20 August 2024
Today's goal was simple: get to the checkpoint in Graz, Austria. And it would only take me 3 trains…


Train SBA 5742
Operator: OBB
Class: 2nd
Departure: St. Margrethen 08:25 (scheduled) 08:30 (actual)
Arrival: Bregenz 08:40 (scheduled) 08:44 (actual)
Journey time: 14m




Although I wasn't quite in Austria yet, I started today's journey on a service from their national train operator, OBB. This local train was standard class only, and although it looked good, the seats were of the ironing board variety and enforced a very upright posture. So I was glad to be travelling for just a quarter hour. A minute in, I crossed the border.


Train RE5561
Operator: OBB
Class: 2nd
Departure: Bregenz 09:11 (on time)
Arrival: Feldkirch 09:42 (scheduled) 09:41 (actual)
Journey time: 30m


​​​​So you can imagine my disappointment when an identical train turned up for the next leg. This one was made worse by a crowd of children presumably on a school trip. But I'll award a bonus point for reaching my destination early.


Feldkirch is tantalisingly close to both a micronation - Liechtenstein - and a tripoint. Ordinarily I’d at least take a step into each, but I am here for a very specific train (and had pressed on from Zurich last night to make the connection realistic today). So I didn't even leave the station.


Train EC163
Operator: SBB
Class: 1st (panoramic car)
Departure: Feldkirch 10:17 (scheduled) 10:20 (actual)
Arrival: Graz 18:14 (scheduled) 18:13 (actual)
Journey time: 7h53

So this is it, the big one - almost an entire working day to be spent on a single train (if only my job were travel writer).



EC163 First class panoramic car

EC163 First class panoramic car


EC163 First class



As soon as I had spotted the words ‘panoramic car’ on the rail planner app, I knew this was the route to take. I couldn’t find a way to reserve seating online; when boarding I found some places were indeed assigned, but I was able to claim a vacant solo seat and it never got busy enough to gain a facing seatmate.

As with yesterday’s alpine adventures, it’s impossible to do the scenery justice, be it through words or photos. There are subtle differences between Switzerland and Austria - the valleys here were wider, the mountain backdrop rockier - but I was fine with broadly getting more of the same.






Given the length of the trip I made a couple of visits to the dining car. The restaurant section is an old-school affair with freestanding tables and chairs; there’s also a takeaway counter.

At midday it looked like it would take a while to get a table, so I collected a pork schnitzel Kaiser roll to enjoy back in the observation car:




Suspecting the kitchen might close a bit before arrival, I returned around 4:45 and made an order for table service - sure enough, all the menus were cleared at 5. This time I chose the Goulash, described as

Goulash soup „grandma Schueller“ with beef, smoked sausage, root vegetables, potatoes and marjoram. Big portion served with a Kaiser roll


EC163 Restaurant seating

Grandma's goulash


I’m not sure I’d call it a big portion, but it proved pretty filling anyway!

Meals aren’t included, even for first class, but my two orders were 8 euros each, which seems fair. You can find the full menu here.

Generally speaking, the hours flew by - for me. Two small children were less interested in the world beyond our massive windows, and had regular screaming fits. I could have done without that, but otherwise this was an excellent way to cross most of Austria in one sitting.