21 August 2024
Train RJ133
Operator: OBB
Class: 1st
Departure: Klagenfurt HB 16:21 (on time)
Arrival: Venice Mestre 19:53 (scheduled) 21:04 (actual)
Journey time: 4h43
OBB RJ First Class
I was thrilled to be back in the civilised world of a first class train carriage, even though I had accidentally chosen a seat without a window (fortunately there were only a handful of other passengers, so I could roam as needed for particularly scenic stretches).
As I would be crossing into Italy from Austria there was a supplement required on top of my rail pass; this is €10 in standard but €15 for first class. I also chucked in a €3 seat reservation as advised, but this clearly wasn't necessary (arguably none of it was, I never had my papers checked). I sorted all this through the OBB website, which is a good port of call for all interrail reservations, not just in Austria.
Views were good in the border region - I think I even spotted the Austria / Slovenia / Italy tripoint (Slovenia was somewhere I hoped to route through pre-trip; this was as close as I've got). However the mountains retreated to the horizon as we progressed into Italy - still pleasant, with vineyards and terracotta-roofed buildings, but no Switzerland!
We'd collected some minor delays along the way, but at Pordenone things went badly wrong. A single announcement of ‘a problem’ came with an estimated fix of 14 or 40 minutes - I couldn't quite tell. It soon (well, after 15 minutes) became clear it wasn't the former, but the latter proved optimistic too. I don't know exactly when we got moving, but we reached the next stop, Treviso, a full 78 minutes off schedule.
This was particularly rough as I hadn't had dinner, and although there was a restaurant car (with the same extensive menu as the train to Graz), their payment system was down and they were only accepting cash. Of which I foolishly had none - I'd used less than €10 so far on the whole trip, and the loose change I had left wasn't going to get me a meal.
We eventually reached 'Venice' Mestre (the mainland part, no romantic canals here) at 21:04, one hour and eleven minutes late. Welcome to rail travel in Italy!