Austrian Federal Railways Reviews 225

ÖBB sets low standards, which they consistently fail to deliver, at least in Land Salzburg. If you believe their disingenuous 94%-on-time-performance prattle, then all of the other 6% occurs here. Plan on connection times of at least half an hour, and then knock on some wood, stroke your lucky rabbit's foot, cross your fingers, say a prayer, throw a pinch of spilled salt over your left shoulder and be prepared to wait an hour for the next train or bus.

We traveled today on an ÖBB train from Vienna to Venice in First Class, and the experience was deeply disappointing.
From the moment we arrived, multiple ÖBB employees treated passengers with visible irritation, as if they were angry to be dealing with travelers at all. As tourists, we were given no clear explanation on how to locate our assigned seats, and staff showed little interest in helping or clarifying basic information.
Most concerning was the complete lack of consideration for my wife, who is disabled and uses canes to walk. Unlike the accommodations clearly provided to other passengers, she was entirely disregarded, and no assistance or consideration was offered. This is unacceptable for a major European rail operator, especially in First Class.
The onboard service was equally poor. When I attempted to purchase a simple bottle of water, the attendant was openly rude and hostile. The behavior strongly suggested a general dislike toward tourists, which made the experience uncomfortable and unwelcoming.
Overall, the service quality was far below expectations, particularly given that this was a First Class ticket. Poor attitude, lack of assistance for disabled passengers, and unprofessional staff behavior made this journey unpleasant and frustrating.
This experience was unbelievable and not what one expects from ÖBB.

OBB did not adequately inform me of changes to my journey. I received an email with information that some departure times had changed for my date of travel. I did not receive an email from OBB regarding a delay to my train departure. I re-downloaded my ticket to ensure that any changes were reflected. The time on my ticket remained 18:13. I arrived at Vienna at 17:30 to board the 18:13 train to Paris as per my ticket. The information point informed me the train left at 17:07. I visited the ticket desk where I spoke to a customer support agent. They reorganised me to travel on the 20:10 train to Amsterdam since I could make a connection to London here with Eurostar. Karen did not refund the ticket to Paris; she said it would be better to email for the refund when the cost of the transfer was known. She assured me I would receive a full refund. I wanted to book the transfer from Amsterdam, but the 20:10 train was soon running late. At this point, the Eurostar cost £195.50. The train arrived 3 hours and 47 minutes late. By this time, at 13:45, the only Eurostar ticket available was £421. OBB is saying that they sent communication, which I did not receive. When I spoke to customer service and tried to ensure the issue was being dealt with, the agent hung up on me.

Less than zero train out of service worst assistance, a nightmare

WORST The train was cancelled on the same day and without any notice from Innsbruck to Rovereto with very little communication on the train and only in Austrian. We were thrown out of the train in the cold at Innsbruck (and this is December) with no idea where to go and only after an hour were we offered a replacement bus to Trento which was not our arrival station, so we had to make do with another train at our own expense for all subsequent destinations which were not only mine in Rovereto, but also Verona and Bologna, with the resulting delays. For those who had to take other subsequent trains it was really dramatic and a very bad service, there were elderly people in difficulty, of the series it is like this and you have to arrange yourselves, said in an arrogant and rude tone in the same way by all the OBB employees. I am sorry to say this but in 2024 this is no way to communicate and treat people in a civilised world. One star is too many, the right ones would be -10 Bring yourself up to date inside Austria and open your mind because the civilised world is also (and especially) outside and you are not the only ones in the world. WORST

PESSIMO Il treno è stato cancellato lo stesso giorno e senza alcun preavviso da Innsbruck a Rovereto con una scarna comunicazione sul treno e solo in lingua austriaca. Siamo stati buttati fuori dal treno al freddo a Innsbruck (e siamo in Dicembre) senza capire dove andare e solo dopo un'ora ci hanno offerto un bus sostitutivo verso Trento che non era la nostra stazione di arrivo, quindi abbiamo dovuto arrangiarci con un altro treno a nostre spese per tutte le destinazioni successive che erano non solo la mia a Rovereto, ma anche Verona e Bologna, con i ritardi che ne derivano. Per chi doveva prendere altri treni successivi è stato davvero drammatico ed un pessimo servizio, c'erano persona anziane in difficoltà, della serie è così e dovete arrangiarvi, detto con tono arrogante e maleducato allo stesso modo da tutti i dipendenti OBB. Mi dispiace dirlo ma nel 2024 non è il modo di comunicare e di trattare le persone in un mondo civile. Una stella è troppo, quelle giuste sarebbero -10 Aggiornatevi dentro l'Austria ed aprite la vostra mente perchè il mondo civile è anche (e soprattutto) fuori e non esistete solo voi. PESSIMO

100% trains delayed by at least one hour.
That's out of three trains I took in the past months.
That pretty much says it all. The prices are very high, much higher than in Italy or Germany, and the performance is abysmal.

Sad to see Nightjet crumble.

Another surprise with the Nightjet Zuerich-Amsterdam last night: no bed, no communication, no breakfast :-(

I had booked a single cabin. Last time I unexpectedly had a co-passenger to share it with, but at least a bed.

I used to recommend the sleeper trains as romantic adm green, but the customer service is really too bad now.

It feels like systematic overbooking and a complete lack of customer respect.

Three tips for the OEBB:
- If you can send out track changes via SMS, you can also announce missing beds. I maybe still could have caught a day train and hotel instead.
- You can instruct your staff to communicate pro-actively, e.g. that there is no breakfast.
- You can be creative and for example get a bag of croissants at one of the stops, or at least distribute coffee instead of letting clients beg for it themselves.

Una vergüenza de compañía, mi esposa y yo ya jubilados, mayores de 67 años en un viaje a Europa soñado, nos topamos con esta compañía en la cual vende más boletos que asiento. El viaje de Viena a Praga horrible. No tenía puesto asignado y en la medida que se llenó el tren prácticamente estuvimos caminando con el equipaje de un lado a otro consiguiendo algún puesto disponible. Gente en el piso en las escaleras del tren, una vergüenza. Pensé que había tomado el tren que aparecen en las películas con toda la gente montada en el techo. Personal no ayudó , no resolvió y no les importó.
NO VIAJAR EN ESTA LÍNEA
A disgraceful company, my wife and I, already retired, over 67, on a dream trip to Europe, came across this company in which it sells more tickets than seats. The trip from Vienna to Prague was horrible. I did not have an assigned position and as the train filled up we were practically walking with our luggage from one side to the other, finding an available position. People on the floor on the train stairs, a shame. I thought I had taken the train that appears in the movies with all the people riding on the roof. Staff did not help, did not resolve and did not care.
DO NOT TRAVEL ON THIS LINE

Very efficient & friendly service whilst booking tickets for a journey on the Nightjet train from Austria to Germany in February 2024 for my family and I.

Went to Austria over Xmas and New Year
Bought ticket to travel from Baden to Wiener Neustadt on a ticket machine
Entered the train, a ticket inspector turns up
Show him the ticket, he asks me for my "Vorteilskarte"
Last time I travelled on OEBB was decades ago
As I did not have a.m. card I was fined
105 EUROS
No matter what I said, he insisted on the fine
The ticket machines configuration is utterly misleading - it shows you a number of choices when you have a "Vorteilskarte" automatically when you start
So I complained in writing to HQ
Of course they are not bothered - typically state owned !!
I pointed out that their ticket machines are misleading and ONLY IN GERMAN
The configuration should be so that the machine, after you had chosen from where to where you want to travel, shows you a e.g. button which says
"DO YOU HAVE A VORTEILSKARTE - PRESS YES OR NO"
The current configuration is misleading - ON PURPOSE ???

We booked and paid for fixed seats. This company overbooked the train and we were not able to sit on our seats that WE PAID FOR.

The company doesn't even want to refund us. Even though we paid for something we did not get. We even provided pictures for proof. Awful customer service. Plain stealing.

They don't have support in English on the phone number and I wait 20 minutes until someone answers me, I ask him if he speaks English and he hangs up on me.

I travelled with my 2dogs from Vien till Venice during the daytime and I had to pay 63euro in total for my 2dogs and there was no space at all where they could easily lay on the ground.
The train was full.
I believe that if I have to pay for my dog the same price that probably you might pay for a child than I want that my dog deserves the space of a free seat and he can easily lay underneath.

The experience of traveling in the couchette (NJ 468, car 412, 22.08.2022) car was below expectations. Negative aspects: very small aisle between beds, very small pillow, incomplete linen, companion who did not know English at all, small space for luggage. As positive aspects: reasonable breakfast, functional compartment temperature control. Conclusion: no value for money.

Never plan your trip by trusting öbb.
There are very high chances that train will get late by 10-15 mins and you might miss your next connection. so always plan with margin.

Wow it’s. 2022 and this train feels like travelling in 1982. And In a bad bad way. No toilets working for 5 carriages. Dank. Smelly. Miserable staff (they are the product of their environment and I dont blame them) And that’s 1st class. Where I paid 160 euros to sit in a cabin with bad air con and no fresh air. How do you get away with it OBB? This is a total embarrassment…

Would give 0 if I could. Train was overbooked, at least dozens of people were sitting on top of their suitcases, including myself. It is not acceptable to overbook a train by this proportions. Unbelievable!

Completely useless website. Online booking is not new. It does not have to be this bad.

No distancing, as there were people on foot on the interval, a lot of people without masks, the train conductor didn't do anything to convince them to obey the rules, or to help them find seats, a 10-minute delay in the end, all in all a nightmare.