Czech Republic trip (Spring 2022)

[BRX]

Zittau to Varnsdorf presumably I can buy from a machine in Zittau? And through to Rybniste - or buy that separately?

 

[87015]

No ticket machines at Zittau the other month (or we couldn’t find them anyway) need to use DB App or similar. Might have had a machine on the cart but couldn’t be sure.

 

[ainsworth74]

Pretty certain 'one ticket' and PID tickets are valid (within zone) too.

Small group of us used the 'one ticket' on the KZC from Prague up to Mikulášovice. The conductor on board scanned our tickets and wished us a pleasant journey. It was only two cars (compartment stock) but we (three people) had a compartment to ourselves for almost the entire journey apart from one short stretch when some locals did a hop between two stations.

 

[dutchflyer]

Zittau to Varnsdorf presumably I can buy from a machine in Zittau? And through to Rybniste - or buy that separately?

In these areas of this world it is still pretty common to simply buy+pay (cash only! in most cases) by conductor-sometimes with the official rule you should be first to seek her/him, though this is not that strictly taken. Is valid anywhere counter is closed or absent and no machines either.
For longer trips-or more on a day, there is also a 3-country rover ticket-check site of ZVON.de (the local german verbund) for best info. Also valid in buses and the trams in Liberec. This ticket is considerably cheaper when paid for in local money in CZ or PL as in DE.

 

[Zamracene749]

Yes to all (except I've not used "one ticket" yet)

The 1st class weekly one ticket is good value. Just don't try to use it on LEO Express commercial services, despite what the website says it isn't valid! It is valid on the contracted LEO services around Lichkov etc though.

 

[BRX]

I'm in czechia just now. At the weekend I followed the tip from @30907 (thanks for this) and took the KZC service from Rybniste to Prague, very enjoyable despite some fairly awful weather. There then had to be a change of plan heading south, so took a Ceske Velenice bound train as far as a junction station a bit before Ceske Budjovice where the electric loco got swapped for a diesel. I switched to another train to Ceske Budjovice and the the OBB operated service down across the border to Linz.

Will now potentially have a night or two based in Ceske Budjovice. Could still do the loop through Ceske Krumlov and the mountains - or the Tabor-Blechny line - as previously suggested, any other good options to be aware of in this area? This would be on weekdays.

I then need to end up in Salzburg or Munich. The most efficient route out of Czechia seems to be the one to Linz but might consider ony of the other cross border lines, either the one through Ceske Velenice towards Wien, or one of the ones into Germany. Are any of them particularly interesting?

 

[30907]

As you've done the Linz route, for Munich I would suggest going via Zelezna Ruda/Bayerisch Eisenstein (they are the same station, literally on the border).
From CB you go on the Plzen route to Horadzovice Pr. and change for a unit to Klatovy; there are 3 hauled trains daily up to ZR, connecting with the 0604(!) and 1204 from CB. If you've not visited Plzen you could go that way on the 0804 which would give you time to see the town but probably not the brewery.
From BE there is an hourly regional to Plattling and connecting to Munich (and via Landshut-Mühldorf to Salzburg).

More ambitious, if it's a weekend would be to head at 10.07 via C Krumlov to the frontier at Nove Udoli. There a bus connects to the weekend-only train from Waldkirchen to Passau. Hope you can read a bit of German....
https://ilztalbahn.eu/fahrplaene-tschechien/
I recommend the journey (and during the week you can do the trip to Passau by bus).

Lastly, if you are really ambitious, there is a network of buses through the Sumava mountains. I've only made it as far as Kvilda, which is scenic enough. It involves an early start from CB, but from there there's a 2-hourly service onto Z Ruda (town).

https://www.npsumava.cz/navstivte-sumavu/zelene-linky-sumavy/ but use the idos.cz journey planner which can do English!

(I've just spotted that a round trip CB-Plzen-(hauled)-ZR-(bus)-Kvilda-(Lenora)-Cerny Kriz-CB is possible. Shame I didn't notice last summer....)

 

[BRX]

Thanks for all that, will look into it. I'd probably be doing it on a weekday.

What about CB to Wien (but not via linz) - are there any particularly interesting options for that?

 

[30907]

To Wien you simply change at C Velenice (nice station building BTW). On the Austrian side you might get an MAV loco, otherwise it's a pleasant enough route but nothing exceptional.

The only possible variant is to change at Sigmundsherberg onto the pleasant Kamptal branch to Krems an der Donau (and on to Tullnerfeld and St Pölten on the West main line).

Oh, and there's the new through Wien-Praha service which changes engines at C V and Veseli n L, 754 diesel in between.

 

[rg177]

If you have more time, you can also take a train from Česke Budejovice to Jihlava, Jihlava to Znojmo, then Znojmo to Wien via Retz.

 

[30907]

If you have more time, you can also take a train from Česke Budejovice to Jihlava, Jihlava to Znojmo, then Znojmo to Wien via Retz.

Which reminds me - you have a decent chance of openable windows on the Plzen-CB-Jihlava-Brno route, unless that has changed recently. There is or was a 1st/2nd composite at the end beyond the multipurpose car which is a declassified 1st and quiet when the rest of the train is crowded .

 

[BRX]

Which reminds me - you have a decent chance of openable windows on the Plzen-CB-Jihlava-Brno route, unless that has changed recently. There is or was a 1st/2nd composite at the end beyond the multipurpose car which is a declassified 1st and quiet when the rest of the train is crowded .

Sitting in one right now!
(Between Strakonice-Plzen)
Quite a lot of hauled trains (was also the case Prague-CB) seem to be A/C stock mostly, but with a single compartment coach with opening windows at one end.

In fact this particular train is entirely non a/c stock.

 

[Cloud Strife]

No ticket machines at Zittau the other month (or we couldn’t find them anyway) need to use DB App or similar. Might have had a machine on the cart but couldn’t be sure.

There weren't any DB machines there? Trilex is a strange beast because of how it operates, but the fares are all available on DB machines. I think, if I remember rightly, Trilex also sells tickets through shops and travel agencies, so it's possible that they were being sold in some random shop. But yes, you can just buy on board at any station, they're well aware that it's not so easy to buy their tickets before boarding. Onboard, they also sell German tickets for the regional transport association.

The bigger issue in that area is that there are so many tickets to choose from that it can become ridiculously complicated. I think however, you can pay on board in both EUR and CZK, and they also take cards, but with a minimum fare.

 

[BRX]

It is possible to buy Zittau-Varnsdorf in the DB navigator app, which is what I did in the end.

Zittau station is strangely devoid of pretty much any services. No shops or anything, and it also appeared to be impossible to buy something like a sandwich anywhere within ten minutes walk of the station on a Saturday morning.