Trains in Europe..on time or not?

[JoAnn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoAnn]

Knowing how late US trains can be... do trains in Europe stay on schedule? Are they MORE on schedule than ours, or, late a lot of the time. The reason I ask is because we are going to be taking a train from Vienna to Munich in July and we don't want to miss our plane! We know there is a direct train from Vienna to Munich that leaves Vienna at 11:45 p.m. and arrives in Munich about 6 a.m., then we have to take another train to the airport and that train takes about 45 minutes. Our plane leaves at 10 a.m. If need be we might be able to catch an earlier train out of Vienna. Any help here??? TIA.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

Um. Haven't been in Europe, other than London, for a long long time now. But generally I would say their trains ran much more reliably than ours.

[Luanne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Luanne]

Only European trains I'm familiar with are the ones in Switzerland. And they ran..........like a Swiss watch. We had dinner with a friend (American) who is living in Zurich while we were there and he was telling us that "if" a train is late it's like a national disaster. Their train system is wonderful. They even have station agents, who are like travel agents, who will plan out entire routes, with stops, for you. That service is complementary. You can also book hotels at the train station. We were most impressed.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

In Italy, you can set your watch by train departures.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

In Italy, you can set your watch by train departures.

I agree 100%


If you want you can inquire on how long it will take for a cab from the Munich train station to the airport. You end up cutting out the waiting time for the airport train. There should be no waiting for the cab and it will leave you right at the airport.

[zdxlc9p6 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zdxlc9p6]

I have used the trains ~20 times in Germany & UK, and only one time was the train running late (approx. 20 minutes). No guarantee though! My use of trains was not to arrive at an airport for a flight. With the lengthy security measures at the airports today, if you can find an option that arrives a couple of hours earlier, it might let you sleep better.

[JoAnn Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoAnn]

Thanks to all...Our dilemma is that we get off a River boat after a 2 week cruise from Amsterdam 'around 6 p.m.' and wanted a direct train to Munich..which leaves at 11:45 p.m., but guess we'll have to take an earlier one and make a transfer or two. But I will check with our next door neighbor who is Austrian, to see what she suggests. Flights between Vienna and Munich run about $550 pp!! Train about $100 pp. Our DD used her FF miles to get our tickets for our trip, but the only way she could get us home was to get us a flight out of Munich.

[eal Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close eal]

Take a cab

You can be 99.99% guaranteed that your train will arrive in Munich at 6 am. Then if you take a cab to the airport you will arrive no later than 7 am, given the traffic at that time of day, with plenty of time to catch your 10 am flight. There is also a bus to the airport that leaves every 20 minutes.

[m61376 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close m61376]

In Italy, you can set your watch by train departures.

I don't know about the rest of Italy, but from Rome they were more like "when they felt like running." 40-50 minutes delays were commonplace when we were there a few years ago.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

It varies somewhat by country. By and large they run on time, but not always. I remember one particular problem with a misconnect in Lviv, Ukraine, due to the train from Warsaw to Lviv developing engine trouble. Last summer, I lost an afternoon in Venice due to a train to Milan running late, missing a connection, and having to take a later train from Milan to Venice. On top of that, the later train was overcrowded and I had to stand up much of the way.

I am presently sitting in a hotel in Podgorica, Montenegro when I had planned to take a bus on to Cetinje this evening. Unfortunately, the train from Belgrade I had planned to take was cancelled today so I had to take a later train, arriving too late to take the bus onward. That train, itself, was 30 minutes behind schedule.

My major sightseeing in Belgrade I left for the last day, to leave a time cushion for my Germanwings flight back to Cologne.

I would say that most trains in Europe are on time, certainly more so than in the US, but it can be a pain when they are not.

[katheren Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close katheren]

I was just in France for nearly three weeks around the New Year holiday, and I have never had a problem with trains being late. I agree with the comment that you can set your watch by the trains. If only the US had such a fabulous public transit system.
Hope the trip is fun.