Thursday, December 20, 2007

Train stations

I saw two more Austrian train stations on my trip from Bratislava to Salzburg. After arriving from Bratislava at the Vienna Sudbanhof (South Station) , I took a regional train west to the Hütteldorf station on the western side of Vienna to pick up the train west to Salzburg. A ticket inspector came through the regional train on the return trip, the first time I've encountered one in the Vienna public transportation system.

Hütteldorf is a charming little station, with just a few tracks. The beautiful interior is impeccably maintained. The escalator goes up, but you have to use the stairs to go down. Fortunately, the station is so small, my train left from a platform on street level adjacent to the terminal, so I didn't need them.





As with all the Austrian train stations, there is an outdoor smoking area on the platform, with bi-lingual signs. Smoking is prohibited completely at the Bratislava and Prague stations, even on the platforms. All trains are completely non-smoking now, although a few outdated signs for smoking sections have yet to be removed.





At the Salzburg station most tracks have easy access at street level. That escalater goes up, while stairs are for going down, but I didn't need either. Burger King is at the station, while McDonald's has an outlet on the main shopping street in Salzburg.


The tourist information office at the Salzburg station will sell you a travel pass or a Salzburg Card so you can take a city bus into town. The Salzburg card is valid for unlimited public transportation, as well as free admission to most of the tourist attractions, and I recommend it highly. This office takes credit cards, and the clerks speak English. The city buses are right outside the station, and several lines go straight into town. Couldn't be easier.

Tourist tip: My favorite web site for figuring out train schedules is the English-language site of the German rail system. The rail schedules for all the European train systems are in their database, and it's very easy to use. The prices they quote are actually higher than I paid at the ticket counter; perhaps they are adding a service charge for buying tickets from the site. Click "timetable-tickets" in the upper-left to use their search capabilities:


NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.

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