How to take a train from Salzburg to Frankfurt

Salzburg to Frankfurt by train

How to take the rail journey Salzburg to central Germany

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Routes

From Salzburg Hbf to Frankfurt Main Hbf

Travel Information

Final Destination: Frankfurt (Main)

All trains also call at: Munchen, Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart and Heidelberg

On the usual timetable (pre-pandemic) the RJ (Railjet) train typically departs at 18:56 on Fridays and Saturdays only

Daily = 4 x EC trains per day
*Fri/Sat only  = 1 x RJ train per day

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings usually open: 6 months ahead of the travel date

It can be particularly worthwhile comparing prices on the national ticket agents for this journey - when the cheapest tickets have sold out on the DB (German railways website), they can still be available on the OBB (Austrian railways website) and vice versa.

When making an online booking, check that you’re looking at booking info for the direct trains*
In this direction when travelling to Germany from Austria it is usually cheaper to target these direct trains, rather than the alternative journey options that involve a change of train.

On the DB Bahn booking site look for journeys that have:

  • 0 in the Chg. column
  • EC or RJ in the Products column.

Use the earlier/later buttons to search for the cheapest ticket prices.
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day- so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fare.

Seat reservations

Reservations are highly recommended for this journey, though If you book a First Class ticket on DB your seat(s) will be assigned, but OBB will charge a reservation fee for First class tickets, because they are otherwise optional.
You will have to pay to add a reservation when booking second class tickets, no matter which ticket agent you use.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
DB from €29

DB Guide

DB is the national railway operator in Germany, so its website can be used for booking journeys by German express trains; the ICE and IC trains and it doesn't charge booking fees.
It also sells tickets for journeys by direct trains on all international routes from Germany regardless of whether DB is operating the train service.

It also sells an extensive range of end-to-end journeys which involve making connections both within Germany and in neighboring countries, but journeys between Germany and Britain cannot be booked on DB.

A key feature of DB website worth keeping mind is that it offers 1st class ticket purchasers complimentary seat reservations on journeys both within and to/from Germany.

Seat reservations for daytime in both 1st and 2nd class can also be booked separately from tickets.

OBB from €29

OBB Guide

OBB is the national rail operator and its booking service offers journeys by express trains within Austria, as well as international journeys which don't involve making a connection outside of Austria.

It pays off to book online, as the discounted 'Sparscheine' tickets are only ever made available on the website, and when making international journeys to and from Austria, these Sparscheine tickets tend to be cheaper.
OBB can offer particularly good value for money when travelling with children on international rail journeys, but something to watch out for when travelling between Austria and Germany on daytime trains, is that reservations are an optional extra; but if you book 1st class tickets with the Germany railways website DB, the reservations are complimentary.

OBB often takes a unique approach to its booking path, but a key thing to keep in mind is that the first price you will see for any journey is that of a Second Class seat.
The costs of upgrading to first class, a reservation, or a sleeping cabin etc, is then added to this price.

Trainline from €29

Trainline Guide

SaveATrain from €29

SaveATrain Guide

Omio from €29

Omio Guide

Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The three key advantages of using Omio are

  • it offers prices in multiple currencies
  • it usually offers price comparison with other modes of travel including flights and buses
  • when visiting Europe, you can book journeys in multiple countries in one transaction.

The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.

Happyrail from €29

Happyrail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

On this journey

Good to Know

From Dec 11th a new daily direct link by Railjet will be available, though this train will be taking a longer, but much more scenic route.

This is an interesting, rather than stunningly beautiful journey, though the best of the scenery can be seen between Ulm and Stuttgart.
Though what had been the highlight of the trip, the views over the town of Gelsenkirchen, have now been obscured by barriers, which protect its no doubt grateful citizens from the sound of the trains.

The train will reverse direction on departure from Munchen Hbf and Stuttgart Hbf.

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