City to city
Zurich to Vienna by train
Zürich HB → Wien Hauptbahnhof
- Fastest
- ≈ 8h 39m
- Typical
- ≈ 9h
- Direct trains
- No
- Fewest changes
- 1
- Operators
- Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB, OEBB Personenverkehr AG Kundenservice, SBB, WESTbahn Management GmbH
Trains link Zurich (Zürich HB) and Vienna (Wien Hauptbahnhof) in about 8h 39m 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 Zurich to Vienna take?
The fastest trains cover Zurich to Vienna in about 8h 39m; a typical journey takes around 9h.
Is there a direct train from Zurich to Vienna?
Usually not; expect at least 1 change on this journey.
Is the train or a flight faster from Zurich to Vienna?
A typical flight works out roughly 5h 05m quicker door to door (about 4h 15m against 9h 20m 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
- ≈ 9h 20m
- 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 Zurich or Vienna
- Railjet Vienna → Budapest
- Semmeringbahn Vienna → Graz
- Gotthard Express Zurich → Milan
- Railjet Prague → Vienna
Sleepers too: night trains from Zurich · night trains from Vienna.
More trains from Zurich
- Zurich → Lucerne ≈ 41 min · direct
- Zurich → Bern ≈ 56 min · direct
- Zurich → Basel ≈ 1h 01m · direct
- Zurich → Interlaken ≈ 1h 56m · direct
- Zurich → Lausanne ≈ 2h 17m · direct
- Zurich → Geneva ≈ 2h 51m · 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.