OBB RailJet Train At Budapest Station

Austria’s Railjet train

We decided to experience the Railjet service between Budapest and Vienna so that we could experience how this high speed service compares in ride and service quality with that offered by other rail providers.
The OBB Railjet train is defined by the Austrian Railway System Provider OBB to stand for speed, comfort, design, top modern equipment and a completely new service concept.
It is interesting to note that due to the fact that much of the travel of the railjet train service is in neighboring countries, the railjet concept doesn’t rely upon the inclusion the locomotive as a part of the overall design concept.
Whilst the Thalys, ICE and Eurostar trains have a design that integrates the locomotive tightly into the overall design of the overall train profile, our trip from Budapest to Vienna had a Hungarian locomotive attached to the Railjet carriages in a more conventional configuration.
Once the train reached the Austrian border, one of the Railjet locomotives replaced the Hungarian engine, and so the train arrived into Vienna looking much more streamlined than it did when it left Budapest.
We were extremely impressed with the first class layout and configuration of the Railjet carriage. The interior of the train was subtly colored, and the quality of the seats and configuration of tables between facing pairs of seats was well appreciated.
The only thing that we did notice was that as a part of the exterior design elements of this train, the word “Railjet” is emblazoned across the sided of the carriages, and as a result, some seats had window views somewhat obstructed by the lettering attached to the outside of the train.
Railjet is different to many other services across Europe in that it offers 3 grades of train travel, Economy, First and Premium.
Premium class is a different level of train travel  service and features comfortable leather armchairs with foot rests, arranged into semi-partitioned compartments containing 2, 3 or 4 seats each.
The premium class fare, which costs 25 euros more than First Class, includes snacks and soft drinks.
We travelled in first class, however, since the sector was only about about 3 hours, and there was no need to upgrade to the premium level.
Even in first class, the seating was extremely comfortable, a luggage storage space was also provided, resulting in a much less congested passenger space and we were also impressed with the information screen at the end of each section of the train carriage.
This screen updated regularly with a map of the route travelled, showing the current position of the train, information about the stations on the route, including major transfer options, and a speedometer that indicated how fast we were travelling at an time. Although we didn’t exceed 160 km/h during our trip, I understand that speeds of 200 km/h are not uncommon on some of the lines.
We were also well looked after by a train attendant who was able to provide advice and offer any assistance we needed.
We really enjoyed our travel on Railjet, and would strongly recommend it to anybody looking to travel by rail in or out of Austria.
Once we arrived into Vienna (at Meidling station), we needed to transfer to Vienna’s Ostbahn station for our rail journey north to Bratislava.
This required 2 train changes.
At Meidling, we needed to find our way to another platform, and managed to make our connection by the skin of our teeth. In fact, we believe that the conductor may have held up the departure of the S-Bahn train by 30 seconds to allow us on board.
A couple of stops later we had arrived at the Ostbahn S-Bahn station (an underground station). From here, we needed to locate a lift to bring both us and our luggage up to street level.
At the present time, Vienna’s rail system is in a major state of change. The task of replacing a number of stations with a central Vienna Railway Station is underway. This project has a time frame of some 2.5 years. As a result of these changes, most of the old Ostbahn railway station has now been demolished to make way for the new lines and structure that will eventually steer rail traffic from the south, east and west of Vienna into a central point.
Of course, this means that the task of traveling from on line to another is not easy at present.
As a result, we needed to lug our belongings across several streets and a bus station towards the only street level component of the original Ostbahn infrastructure.
We arrived at our regional express train to Bratislava again with only seconds to spare (about 60 seconds in this case).
The REX train from Vienna Sudbahnhof (Ostbahn) to Bratislava did not seem to be quite the level of express that we had anticipated. I think that I counted some 10 stations that we stopped at along the 60 km route.
One of the things that anybody traveling on a Eurail Pass should be aware of is that Slovakia has not yet joined up with the Eurail system. As a result, your Eurail Pass will not cover any rail trips in Slovakia itself.
Once we traveled across the border, we were asked to purchase a ticket to cover our journey to Bratislava. For the two of us, this ticket cost just 4.20 euros. However, had we elected to travel on a more direct service form Budapest to Bratislava (and miss the trip on the Railjet train), then the cost from the border would have been something like 30 euros each.
We traveled in that section of the last carriage that is normally reserved for bicycles, wheelchairs and luggage storage, and therefore had little chance to enjoy such comforts that the REX train may have had on offer – although from what we were able to see, these were precious little.

All in all, the contrast between the luxury of the OBB Railjet and the austerity of the REX train service to Bratislava was quite noticeable.

Budapest's Parliament Buildings

We have just finished a 2-day stay in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

We have enjoyed great weather in all of our destinations in Europe so far, but have to say that this morning’s weather in Budapest looks a little threatening, with some showers forecast for later today.

At this stage, we’ll just have to see how much longer our luck holds out in terms of near perfect spring weather.

Upon our arrival into Budapest (via Keleti Station) we were once again confronted by a scary taxi ride. This time, the driver had to take us across the Danube River from Pest to Buda.

The aggressive driving shown by this driver made me very happy that we hadn’t decided to rent a vehicle during this part of the trip, since the chances of having to return the vehicle and try to explain body damage (to the vehicle or to us) would have been quite high.

Whilst we eventually arrived at the correct destination, the driver’s need to search for locations on his vehicle mounted GPS device whilst driving through the heavy traffic streams around Budapest made us doubt this on several occasions.

Our accommodations were at the amazing Buda Hill Apartments, a short walking distance from the Buda Castle and close to the Mamut (Mammoth) shopping center and to Muskova Metro Station.

The building is absolutely amazing, with a mix of the traditional curves and domes of the Byzantine style with parallel elements which fit much more within the modernist architectural outlooks. This makes it a definite Budapest landmark.

The result is a building with vast numbers of nooks and crannies, where each apartment will have a different outlook and where relatively few spaces are of the simple rectangular shape that we tend to take for granted.

We chose this particular location because it met our basic requirements for our accommodation units: complimentary wireless internet, good locations for access to tourism sites and shopping facilities and either breakfast included or self contained accommodation.

Overall, we enjoyed Buda Hill Apartments, although the washing machine almost had the better of us at first. The control symbols were far from obvious, and it turned out that under some circumstances the bowl would never actually empty, and the washing cycle would then continue for ever (or until we became sick of this and went to find a copy of a user’s guide from reception.

One odd thing that we observed during our stay in Budapest was that reception was only open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, and that the staffing during these times consisted of one receptionist accompanied by a security guard who tended to pass away the time by watching a small television receiver.

Budapest is well served by public transport, with trains, trams, trolley buses and an underground metro service that is notable in being the first underground railway on the continent.

The contrast between different modes of transport in Budapest is quite marked, from the carriages in the metro, that seem to remain relatively unchanged in well over half a century to the ultra-modern 6 section trams that seem more like small trains than trams.

The City of Budapest is unique in a number of ways:

• it claims to have Europe’s largest parliament
• Europe’s first underground railway system
• the continent’s largest functioning synagogue
• still operating Turkish baths – 12 medicinal baths, 100 thermal springs

Budapest also boasts an incredibly diverse range of special buildings and unique architectural styles.

Wandering around Budapest, you’ll be able to find the remains of Roman fortresses and buildings, gothic and baroque buildings, a wide range of Art Nouveau styles and some emerging examples of contemporary architecture.

Belgrade - night view - courtesy awams.com

The prehistory of the region dates back to some 6000 years B.C., when Starcevo culture resulted in an early farming settlement across the river from the present site of Belgrade.

Following many changes in the make-up of the region and its inhabitants, the region occupied by the Kalamegdan Gardens become the north western outpost of the Eastern Roman Empire in about 400 A.D.

The region now known as Serbia has changed hands so many times in the intervening 1600 years or so that it is almost impossible to keep up with who has been in control at any given time.

Since the beginning of the second world war, Belgrade has been bombed by the Germans, the Americans and NATO. Following WW2, Belgrade was liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet Red Army, and the installation of President Tito as the ruler of Yugoslavia saw the beginning of many years of socialist rule in the region, only terminated with the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

As a result of the many upheavals in its recent history, Belgrade has found itself with a significant task ahead of itself when it comes to moving itself, its inhabitants and its reputation into the world of tourism and freedom of travel.

Many have stated that in the past, Serbia has suffered from something of an image problem, and whilst Milosevic and his cohorts are no longer in the picture, many Serbs will still believe that the outside world considers them to be the “scourge of the Balkans”.

However, this attitude has changed somewhat over the intervening years, and many parts of Serbia including Belgrade (or Beograd as it has been traditionally known), have begun to see that it to everybody’s advantage to invite foreigners into their environment.

However, after some 36 hours spent doing our best to do the tourist thing in Belgrade, we have to admit a little frustration.

We’ve really enjoyed those things that we have managed to experience, but nevertheless have found ourselves working very hard indeed to find out how to locate most of the experiences that Belgrade has on offer.

We arrived at our accommodation in the evening, and after leaving our belongings, decided to spend some time exploring the region around the hotel (Stari Grad). We wandered in a northerly direction up Balkanska towards Terasije, considered to be the central square of Beograd.

A prime example of the problem in following up on tourism support is exemplified by the Belgrade website: http://beograd.rs – when we visit this site and select “Discover Belgrade/Tourism” we discover 4 links, none of which are operational.

We followed this up by visiting the Tourist Organization Of Belgrade site: http://tob.rs . This site was able to tell us something about sightseeing in Belgrade, but very little of which was of much use. For example, the city tour double decker buses only operate from May to October – our visit was in late April. Similarly most walking tours of the city only run on one or two days a week, and in many cases only on one day per month.

There is a free tram service that allows the visitor to discover more about the city and what it has to offer, but it has to be pre-booked, and only operates on Fridays and Saturdays (we were there on a Thursday).

When we visited a tourist information center to find out more, we were offered a map of the city, but found that this was not of the highest accuracy, nor did it incorporate public transport information and street information on a single map.

As a result, we bumbled our way around those parts of Belgrade that we could reach, and enjoyed those that we were able to find.

We are both of the very strong belief that what is sorely needed in Belgrade is for some authority to appoint an outside person or body to spend some time in the city, recommend those things that would combine to bring a brand new tourist culture to the city, and to have sufficient pull to convince groups such as the public transport authorities that the introduction of limited time multi- sector ticketing arrangements combined with informative information services (both online and on paper) would provide a whole new source of ticketing revenue to their systems.

Whilst we have enjoyed our time in Belgrade, we consider that the amount of work required in order to get the most out of the city is too much for a short stay.

We’d love to see the result should some group be capable of instilling a more effective tourism oriented culture into Belgrade and indeed all of Serbia.

Our recommendation for those planning to visit this city as an independent traveler is to undertake all of the needed research before you arrive, so that you are not left frustrated after your arrival.

Tren Italia train service 9715

Train 9715 is an express service to Venezia – the trip lasts about 2 hours.

First class reserved seating is excellent on this train, with facing seats, power for computers, chargers, etc.

We happen to be in seats 91 and 92, rather than in seat 61. Although this means that we’re at one end of the carriage, this has offered us a chance to store our luggage behind the seat, rather than needing to heft it up onto the overhead racks.

This train is clean, so the windows do offer a clear view out, and should be able to get some photographs en route.

We’ve noted that announcements are made in both Italian and English – so we have some idea of what is going on.

It’s interesting to note the number of Italian flags hanging from many of the flats and other accommodation units as we pass through the suburban regions of Torino and Milan. The people who live here are obviously very proud of their heritage.

The land around Milan seems very flat. We noticed on the way into Milan a large number of what looked a little like rice paddies, full of water. It would be interesting to find out what the purpose of these may be.

As we pass through the surrounding agricultural areas, we can recognise canola amongst the crops, a number of market gardens with hot houses and quite a significant amount of land let to fallow, and others with new crops just breaking through the surface of the soil with summer approaching.

Travelling by rail is certainly an improvement upon driving yourself around Europe – you can let somebody else get you to your destination on time and in a much more relaxed state.

The express train services are also much faster than private car, and you can often enjoy views that wouldn’t be available when travelling along the major roadways.

A nice touch has been the opportunity to enjoy a complimentary drink and snack as a part of the first class service. We have each enjoyed a glass of Berlucchi Vintage 2004 sparkling wine. Try doing that while you’re driving.

After a brief stop at Brescia, the route ran through a substantial area that combined light industrial activity with some market gardening.

Further along, we began to see many vineyards, and were lucky enough to glimpse Lake Garda in the distance. This brought back memories of a previous trip when we spent a week or so at Valpolicella just north of Verona, enjoying some local wine and and visiting Lake Garda during our stay.

Following a stop at Verona, the train is travelling towards Padua, and eventually stopping at Venezia, St Lucia. We alight at Venezia Mestre however in preparation for the next leg of our tour.

This trip is of course a reminder of many of Shakespeare’s classics, including Romeo And Juliet, The Merchant Of Venice and Two Gentlemen Of Verona.