Europe Trains Guide

Budapest to Vienna

Trains from Budapest to Vienna (2017/2018 timetable):

 Train Number
346* rj 162 rj 60 EC 140 rj 62 rj 64 rj 66 rj 68 EC 344 rj 42 EC 148 EN 462
 Train Type/Name 
 Dacia 
 railjet 
 railjet 
 Hortobágy 
 railjet 
 railjet 
 railjet 
 railjet 
Avala  railjet 
Lehár  Kálmán Imre 
Budapest-Keleti 5:40 6:40 7:40 8:40 9:40 11:40 13:40 15:40 16:40 17:40 18:40 20:40
Budapest-Kelenföld 
5:55 6:55 7:55 8:55 9:55 11:55 13:55 15:55 16:55 17:55 18:55 20:55
Tatabánya 6:26 7:26 8:26 9:26 10:26 12:26 14:26 16:26 17:26 18:26 19:26 21:26
Győr 7:02 8:02 9:02 10:02 11:02 13:02 15:02 17:02 18:02 19:02 20:02 22:02
Mosonmagyaróvár 7:20 8:20 9:20 10:20 11:20 13:20 15:20 17:20 18:20 19:20 20:20 22:20
Hegyeshalom 7:32 8:32 9:32 10:32 11:32 13:32 15:32 17:32 18:32 19:32 20:32 22:32
Wien Hbf. (Vienna Central Station) 
8:21 9:18 10:18 11:21 12:21 14:21 16:18 18:21 19:21 20:21 21:18 23:21
Wien Meidling   9:35 10:35   12:35 14:35 16:35 18:35   20:35   23:30

Trains Tickets from Budapest to Vienna? When traveling between country capitals of Hungary & Austria potential passengers can purchase a few different types of train tickets, choosing the right type of ticket can save you a good sum of money:

  • cheapest rail ticket for the Budapest-Vienna connection is the Hungarian discounted ticket called SparSchiene-Fortuna, one-way fare starts from only 13 euro (2nd class) or 29 euro (1st class) and is available for any RailJet (RJ) or EuroCity (EC) train. However, you should keep in mind that number of such discounted tickets is limited per each departure, it means that there is certain quota of cheap SparSchiene tickets per each train, once the lowest fare quota gets sold out next price level (19 & 39 euro) kicks in. Thus, earlier you buy the better chances you have to catch cheapest tickets on the market. SparSchiene-Fortuna tickets Budapest-Vienna can be purchased as early as 90 days before the actual journey (we have a step by step guide on how to do it) and being issued for the specific train & date (exchange or refund is not allowed)
  • passengers who are not so sure about their travel plans or simply missed an opportunity to buy SparSchiene-Fortuna discounted ticket can look into another very good rail ticket option, i.e. so-called kirándulójegy [Excursion/Tourist Ticket]. Basically it's a return ticket designed for those who want to visit Vienna for a few days. Kirándulójegy ticket Budapest-Vienna is valid for 4 days, cost 33 euro and can be purchased even before departure, thus you won't need to buy anything in advance. There is also an upgraded version of the excursion ticket, which includs Vienna public transport pass (so-called Wien Zone 100) for the first two days (out of 4) of the Budapest-Vienna ticket validity. Budapest – Wien + Zone 100 pass kirándulójegy ticket price is 43 euro. Kirándulójegy Budapest-Vienna can be purchased online via Hungarian Railways (MAV) website
  • standard fare international one-way ticket Budapest-Vienna (SCIC-NRT tariff) cost 38,80 euro, but it's doesn't really make sense to purchase such ticket, since you can always buy cheaper kirándulójegy Budapest-Vienna for 33 euro and simply don't use the return part
  • besides the above mentioned options there are also couple totally legal ticket tricks which you can use if you plan to travel between Budapest & Vienna: a) Hungarian Railways (MAV) offer discounted SparSchiene tickets not only for the train trips from Budapest to Vienna, but also from Győr (=Hungarian city roughly half way between Budapest and Austrian capital) to Vienna. So when 13 euro tickets from Budapest to Vienna are already sold out there is still a relatively good chance that sparschiene ticket from Győr (btw, it cost only 9 euro) is still available due to separate quota of such tickets. What you can do here is basically purchase 9 euro ticket Győr-Vienna, while next just buy Hungarian domestic ticket Budapest-Győr for the very same train (at the moment it's 3025 HUF), such combination of two separate tickets will be cheaper than sparschiene ticket of the second price level (19 euro) or kirándulójegy or SCIC-NRT ticket; b) MAV also has special return tickets to Vienna called EURegio, offer is somewhat similar to the kirándulójegy excursion ticket, but only for a bit slower regional trains & only from the borderland Hungarian cities and towns (e.g. EURegio ticket Győr-Vienna-Győr cost 23 euro, EURegio ticket Tatabánya–Wien-Tatabánya 26 euro, etc.), so again, potential passenger can simply buy Hungarian domestic ticket to one of those towns and then EURegio to Vienna from there; c) in case you travel not alone, but with friends or family it might make sense to consider purchasing the so-called CityStar ticket, which is a special return ticket designed for group travelers (up to 5 passengers) - each second passenger pays only 50% from the standard price, while two children are counted as one adult. To give an example, CityStar ticket Budapest-Vienna-Budapest for 4 adult passengers at the moment cost 119,30 euro (or 29,80 euro per person)
  • * train 'Dacia' #346 (Bucharest-Budapest-Vienna) uses global prices tariff system, thus passengers who want to take this train should keep in mind that they will have to pay fixed 26 euro (one-way) or 46 euro (return) fare + obtain a compulsory seat reservation (3 euro)

 

Alternatives? Perhaps you aren't in the mood to travel from Budapest to Vienna using a direct train, then you have a few other options to consider: a) you can always travel by bus (major bus companies operating on Budapest to Vienna route are EuroLines, FlixBus, Gschwindl); b) travel with stopover in some interesting place. For instance, you can travel with a stopover in Sopron or Bratislava or already mentioned earlier Győr; c) you can also travel between the capitals somewhat exotically - using hydrofoil boat, etc.

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