Here’s an odd fact I recently discovered: Unlike Germany, Austria does not mandate age ratings for computer games at a federal level, with each state of Austria essentially having their own version of Germany’s JuSchG. While Austria is represented on the PEGI council, their ratings are only mandated in the city-state of Vienna, while most other states do not prescribe a specific rating system… that is except for the state of Salzburg, which (as per § 38 Sbg. JG) mandates Germany’s USK rating system instead (which goes along with the fact that Salzburg used to be German (or rather, Bavarian)).
What is especially odd is that they apparently coded a specific version of the JuSchG (Fassung des Gesetzes vom 10. März 2017) into their Sbg. JG. This version has since been superseded in Germany (also the relevant §§ 11 und 12 JuSchG have been changed in the newer version). So there's some German law that is only in effect in one of the states of Austria, but superseded in Germany.
By the way, this also applies to the times teenagers are allowed to stay out on their own. Every state has their own rules. And you can't find any logical pattern in it.
Salzburg was only briefly Bavarian in modern history, as were Tyrol and Vorarlberg. But all of Austria was part of Germany much more recently. So i don't quite see the point you are making in the parentheses. Could you please elaborate?
An interesting video - it just shows that German railway enthusiasts are just as nuts as their British counterparts! I remember being super imoressed by my first sight of a type 103 loco, which I think was in 1971.
My only proper holiday to Germany was in 1997. Stayed in Boppard on the Rhein, and I'm fairly sure I took a train hauled by a 103 to Heidelberg. In 1999 I visited Salzburg, which was gorgeous and definitely not as busy as that (it was the summer time though). Don't forget it's also famous (outside the German speaking world) for the Sound of Music movie.
I remember the TEE trains from when I was little. They were still running. My brother even had one with his Märklin miniature trains because he was so fond of them. I just sent him the video. Thank you Andrew for always coming up with such enjoyable content 😊❤🎉
5:50 I remember those waggons. Some 20 years ago I was travelling from Berlin to Hamburg. I was supposed to have been onboard the then running EuroCity train between Prague and Aarhus, but it had been cancelled on that day - due to a fallen tree somewhere in Schleswig, I think. As replacement the DB had put in those old Trans-Europ-Express waggons between Berlin and Hamburg. Best seats I have ever sat on during any travel.
2:24 The Salzburg to Kufstein route is considered the "DB Korridor" at the OBB. There is an EuroCity going from Salzburg to Zurich, where the train crosses this Korridor in Germany into Tyrol and Voralberg (hope got that right), then Liechtenstein into Buchs SG to Zurich. Salzburg HBF was renovated with a lot of controversy, the protected middle peron was torn down, along side with a historic bahnhofsrestaurant.
Until recently, I was working for a company that has its main offices in Munich and Vienna. Colleagues would often travel from one location to the other, usually on the RJX train, which also uses the Salzburg - Munich route. To the annoyance of us Germans, the Austrian colleagues would always complain extensively about the miserable mobile phone connection once past the border and the route's susceptibility to delays (mainly due to the extremely congested tracks).
This reminds me of so many wonderful journeys in Germany & Austria in the early 1970s, using a 1st Class EurailPass. I rode every TEE I could find, and often had a compartment to myself! And that 103 engine is such a beauty. Thanks for the memories.
Next week, I'll be on a goodbye ride of one of Belgium's once most ubiquitous train series (or rather, train family, as there were many separate series which to the untrained eye were largely the same). You're right, it's a very tight knit community, us railway fans, and generally well-humoured people, too. This looks like it was a very fun ride.
Croatia still has those coaches with compartments and manual doors. I believe I've seen some in Slovenia, too. So, if you want to experience this whenever you want, just use the trains next summer when you come for vacation. Good luck!
Speaking of toilets I remember coming here on our honeymoon (1984) and as you mentioned, looking down the toilet and see the ties flying by. Yes oh the memories.
Was great see you cover Salzburg, Rewboss. Hands down my favourite city in Austria and a place I came to love. From September last year I spent around 10 months living and working in Austria, living in Innsbruck and working in Sankt Johann (which I couldn't believe got a mention.) I first visited Salzburg on a whim around the start of the Christmas markets. I was back 4 times, and if I ever return to Austria, it's without a doubt the place I want to live. Everything from the magnificent Festung, its grand baroque architecture to its location and the nature surrounding it was spectacular to me. The story of the railways was also fascinating - I took the Innsbruck - Munich via Kufstein route a few times as well, which was spectacularly affordable for a two hour transnational trip at €29 return when combined with my yearly pass for tyrol transport. Was fascinsting hearing the histories of the lines I took multiple times when there. Excellent video, was one that truly felt personal for me due to my experiences during my time there
American here. For most of us, Salzburg is tied, first and foremost, to The Sound of Music. I used to be married to an Austrian, and one year, we went to Salzburg during the summer holidays; she for Mozart and me for Sound of Music, and Mozart. The Julie Andrews/Christopher Plummer movie was filmed in and around Salzburg, and I gleefully hummed "Do, Re, Mi" as we walked down the steps at the back of the Castle, per the montage in the movie. We saw sightseeing buses for Sound of Music fans, so Salzburg was clearly cashing in on that as well as Mozart. If I recall correctly, Salzburgers are still somewhat salty about Vienna "stealing" Mozart away.
How history repeats itself. The new Brenner Tunnel rail line from close by Innsbuck into Italy appears to be somewhat dependent commercially on an upgrade of the rail link from Munich to Innsbruck. You guessed it the link has not been upgraded and this has been in discussion for nearly 10 years?
I travelled many miles round Germany in the mid90’s in Abteilwagen. Was last in Salzburg in 1992 though I went through it a few times in 1993 on the train.
Nice to see you on video in Salzburg. We live just over an hour away by train from Wels. You're right about the sheer number of people - it's just too much and has put us off going to the Christkindlmarkt am Dom. But nevertheless, I love Salzburg.
8:13 Sehenswert ist die Standseilbahn auf die Festung Hohensalzburg. Die Erstanlage wurde 1892 in Betrieb genommen. Seit 2011 fährt die vierte Generation. Der technische Fortschritt in der Seilbahntechnik ist sehr beeindruckend. Wenn in einigen Jahren die fünfte Generation fahren wird, dann wird sie im AURO-System unterwegs sein (Autonomous-Ropeway-Operation), d.h. sie wird vollautomatisch fahren können, sodass das Personal nur noch für den Kundenservice da sein wird. Wenn man die historische Bilderausstellung in der Mittelstation sehen will, muss man allerdings zur Mittelstation zu Fuß gehen, da die Standseilbahn an der Mittelstation nur für das Personal hält.
Great video, I keep looking for trips like this that take place during the planning to visit Germany and have not found any. Before moving back to the US we did the snowflake express from Frankfurt to Meiningen via Aschaffenburg. Next trip is to Munich with my son in law, he has hardly left the state he lives in and wants to see some of Germany.
There is a line in that comedy "Scarlatti's Birthday Party" that uses this pun. One of the characters holds up one these sweets, looks at their German name and utters "Mozart's balls?!"
i love those old train cars. they were still in use regularly in the 90s and early 2000s so i got to ride in them a couple times as a kid :D and if the need arises, they still use old cars to temporarily replace newer ones that are in maintenance
Lovely run between Rosenheim and Salzburg. I live near Rosenheim and love that ride, except this time of the year as it's mobbed. Kufstein worth a trip as well. Nice town.
9:20 That's a problem that many Germans / Austrians are having nowadays with Christmas Markets. They are so popular now and so well known that the lovely festive Atmosphere and the coziness of it all - the very reasons why people come and visit them - is severely diminished. Chritmas Markets in major cities are pretty much just stress and anxiety now. You are being pushed through it by a hoard of people, unable to really stay anywhere long and take it in. When you go with children, they don't see anything but just people all around them. What I've experienced from the kids in my family is -> They always wanna go, but then quickly get scared, uneasy and want to return home very quickly. Now the real christmas market feeling is imho almost exclusive to the markets in relatively anonymous small to mid sized towns and cities of ~100k inhabitants or less. Or markets that actually charge entrance fees. I used to hate the very idea of that. But now it feels more like of a fee to allow you to breathe and actually stay for a bit and enjoy the moment. In general: Any market that is on a top 20 list somewhere. It'll be unbearable on the weekends and uncomfortable any other day, certainly towards the evening.
I'm not into trains, but I miss the old locomotives. And the compartments! Like private rooms! What I don't miss at all is the smell of the toilets back then and the "ladder" you had to climb to enter. Absolute horror with heavy luggage.
As this seems for railway enthusiasts (which i am not) some additional stuff about something mentioned: the route between Vienna and Trieste was originally planned via the hungarian plain as this was the easiest route. But this excluded the second biggest city of todays austria (Graz) and a close relative of the emperor who lived in the federal state of styria (because by a treaty with napoleon this guy was not allowed to enter tyrol anymore) petitioned for the difficult route over the Semmering mountain to Bruck an der Mur. All the railway engineers world wide they consulted said it could not be done. He hired a young italian Carl Ghega. who was of albanian parents and had studied mathematics in italy. A young genius. He did the main planning for the route. And i would urge railway enthusiasts to take a ride over the Semmering. Ghega constructed many viaducts, tunnels and everything, and it was the steepest railroad in the world for some time. He got a knighthood for that and so he was henceforth called Carl Ritter von Ghega. And he was on the austrian 20 Schilling note from the 60's to 2002 and on the backside was a viaduct from the Semmeringbahn. (the part over the Semmeringmountain) -On a different note, there are two terms in austria for the thing you showed with getting from Salzburg to tyrol via germany: There are two routes, the short one you showed and the long one via Rosenheim. The first one is called "kleines deutsches Eck" in austria and the long one "großes deutsches Eck".
I'm always fascinated when I see how fast they went from the first steam train in central Europe to let's build a railway network all over Europe including trains thru the alps and across all the countries that where still fighting occasional wars against each other. And they made it work within a few decades. Today it takes a few decades from the idea to re-activate an old train line from 150 years ago to run one or two small local trains per hour between cities that have overcrowded busses and desperately need more capacity in public transport.
Fast trains between Salzburg and Innsbruck use the route via Germany because it's much quicker. This is one of the reasons why this line so congested. They don't stop in Germany though and pass by just outside Rosenheim before entering Austria again just before reaching Kufstein.
During the travelling phase of life I certainly enjoyed riding the European Rails (in particular those of the sauerkraut variety) and spent several stays in beautiful Salzburg. Lucky for me this was before the current crush (on person and wallet) since I've always been miserly! So thanks for the toob videos but no thanks to the sidewalk bowl. 😉😊
Another odd fact. The Munich-Rosenheim line has the longest regional trainsets in Germany. Consisting of up to 18 cars and being 303m long. Three Stadler Flirt 6 car units connected together. My answer would be double decker trains. These are being used with up to 9 cars to Mühldorf and being in a sandwich traction of two br218
Attention, nerd stuff: That "more modern car" originally were of the Bpmz kind. B means "2nd class passenger car", which is randomly used in UIC member states, p means "pullmann" or "open plan seating", m means "length over buffers 24 m" (in Germany typically 26,4 m, some dining cars with 27,5 m, and z means "train busbar" (in the GDR they used "ee" instead). There were two variants: The Bpmz 291 and the Bpmz 292. The Bpmz 291 variant rolled on MD 52 bogies with steal coil springs, the Bpmz 292 rolled on LD 70 air springs, but were phased out. Because of later changes, the numbers also changed to 293, 294 and so on. Due to its yellowish interior shown at 1:00, the Bpmz 291/292 was nicknamed the "china car". Many refer the Bpmz cars to as EUROFIMA cars, but they were not. They chared construction details, but the pure EUROFIMA car was a climatized compartement car of the UIC-Z type with Fiat Y 0270 S bogies. The DB only purchased 1st class EUROFIMA cars (Avmz 207) and no 2nd class EUROFIMA cars. They thought to be happy with the open plan seating Bpmz cars and refitted older non-climatized compartement cars of the UIC-X type (Bm 235 with MD 36 bogies, typically MD 365). All these cars required a larger technical gauge than possible on the British Isles, so British trains were and are a special kind of its own.
Re GDR and DB carriages, I was once on a train in the East just after the reunification when there was a lot of reconstruction and refurbishment underway. A rather heavily laden and harrassed (obviously East German) hausfrau with several kids in tow entered the West German carriage I was in (in the middle of a mixed series of carriages.) With a look of consternation, she shouts "Erste Klasse, Erste Klasse" or something similar and hooseled the kids up the train. It was, of course, a Second Class carriage. Just not what she had been brought up to "enjoy!"? 😉😊
@@theoztreecrasher2647 I travelled several times in the DDR in the late 60s and also soon after the reunification. The DDR rail company used a peculiar chemical for cleaning, so their cars had a very specific smell. I have not used the DDR trains for nearly 20 years, but soon after the reunification I visited Dresden, Leipzig and other places I have seen as a student. They still used the same cleaning chemical and it is unbelievable how the smell of the trains triggered old memories.
Facing all the temptations of the Salzburg Christmas market did you feel like returning as a Mozart-Kugel? Anyway, thank you very much for those beautiful images. I have very fond memories of those Intercity coaches and the BR 103/E 03 (BR: Baureihe; series or class). Travelling with Intercities and Interregios in the 1980ies and 90ies was a really nice experience. The more modern Intercity coaches (Eurofima coaches) were really comfortable, even in 2. class. The Austrian railway company ÖBB was even more radical replacing almost all other coaches with modern Eurofima coaches except for regional and commuter trains at that time.
Entered service in 1970 with the top speed of 200 km/h. Meanwhile, in year 2024 (more than a half century later) top speed in Czech rail network is 160km/h and is achievable on cca 5% of the network. In year 1970, top speed was 120 km/h.
No, that mercifully went out some time in the 1990s. Aerodynamics can do wonderful things - and I remember reading that on some early prototypes of high speed trains, some railway tester had a very unpleasant experience using an "open" toilet at top speed, so they decided to open a new charter of railway sanitation.
@miniak2708 We got rid of those in most trains. In older carriages, these doors could open in motion when poorly maintained or when the railcar would twist as they do occasionally. It was cool to open them already a km before the train arrived at a station but there were also tragic cases of doors spontaneously opening at high speed and the occasional passenger getting sucked out. Most modern train doors are button operated and aligned on platform level for better access.
@miniak2708 Funnily enough, the dutch don't. At least not on all trains. I was really surprised taking a relatively modern looking dutch train 3 years ago and seing the traks through the toilet.
We were on our honeymoon trip to Copenhagen in 1979 on the same or a similar train. Unfortunately the image is too bad to identify the number of the locomotive.
This takes me back to my youth. We were all over Germany with the "Schönes Wochenende" ticket back in the day for away games. And the name did deliver. Buy one ticket for 30 Mark or something and drive around the whole of Germany with up to 6 friends. Get shitfaced and get "into contact" with other football fans. These were the days. Also I miss the "Raucherabteil". Other question: The Deutschland ticket is not included in Salzburg? I mean the Bayernticket was for years and to my knowledge still is.
Not in Augsburg: the last passenger stop was Treuchtlingen, after which the train took the Ingolstadt line. It did stop at München Ost and Freilassing for operational reasons, but not to pick up passengers.
That’s not true at all. For one thing, it’s kinda ridiculous to call these „DB connections“ since all of them are run in conjunction with ÖBB, so it’s just as much their trains. If anything it’s the lack of infrastructural investment on a German federal level as well as ÖBB‘s ridiculously undersized long distance fleet. As of recently the cause of most delays is the closure of the Vienna to St. Pölten high speed line due to flooding.
@@ft4709 The issue is that all the connections from ÖBB and Westbahn on the Vienna - Salzburg - Kufstein - Innsbruck - Bregenz route have to go over tracks that are quite badly maintained by DB InfraGo. With parts of the track only being single track and shared with Bavarian regional trains. ÖBB had an horrific year of weather related disruptions. But everything will be back to normal by next week until DB is closing down all tain traffic around Rosenheim in 2026/27. Causing a 2 1/2h delay for Austrian trains for months on end.
@@digitaleswerken The only single track part of that line is exclusively used by ÖBB long distance services and nothing else. But that’s besides my point: You’re pretending as though DB is the sole reason for ÖBB’s poor performance in recent months but in reality they’ve got their own fair share of issues as well, most notably a shortage of trains. I‘m well aware that German infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired but it’s become quite the strategy of ÖBB to blame others for their own inadequacies. Yes, their punctuality would probably be slightly better if the German infrastructure was in better shape. But that’s far from being the #1 reason for most delays in Austria. Besides, it’s just extremely bizarre to blame this on jointly operated DB/ÖBB EC and railjet services.
And 100os of tourists all ordering, drum roll please, GLUE wine! Hat tip to a local on twitter who pointed out that I have been mispronouncing it for the past 25 years!
5:15 But Andrew, you and I and everyone our age _are_ "Museum-Pieces" now. 😆😉 And think about this: when we were both born, 55 was considered old-age. Now, it's not. 8:33 I know that route. My husband's mother is from the Pinzgau valley in Land Salzburg, Austria, and I've twice been on a flight that went NY→Vienna→Salzburg, where my husband rented a car, and we drove that specific route, diverting south on the other road shown, which takes you to Saalfelden. 9:43 Yeah, I recognize that view of the Salzach … or is it the Saalach? So many rivers starting with "Sal" or "Salz" in that part of Austria, I can never remember which is which…
A few weeks ago, there was a vote whether to build a subway in Salzburg Stadt, the federal government would pay a significant part of the construction cost. Less than 50% voter turnout, the majority of people who *did* vote voted against it, time to sit in busses stuck in rush hour traffic again...
to be fair, it shows St. Johann in Tirol on the map. But I was also slightly confused for a few seconds since I live near St. Johann im Pongau, so I immediately think of that when I hear "St. Johann".
Ah yes, the "Deutsches Eck" - weird little historic oddity to the average British Aschaffenburger, but most natural and self-explanatory annoyance of traffic in the world to the average Western Austrian.
Many Deutsche Bahn users would gladly change over to the lesser potential comfort of museum trains if these were only as clean and reliable as the one you rode in.
It should be pronounced KILometre. You don't say kilOGRAM or centIMETRE. Germans say THERMOmeter but we say therMOMetre. Likewise alTIMeter. Measuring devices emphasis the second syllable but measurements have the first. KIL is yank talk.
Both Chambers and the OED say that both pronunciations are acceptable; Wiktionary confirms. As for "altimeter", the standard British pronunciation is with the stress on the first syllable; stressing the second syllable is the standard US pronunciation. There is no such rule that says that the placement of the stress is dependent on whether the word refers to a device or a unit of measurement. The placement of stress is actually dependent on complicated phonotactic rules that vary from dialect to dialect.
In Freilassing, just over the border next to Salzburg.
There is Rail Museum that have 103 on display.
that one even still carries original 1970s paint
Here’s an odd fact I recently discovered: Unlike Germany, Austria does not mandate age ratings for computer games at a federal level, with each state of Austria essentially having their own version of Germany’s JuSchG. While Austria is represented on the PEGI council, their ratings are only mandated in the city-state of Vienna, while most other states do not prescribe a specific rating system… that is except for the state of Salzburg, which (as per § 38 Sbg. JG) mandates Germany’s USK rating system instead (which goes along with the fact that Salzburg used to be German (or rather, Bavarian)).
Federal republics can sometimes be very confusing.
What is especially odd is that they apparently coded a specific version of the JuSchG (Fassung des Gesetzes vom 10. März 2017) into their Sbg. JG. This version has since been superseded in Germany (also the relevant §§ 11 und 12 JuSchG have been changed in the newer version). So there's some German law that is only in effect in one of the states of Austria, but superseded in Germany.
By the way, this also applies to the times teenagers are allowed to stay out on their own. Every state has their own rules. And you can't find any logical pattern in it.
Ok that‘s theory but in praxis games for the german speaking area are usually produced to be sold according to german standards anyway, right?
Salzburg was only briefly Bavarian in modern history, as were Tyrol and Vorarlberg. But all of Austria was part of Germany much more recently. So i don't quite see the point you are making in the parentheses. Could you please elaborate?
rewboss?
covering a train journey?!
my railway enthusiastic heart already loves this vid!
An interesting video - it just shows that German railway enthusiasts are just as nuts as their British counterparts! I remember being super imoressed by my first sight of a type 103 loco, which I think was in 1971.
My only proper holiday to Germany was in 1997. Stayed in Boppard on the Rhein, and I'm fairly sure I took a train hauled by a 103 to Heidelberg. In 1999 I visited Salzburg, which was gorgeous and definitely not as busy as that (it was the summer time though). Don't forget it's also famous (outside the German speaking world) for the Sound of Music movie.
I remember the TEE trains from when I was little. They were still running. My brother even had one with his Märklin miniature trains because he was so fond of them. I just sent him the video. Thank you Andrew for always coming up with such enjoyable content 😊❤🎉
5:50 I remember those waggons. Some 20 years ago I was travelling from Berlin to Hamburg. I was supposed to have been onboard the then running EuroCity train between Prague and Aarhus, but it had been cancelled on that day - due to a fallen tree somewhere in Schleswig, I think. As replacement the DB had put in those old Trans-Europ-Express waggons between Berlin and Hamburg. Best seats I have ever sat on during any travel.
2:24 The Salzburg to Kufstein route is considered the "DB Korridor" at the OBB. There is an EuroCity going from Salzburg to Zurich, where the train crosses this Korridor in Germany into Tyrol and Voralberg (hope got that right), then Liechtenstein into Buchs SG to Zurich.
Salzburg HBF was renovated with a lot of controversy, the protected middle peron was torn down, along side with a historic bahnhofsrestaurant.
Until recently, I was working for a company that has its main offices in Munich and Vienna. Colleagues would often travel from one location to the other, usually on the RJX train, which also uses the Salzburg - Munich route. To the annoyance of us Germans, the Austrian colleagues would always complain extensively about the miserable mobile phone connection once past the border and the route's susceptibility to delays (mainly due to the extremely congested tracks).
Those looks of this didn't happen when our former countryman was running things used to tickle my funnybone as well!
This reminds me of so many wonderful journeys in Germany & Austria in the early 1970s, using a 1st Class EurailPass. I rode every TEE I could find, and often had a compartment to myself!
And that 103 engine is such a beauty. Thanks for the memories.
A beauty, and in its day, a Beast
Next week, I'll be on a goodbye ride of one of Belgium's once most ubiquitous train series (or rather, train family, as there were many separate series which to the untrained eye were largely the same). You're right, it's a very tight knit community, us railway fans, and generally well-humoured people, too. This looks like it was a very fun ride.
Croatia still has those coaches with compartments and manual doors. I believe I've seen some in Slovenia, too. So, if you want to experience this whenever you want, just use the trains next summer when you come for vacation. Good luck!
I miss riding the trains in Germany. Hopefully I'll be able to move back there in a few years.
Speaking of toilets I remember coming here on our honeymoon (1984) and as you mentioned, looking down the toilet and see the ties flying by. Yes oh the memories.
Was great see you cover Salzburg, Rewboss. Hands down my favourite city in Austria and a place I came to love.
From September last year I spent around 10 months living and working in Austria, living in Innsbruck and working in Sankt Johann (which I couldn't believe got a mention.) I first visited Salzburg on a whim around the start of the Christmas markets. I was back 4 times, and if I ever return to Austria, it's without a doubt the place I want to live. Everything from the magnificent Festung, its grand baroque architecture to its location and the nature surrounding it was spectacular to me. The story of the railways was also fascinating - I took the Innsbruck - Munich via Kufstein route a few times as well, which was spectacularly affordable for a two hour transnational trip at €29 return when combined with my yearly pass for tyrol transport. Was fascinsting hearing the histories of the lines I took multiple times when there. Excellent video, was one that truly felt personal for me due to my experiences during my time there
it is also very expensive to live in and as a citizen you'll need a high tolerance for tourism.
0:22 Class 103 and a Bwegt Westfrankenbahn. Perfekt Combo.
Bwegt usually rocks, but the Westfrankenbahn has some issues.
American here. For most of us, Salzburg is tied, first and foremost, to The Sound of Music. I used to be married to an Austrian, and one year, we went to Salzburg during the summer holidays; she for Mozart and me for Sound of Music, and Mozart. The Julie Andrews/Christopher Plummer movie was filmed in and around Salzburg, and I gleefully hummed "Do, Re, Mi" as we walked down the steps at the back of the Castle, per the montage in the movie. We saw sightseeing buses for Sound of Music fans, so Salzburg was clearly cashing in on that as well as Mozart. If I recall correctly, Salzburgers are still somewhat salty about Vienna "stealing" Mozart away.
I was surprised back in 2016 at Düsseldorf waiting for the IC119 to take me to Heidelberg, when this ÖBB run train appeared driven by a 103.
Maybe a bit earlier, as 103 235 and 103 113 drove the IC118/119 regularly from April 2013 until December 2014.
How history repeats itself. The new Brenner Tunnel rail line from close by Innsbuck into Italy appears to be somewhat dependent commercially on an upgrade of the rail link from Munich to Innsbruck. You guessed it the link has not been upgraded and this has been in discussion for nearly 10 years?
I travelled many miles round Germany in the mid90’s in Abteilwagen. Was last in Salzburg in 1992 though I went through it a few times in 1993 on the train.
I was just taking a train in Bulgaria and the current coaches still looked like the 70s ones from this video xd
Nice to see you on video in Salzburg. We live just over an hour away by train from Wels. You're right about the sheer number of people - it's just too much and has put us off going to the Christkindlmarkt am Dom. But nevertheless, I love Salzburg.
8:13 Sehenswert ist die Standseilbahn auf die Festung Hohensalzburg. Die Erstanlage wurde 1892 in Betrieb genommen. Seit 2011 fährt die vierte Generation. Der technische Fortschritt in der Seilbahntechnik ist sehr beeindruckend. Wenn in einigen Jahren die fünfte Generation fahren wird, dann wird sie im AURO-System unterwegs sein (Autonomous-Ropeway-Operation), d.h. sie wird vollautomatisch fahren können, sodass das Personal nur noch für den Kundenservice da sein wird. Wenn man die historische Bilderausstellung in der Mittelstation sehen will, muss man allerdings zur Mittelstation zu Fuß gehen, da die Standseilbahn an der Mittelstation nur für das Personal hält.
Great video, I keep looking for trips like this that take place during the planning to visit Germany and have not found any. Before moving back to the US we did the snowflake express from Frankfurt to Meiningen via Aschaffenburg. Next trip is to Munich with my son in law, he has hardly left the state he lives in and wants to see some of Germany.
Ahh, the Mozart's Balls (MozartKugeln) - one of the nicest memories I have from Salzburg.
Ah yes, I too do enjoy sucking on Mo's balls and relishing in their creamy goodness.
The fact that English does not have a good translation for "Kugel" will forever be one of its great downsides.
You mean sweetest memories, don't you?
@@ahoannon5711 I stand corrected
There is a line in that comedy "Scarlatti's Birthday Party" that uses this pun. One of the characters holds up one these sweets, looks at their German name and utters "Mozart's balls?!"
AH, okay, that explains it. I saw the thumbnail and was thinking: Is DB so down on rolling stock they took out THOSE old things? 😅 Fairly famous set.
i love those old train cars. they were still in use regularly in the 90s and early 2000s so i got to ride in them a couple times as a kid :D and if the need arises, they still use old cars to temporarily replace newer ones that are in maintenance
Lovely run between Rosenheim and Salzburg. I live near Rosenheim and love that ride, except this time of the year as it's mobbed.
Kufstein worth a trip as well. Nice town.
9:20 That's a problem that many Germans / Austrians are having nowadays with Christmas Markets. They are so popular now and so well known that the lovely festive Atmosphere and the coziness of it all - the very reasons why people come and visit them - is severely diminished. Chritmas Markets in major cities are pretty much just stress and anxiety now. You are being pushed through it by a hoard of people, unable to really stay anywhere long and take it in. When you go with children, they don't see anything but just people all around them. What I've experienced from the kids in my family is -> They always wanna go, but then quickly get scared, uneasy and want to return home very quickly.
Now the real christmas market feeling is imho almost exclusive to the markets in relatively anonymous small to mid sized towns and cities of ~100k inhabitants or less. Or markets that actually charge entrance fees. I used to hate the very idea of that. But now it feels more like of a fee to allow you to breathe and actually stay for a bit and enjoy the moment.
In general: Any market that is on a top 20 list somewhere. It'll be unbearable on the weekends and uncomfortable any other day, certainly towards the evening.
I'm not into trains, but I miss the old locomotives. And the compartments! Like private rooms!
What I don't miss at all is the smell of the toilets back then and the "ladder" you had to climb to enter. Absolute horror with heavy luggage.
As this seems for railway enthusiasts (which i am not) some additional stuff about something mentioned: the route between Vienna and Trieste was originally planned via the hungarian plain as this was the easiest route.
But this excluded the second biggest city of todays austria (Graz) and a close relative of the emperor who lived in the federal state of styria (because by a treaty with napoleon this guy was not allowed to enter tyrol anymore) petitioned for the difficult route over the Semmering mountain to Bruck an der Mur.
All the railway engineers world wide they consulted said it could not be done. He hired a young italian Carl Ghega.
who was of albanian parents and had studied mathematics in italy. A young genius. He did the main planning for the route.
And i would urge railway enthusiasts to take a ride over the Semmering. Ghega constructed many viaducts, tunnels and everything, and it was the steepest railroad in the world for some time. He got a knighthood for that and so he was henceforth called Carl Ritter von Ghega. And he was on the austrian 20 Schilling note from the 60's to 2002 and on the backside was a viaduct from the Semmeringbahn. (the part over the Semmeringmountain)
-On a different note, there are two terms in austria for the thing you showed with getting from Salzburg to tyrol via germany: There are two routes, the short one you showed and the long one via Rosenheim. The first one is called "kleines deutsches Eck" in austria and the long one "großes deutsches Eck".
I'm always fascinated when I see how fast they went from the first steam train in central Europe to let's build a railway network all over Europe including trains thru the alps and across all the countries that where still fighting occasional wars against each other. And they made it work within a few decades.
Today it takes a few decades from the idea to re-activate an old train line from 150 years ago to run one or two small local trains per hour between cities that have overcrowded busses and desperately need more capacity in public transport.
The 1843 plan for a Bavarian railway is a little funny because all its end points are outside of Bavaria (Ulm was only part of Bavaria from 1803-1810)
Fast trains between Salzburg and Innsbruck use the route via Germany because it's much quicker. This is one of the reasons why this line so congested. They don't stop in Germany though and pass by just outside Rosenheim before entering Austria again just before reaching Kufstein.
I took the train today from Salzburg to Vienna and I think I spotted some of those old TEE carriages on the way.
The Tim Traveller would love this video
During the travelling phase of life I certainly enjoyed riding the European Rails (in particular those of the sauerkraut variety) and spent several stays in beautiful Salzburg. Lucky for me this was before the current crush (on person and wallet) since I've always been miserly! So thanks for the toob videos but no thanks to the sidewalk bowl. 😉😊
Another odd fact. The Munich-Rosenheim line has the longest regional trainsets in Germany. Consisting of up to 18 cars and being 303m long. Three Stadler Flirt 6 car units connected together. My answer would be double decker trains.
These are being used with up to 9 cars to Mühldorf and being in a sandwich traction of two br218
Andrew goes Geoff Marshall again! :P
Also "train" and "slight departure" hehe.
The aschaffenburg station looks bigger than I expected.
I fucking love trains
Pretty cool
Definitely a lot cooler than just looking at exhibits in a museum, that's for sure.
I Life next the train corridor on the Lake Simssee between Rosenheim and Bad Endorf. It's a nicht landscape in Front of the alps.
Attention, nerd stuff:
That "more modern car" originally were of the Bpmz kind. B means "2nd class passenger car", which is randomly used in UIC member states, p means "pullmann" or "open plan seating", m means "length over buffers 24 m" (in Germany typically 26,4 m, some dining cars with 27,5 m, and z means "train busbar" (in the GDR they used "ee" instead). There were two variants: The Bpmz 291 and the Bpmz 292. The Bpmz 291 variant rolled on MD 52 bogies with steal coil springs, the Bpmz 292 rolled on LD 70 air springs, but were phased out. Because of later changes, the numbers also changed to 293, 294 and so on.
Due to its yellowish interior shown at 1:00, the Bpmz 291/292 was nicknamed the "china car".
Many refer the Bpmz cars to as EUROFIMA cars, but they were not. They chared construction details, but the pure EUROFIMA car was a climatized compartement car of the UIC-Z type with Fiat Y 0270 S bogies. The DB only purchased 1st class EUROFIMA cars (Avmz 207) and no 2nd class EUROFIMA cars. They thought to be happy with the open plan seating Bpmz cars and refitted older non-climatized compartement cars of the UIC-X type (Bm 235 with MD 36 bogies, typically MD 365).
All these cars required a larger technical gauge than possible on the British Isles, so British trains were and are a special kind of its own.
Re GDR and DB carriages, I was once on a train in the East just after the reunification when there was a lot of reconstruction and refurbishment underway. A rather heavily laden and harrassed (obviously East German) hausfrau with several kids in tow entered the West German carriage I was in (in the middle of a mixed series of carriages.) With a look of consternation, she shouts "Erste Klasse, Erste Klasse" or something similar and hooseled the kids up the train. It was, of course, a Second Class carriage. Just not what she had been brought up to "enjoy!"? 😉😊
@@theoztreecrasher2647 I travelled several times in the DDR in the late 60s and also soon after the reunification. The DDR rail company used a peculiar chemical for cleaning, so their cars had a very specific smell. I have not used the DDR trains for nearly 20 years, but soon after the reunification I visited Dresden, Leipzig and other places I have seen as a student. They still used the same cleaning chemical and it is unbelievable how the smell of the trains triggered old memories.
Jey these type of coaches are in avtive service on our rails
2:37 and if there is one sentence that encapsulates the German rail experience, this one is probably it.
Facing all the temptations of the Salzburg Christmas market did you feel like returning as a Mozart-Kugel?
Anyway, thank you very much for those beautiful images. I have very fond memories of those Intercity coaches and
the BR 103/E 03 (BR: Baureihe; series or class). Travelling with Intercities and Interregios in the 1980ies and 90ies was a really nice experience. The more modern Intercity coaches (Eurofima coaches) were really comfortable, even in 2. class. The Austrian railway company ÖBB was even more radical replacing almost all other coaches with modern Eurofima coaches except for regional and commuter trains at that time.
Entered service in 1970 with the top speed of 200 km/h. Meanwhile, in year 2024 (more than a half century later) top speed in Czech rail network is 160km/h and is achievable on cca 5% of the network. In year 1970, top speed was 120 km/h.
1:08 That made me hold my Handy to my Bossom.
5:35 Wait, you guys don't do that anymore?! That's basically the standard for coaches on PKPIC trains in Poland.
No, that mercifully went out some time in the 1990s.
Aerodynamics can do wonderful things - and I remember reading that on some early prototypes of high speed trains, some railway tester had a very unpleasant experience using an "open" toilet at top speed, so they decided to open a new charter of railway sanitation.
@notroll1279 Nah, I meant the door thing. We actually do have fecal matter tanks on our trains at least.
@miniak2708
We got rid of those in most trains.
In older carriages, these doors could open in motion when poorly maintained or when the railcar would twist as they do occasionally.
It was cool to open them already a km before the train arrived at a station but there were also tragic cases of doors spontaneously opening at high speed and the occasional passenger getting sucked out.
Most modern train doors are button operated and aligned on platform level for better access.
@miniak2708 Funnily enough, the dutch don't. At least not on all trains. I was really surprised taking a relatively modern looking dutch train 3 years ago and seing the traks through the toilet.
Great video!
Minor German language mistake at 3:20: it’s “Orientierung” :)
1:00 I can literally smell the image of when there was no smoking ban in the departments / trains.
Here in Hungary, historical trains are still in normal operation, albeit in a less beautifully maintained state. 😅
MAV bought a lot of the DB's scrapped carriages. Interestingly, the old German first class coaches became second class in Hungary.
We were on our honeymoon trip to Copenhagen in 1979 on the same or a similar train. Unfortunately the image is too bad to identify the number of the locomotive.
Well, it'd be some coincidence if it was the exact same locomotive. But stranger things have happened.
Just a small correction: the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not exist before 1867, it was simply the Austrian Empire.
This takes me back to my youth. We were all over Germany with the "Schönes Wochenende" ticket back in the day for away games. And the name did deliver. Buy one ticket for 30 Mark or something and drive around the whole of Germany with up to 6 friends. Get shitfaced and get "into contact" with other football fans. These were the days. Also I miss the "Raucherabteil".
Other question: The Deutschland ticket is not included in Salzburg? I mean the Bayernticket was for years and to my knowledge still is.
Yes, and (1:07) it certainly is not the ”Bosom Gang“.
Ah yes. Gemünden... My Homecity 😅
SALZBURG!!!
1:25 no stop in Augsburg or Munich?
Not in Augsburg: the last passenger stop was Treuchtlingen, after which the train took the Ingolstadt line. It did stop at München Ost and Freilassing for operational reasons, but not to pick up passengers.
@@rewboss so it drove on the Munich Nordring?
@@no-damn-alias No, it went south via Obermenzing and Untergiesing and approached München Ost from the west.
Fun fact: The "fast" DB connections between Salzburg, Munich and Kufstein are the cause for most of the long distance train delays in Austria.
That’s not true at all. For one thing, it’s kinda ridiculous to call these „DB connections“ since all of them are run in conjunction with ÖBB, so it’s just as much their trains. If anything it’s the lack of infrastructural investment on a German federal level as well as ÖBB‘s ridiculously undersized long distance fleet. As of recently the cause of most delays is the closure of the Vienna to St. Pölten high speed line due to flooding.
@@ft4709 The issue is that all the connections from ÖBB and Westbahn on the Vienna - Salzburg - Kufstein - Innsbruck - Bregenz route have to go over tracks that are quite badly maintained by DB InfraGo. With parts of the track only being single track and shared with Bavarian regional trains.
ÖBB had an horrific year of weather related disruptions. But everything will be back to normal by next week until DB is closing down all tain traffic around Rosenheim in 2026/27. Causing a 2 1/2h delay for Austrian trains for months on end.
@@digitaleswerken The only single track part of that line is exclusively used by ÖBB long distance services and nothing else. But that’s besides my point: You’re pretending as though DB is the sole reason for ÖBB’s poor performance in recent months but in reality they’ve got their own fair share of issues as well, most notably a shortage of trains. I‘m well aware that German infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired but it’s become quite the strategy of ÖBB to blame others for their own inadequacies. Yes, their punctuality would probably be slightly better if the German infrastructure was in better shape. But that’s far from being the #1 reason for most delays in Austria. Besides, it’s just extremely bizarre to blame this on jointly operated DB/ÖBB EC and railjet services.
And 100os of tourists all ordering, drum roll please, GLUE wine! Hat tip to a local on twitter who pointed out that I have been mispronouncing it for the past 25 years!
Ich habe nicht erwartet, dich neben einer 103 zu sehen.
5:15 But Andrew, you and I and everyone our age _are_ "Museum-Pieces" now. 😆😉
And think about this: when we were both born, 55 was considered old-age. Now, it's not.
8:33 I know that route. My husband's mother is from the Pinzgau valley in Land Salzburg, Austria, and I've twice been on a flight that went NY→Vienna→Salzburg, where my husband rented a car, and we drove that specific route, diverting south on the other road shown, which takes you to Saalfelden.
9:43 Yeah, I recognize that view of the Salzach … or is it the Saalach? So many rivers starting with "Sal" or "Salz" in that part of Austria, I can never remember which is which…
That would be the Salzach.
Translating the name of the border town Freilassing into English leads to something like Releasing😅😂
Allegedly the name came from a patch of land that was allowed to use "free of lease". I guess that makes it clear.
A few weeks ago, there was a vote whether to build a subway in Salzburg Stadt, the federal government would pay a significant part of the construction cost.
Less than 50% voter turnout, the majority of people who *did* vote voted against it, time to sit in busses stuck in rush hour traffic again...
Not a video about Salzburg? :( Sad...
0:56 WHY WOULD THEY REFIT THEM WITH THOSE HORENDOUS ICE3 SEATS QWQ
1:13 Bosom... Someone really fumbled there...
either that or autocorrect got involved- especially if they worked out he was British
@@MercenaryPen Far be it for me to have indecent thoughts (I tell a lie) but maybe they were missing their girlfriend and/or wife.
Nice video. But one sentence is misleading. St. Johann (im Pongau) is more southern of Salzburg than St. Johann (im Tirol) ;-)
Ah. Well, I was of course referring to the latter, but yes: I probably should have clarified.
to be fair, it shows St. Johann in Tirol on the map. But I was also slightly confused for a few seconds since I live near St. Johann im Pongau, so I immediately think of that when I hear "St. Johann".
I follow three German UA-camrs, and afaik two of them live in Ascheberg… Yourself and “euer Alex E.” - am I right…? 😊
Ah yes, the "Deutsches Eck" - weird little historic oddity to the average British Aschaffenburger, but most natural and self-explanatory annoyance of traffic in the world to the average Western Austrian.
Next time you come visit, reply to this comment and I’ll get you tickets for the Großes Festspielhaus 😊
Also, I’d offer to be your guide around town
Many Deutsche Bahn users would gladly change over to the lesser potential comfort of museum trains if these were only as clean and reliable as the one you rode in.
It should be pronounced KILometre. You don't say kilOGRAM or centIMETRE. Germans say THERMOmeter but we say therMOMetre. Likewise alTIMeter. Measuring devices emphasis the second syllable but measurements have the first. KIL is yank talk.
Both Chambers and the OED say that both pronunciations are acceptable; Wiktionary confirms. As for "altimeter", the standard British pronunciation is with the stress on the first syllable; stressing the second syllable is the standard US pronunciation.
There is no such rule that says that the placement of the stress is dependent on whether the word refers to a device or a unit of measurement. The placement of stress is actually dependent on complicated phonotactic rules that vary from dialect to dialect.