptbahnhof.
What you can't do is catch a RegioJet train from Breclav if that comes first, but you would be able to identify it easily enough because their trains are bright orange.