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.