BICYCLE TOURING IN AUSTRIA

TRAIN TRAVEL

You don't have to be a train buff to appreciate the convenience of train travel in Austria. Service is extensive, frequent, inexpensive, and you can set your watch by it. It is an ideal way to get from an airport such as Salzburg or Vienna to the starting point of your ride or to return. There is every other hour service on all lines, even to rather remote towns. Since most towns are served by trains, you can use the train as a sag wagon or to bypass any area that might be of less interest.

Detailed train schedules for all of Europe can be found at the excellent German Railway English language Web site. Details include whether a train carries bikes. Be aware that schedules change slightly from winter to summer about May 23.

It is very easy to carry a bike on the train. A Fahradmitnahmekarte (bicycle take along ticket) costs about $3.40 and is valid an entire day. Normally, each train has a special bicycle compartment either in the front, back, or center of the train, or a separate bike car with a huge blue bicycle symbol on it. When the conductor sees you on the platform with a bike, he or she will head for the bike car where you hand it up to him and he secures it. Be sure to tell him where you are going. When you arrive at your destination, head for the bike car and the conductor will hand it to you.

Because station stops last no more than a minute or two, I had recurring nightmares of the train pulling out without my retrieving my bike. It never happened. In fact, upon reaching a small suburban Salzburg station, I became disoriented and headed the wrong direction. By the time we reached the rear of the train and turned around when we realized we had gone the wrong way, the conductor had begun unloading the bikes in the front. We reached the front before all six bikes had been unloaded. Train personnel don't seem to treat bicycles as a nuisance or bike riders as freaks. Everybody rides them.

There are several classes of trains:

• Euro city, Euro night (EC, EN) - International express trains that normally don't carry bikes except as checked baggage (all the guide books say that it takes checked baggage several days to reach the destination).

• D Trains  - 2nd class overnight international trains that carry coaches with reclining seats, sleeping cars, and couchettes.  The latter compartments with 6 bunks for sleeping arranged in two tiers.  D trains do not carry bikes.

• Inter City (IC) - fast trains on the main routes. In addition to the Fahradmitnahmekarte, a seat reservation is required.   Bicycles are carried in the baggage car, which is always in the center of the train and can be recognized by a windowless door in the middle of the car.  Reservations are required because only 7 bikes are allowed per stop, not because of a lack of space but because of a time constraint.  IC's stop only for about 2 minutes, even at the largest cities.   

• Eilzug (E) - express trains. They make fewer stops than the regional trains, but more than the IC's. No reservation is necessary to carry a bike.  No reservation is necessary to carry a bike; and the bike compartment is in the front or rear of the train.

• Regionalbahn (R) - locals that stop at every station; the only service in remote areas and the only way to get to small stations on the main lines. No reservation is necessary to carry a bike; and the bike compartment is in the front or rear of the train.  They are also more loosely operated: on two occasions, the train backed up to drop off passengers who missed a stop. The first was a student group on their way to camp; and the second was a single little old lady.

• Snellbahn (S-Bahn) - suburban trains in larger cities. The only city in Austria with an S-Bahn system is Vienna.  You can bring bikes onto any car, except during rush hour.   S-bahn's in Munich, Germany had bike compartments at both the front and rear; and bikes were free, except during rush hour.

The seat reservations, which can be obtained for a nominal charge, are only required in Austria for sleeping accomodations (and carrying a bike on IC's). I never found them necessary, at least in June and September when I normally travel in Europe.