Vienna to Zurich by train
Wien Hauptbahnhof → Zürich HB
Trains link Vienna (Wien Hauptbahnhof) and Zurich (Zürich HB) in about 8h 09m at best, with at least 1 change along the way. The corridor is part of the Nightjet (780 km, typically ≈ 9 h), one of 1562 routes plotted in the World Train Map atlas.
- Journey time
- ≈ 8h 09m
- Direct trains
- No
- Fewest changes
- 1
- Operators
- ÖBB, DB Fernverkehr, MÁV, SBB
How long does the train from Vienna to Zurich take?
Trains cover Vienna to Zurich in about 8h 09m, with little variation between departures.
Is there a direct train from Vienna to Zurich?
Usually not; expect at least 1 change on this journey.
Is the train or a flight faster from Vienna to Zurich?
A typical flight works out roughly 4h 10m quicker door to door (about 4h 15m against 8h 30m by train, once airport time is counted), but the train emits about 3× less CO₂e, even on conservative official emission factors.
- Train, door to door
- ≈ 8h 30m
- Flight, door to door
- ≈ 4h 15m (est.)
- CO₂e per passenger
- ~25 kg train · ~80 kg plane
Flight time and emissions are transparent estimates, not airline schedules: method, factors and all 109 compared pairs on Train vs plane in Europe.
This corridor in the atlas
- Nightjet The founding route of the Nightjet brand: over the Arlberg while you sleep, Alps at both ends.
- Arlberg Railway Eight hours Zurich to Vienna on Austria’s only east–west mountain mainline: the Trisanna gorge, Wiesberg Castle and a 1,310 m summit in the 10.2 km Arlberg tunnel.
Legendary routes through Vienna or Zurich
- Railjet Vienna → Budapest
- Semmeringbahn Vienna → Graz
- Gotthard Express Zurich → Milan
- Railjet Prague → Vienna
Sleepers too: night trains from Vienna · night trains from Zurich.
More trains from Vienna
- Vienna → Bratislava ≈ 59 min · direct
- Vienna → Linz ≈ 1h 15m · direct
- Vienna → Brno ≈ 1h 31m · direct
- Vienna → Salzburg ≈ 2h 25m · direct
- Vienna → Graz ≈ 2h 26m · direct
- Vienna → Budapest ≈ 2h 49m · direct
More train routes in Austria · Germany · Liechtenstein.
Journey figures are typical values sampled from public European schedule data; exact times vary by day. Always check the operator when booking.