City to city
Vienna to Zurich by train
Wien Hauptbahnhof → Zürich HB
- Journey time
- ≈ 8h 09m
- Direct trains
- No
- Fewest changes
- 1
- Operators
- OEBB Personenverkehr AG Kundenservice, DB Fernverkehr AG, Magyar Allamvasutak, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB
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 1247 routes plotted in the World Train Map atlas.
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.