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The number of people taking the train is constantly increasing. In 2025, 559 million people traveled by bus or train, which is seven million more passengers than in 2024. That's the balance sheet for 2025 from the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). This long-standing trend is encouraging, and it is no wonder that two books were dedicated to rail travel in 2022. If you take both works together, there are a total of 53 trips. So you could be on the rails every weekend.
Reinhard Mandl approaches the topic via Climate Ticket. Using the example of 20 trips planned in detail, he shows how you can travel in a climate-friendly way. "This book is not a travel guide; it neither describes "the whole" of Austria, nor does it list "all" of the important sights of a particular place. (Page 7). He creates the book personally and authentically. The 20 routes are to be understood "as non-binding examples". You can do the same or plan your own tours. For the sake of order, it should be noted that all the tours can also be done without a climate ticket.
Mandl begins his book with the end of the carnival in Bad Aussee, which he arrives on time after four hours from Vienna. To do this, he got up early, took the train from Vienna Central Station at 5:55 a.m. and was in Bad Aussee at 9:41 a.m. These travel details, including the timetable data for the return journey, can be found at the end of each of his tours, including the emissions savings of 105.64 kilograms of CO₂ compared to traveling in your own car.
Of course, in 2026 the timetables will have to be checked again each time. He describes his daily routine meticulously, including details worth knowing that are broad in content. He quotes from the book Ausseerland - The stage behind the scenes by the writer Alfred Komarek, who was born here in 1945 and died in 2024. As a close observer, he notices at the station building that "a piece of the Vienna city railway railing with the sunflower pattern so characteristic of Otto Wagner's formal language [...] found its way here to Ausseerland" (page 9f).
Vienna, where Mandl lives, is also the starting point for day tours to Innsbruck. Here he once again draws attention to the advantages of the climate ticket in the author's personal tip section. “If you have a climate ticket, you can also use the Hungerburg-Bahn for free.” (page 23). His daily program is tight, the symbol of the Tyrolean capital, the Golden Roof, cannot be missed, "... almost every snapshot is a success. No wonder it is so popular."
Of course, the beautifully illustrated book - Mandl is a successful photographer - also includes classics such as a trip over the Semmering, where he takes the railway hiking trail to Breitenstein and then gets on the regional train that takes him back to Semmering. On the hiking route he passes the "20-Schilling-Blick" (pages 24 and 29), the landmark of the Semmering Railway. If you don't know, that panoramic image adorned the 20-shilling banknote that was in circulation until the introduction of the euro in 2002.
He reaches the famous Danube loop from Schlögen in the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria (excursion no. 13) from the Westbahnhof with the private Westbahn, which takes him to Linz in 75 minutes. There he takes the Postbus 670 of the Upper Austrian Transport Association OÖVV to Schlögen, in order to then take spectacular views of the Danube meander cut into the granite on the twelve kilometer long Ciconia circular hiking trail.
The highlight of the book is the three-day tour to the Großglockner. As always, Mandl starts in Vienna and first travels via Salzburg and the Tauern route to Mallnitz in Carinthia. The next destinations are Spittal-Millstättersee and Lienz in East Tyrol. From here you can take the bus (line 942) to Heiligenblut. The Postbus 5108 takes him via the Großglockner-Höhenstrasse to Franz-Josefs-Höhe. We return via Heiligenblut to Klagenfurt, where we take a short break at Lake Wörthersee.
Othmar Pruckner, journalist, non-fiction and travel book author, is a declared rail fan. He wrote his first train book, "By Train through Austria", in 1992, and now follows - 30 years later - with "On Rails", 33 train journeys in Austria with detours to neighboring countries. The "travel book" has a clearly defined target group: "[it] is intended for all those who want to take a trip, a short trip, a weekend, or a pleasure trip by train for a change." (page 10). The theme is beautiful railway routes, which are enriched with various connecting programs, walks and sightseeing.
The book begins with the chapter "Semmering a railway landscape", which includes, among other things, the Ghega railway, the spa town of Semmering, the Südbahnhotel, a railway hike and Payerbach-Reichenau. The history of the railway line (Unesco World Heritage Site), which is mentioned by Heimito von Doderer in his book The Slunij Waterfalls, is presented. Of course, the places mentioned above are also described as local excursion destinations. Web addresses are helpful for detailed planning, and there is also a regional map for each travel destination.
Other rail destinations are the "Swabian Sea", where the Lake Constance region including Bregenzerwald and Arlberg is presented (from page 28), as well as Valtice [Feldsberg], Lednice [Eisgrub] and also Brno in South Moravia. Pruckner reaches neighboring Bratislava via Petronell, Carnuntum, Hainburg and Baunsberg. As an alternative, he suggests the route via Marchegg to visit the storks in the March-Thaya floodplains (page 97).
"Lovely Kamptal", from page 147, is a home game for Pruckner, who also wrote a Kamptal travel guide, with stops in Langenlois, Zöbing including Heiligenstein, Gars, Rosenburg and Horn. If you want to visit all the places worth seeing, you will need more than a day. Tour number 21 "Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut" should be viewed in a similar way, where he travels from Gmunden, via the imperial city of Bad Ischl to Hallstatt and Obertraun and makes a detour to Bad Aussee in Styria. In Hausruck you not only go to the railway and mining museum in Ampflwang, but also with Thomas Bernhard to Wolfsegg, Ungenach and Ohlsdorf. The place and Wolfsegg Castle are mentioned sufficiently in Bernhard's last novel, Extinction - a Decay, and we can find a quote from it on page 210.
Pruckner's last rail tour tip is a "pilgrimage to Mariazell", fixed points are the journey with the Mariazellerbahn through the Pielachtal. As a return journey option for sporty excursionists, the passionate cyclist Prucker recommends a cycle tour via the Ötscher region and the Traisental cycle path to St. Pölten. If you haven't had enough here, the author advises: "[…] if you're in an extremely good mood, cycle along the Traisen via Traismauer to the Danube and then you can cycle home to Vienna on the banks of the Danube or on the Danube cycle path." Anyone who has grown fond of the Danube now could cycle on to the Black Sea with Pruckner's book, "Danube Downwards".
Conclusion: "Discover Austria with the KlimaTicket - 20 excursions by bus and train" shows, using the example of the tours authentically described by the author, day tours planned down to the minute with lots of information about the excursion destinations. “On rails – 33 train journeys through Austria and beyond” presents, based on beautiful railway routes, well-known and less well-known, but certainly worth discovering, short holiday regions with numerous variants and tips. (Thomas Hofmann, May 29, 2026)