In many countries around the world, the
very use of the words ‘joy’ and ‘relying’ when attributed to their national
rail network will probably be one of the biggest jokes you are ever likely to
hear! However, when it comes to using the rail services in Austria, this really
is not the case.
Every time I have been lucky enough to
travel to this gorgeous Alpine country, I have made a point of travelling
somewhere or other on their rail network. Whilst it may not be the cheapest in
the world (nor the dearest for that matter!), the reliability of the services
are seriously hard to beat in most other countries.
To be honest with you, Austria never had it
easy when it came to building their national rail network in the first place:
after all, the country is shrouded by towering mountains; but this definitely
hasn’t appeared to have deterred them in any way. Even in the Tyrol region and
other mountainous states of the country, you can rest assured the network
covers the largest local towns and cities.
As far as the trains are concerned, much of
the rolling stock is actually quite old, but these are gradually being replaced
with newer and more comfortable coaches. Some of the seating areas can be like
travelling back in time several decades, but I found that this only added to
the charm of using the train in Austria.
There are also fantastic international
services to neighbouring countries: I travelled to Munich, in Germany, for
example. If you are booking trains to destinations outside of Austria, just
make sure you stick to the services you originally booked. This is a lesson I
learnt the hard way, when I had to pay a large ‘fee’ for not having stuck to my
original reservation on the way back from Germany.
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