OBB Part 2: Vienna to Prague

We arrived at the Vienna Main Station at 7:01AM to catch a 7:07AM train, which was slightly aggressive given we were not locals and the train station was fairly large.

Railjet RJ 70 Gustav Mahler
Vienna Main Station – Prague Main Station
Wednesday, Mar 11 2015
Depart: 7:07AM
Arrive: 11:21AM 
Travel time: 4hr 14min

Thankfully our train departs from platform 11, which was not too far from the entrance. It was worth noting that perhaps in an attempt to increase the efficiency of platform usage, two trains (in our case the trains heading to Prague and Bratislava) were departing from the same platform. 

I wasn't quite sure if I had seen such practice in other countries outside Europe but found it really interesting since it could in theory double the handling capacity of the station, though the passenger would have to be careful not only to find the correct platform, but also to board the correct train from the specified sections of the platform.

For the journey from Vienna to Prague, we are booked on the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) Railjet, which was supposedly the premier service of Austrian Railways.

The cabin was clean and the seats were fairly comfortable, but could not recline, dashing my hopes of catching up on sleep.

One plus point of this train service was that wifi was available on board, and free of charge.

The overhead screen rotated between the real time position of the train, as well as the estimated time of arrival.

As the train crossed the border into Czech Republic, Czech police boarded the train and demanded passports from passengers.

It was interesting to note that there were occasional stops in the middle of nowhere, presumably to give way to other trains.

We were delayed by nearly 40 minutes, arriving at Prague Main Station at 12 noon.

While the Railjet was certainly modern and comfortable in terms of cabin furnishing, the same cannot be said for its efficiency. Granted, this may be the fastest mean of public transport available, though taking 4 hours for a mere 300 plus kilometres is hardly efficient.

In comparison, the Chinese trains from Wuhan to Guangzhou covers more than a thousand kilometres in the same time of 4 hours and 13 minutes. The Japanese train from Tokyo to Osaka covers 500 plus kilometres in less than two and a half hours. To be fair the price we paid for the train ride was a mere CZK540 (USD22) each, which was way lower than both the Chinese trains and Japanese trains above mentioned, so I would not be complaining about the speed.