2023-12-24 09:13:21
“It would be the best Christmas if everyone were at home,” says the conductor on an ÖBB railjet from Vienna to Carinthia on the morning of Christmas Eve with a wink while tweaking cards as the first Christmas wishes fall on the train. First class is easy to endure. But travelers whose seat reservations in the second line didn’t work will even “follow” the conductor there. Later he speaks of the train as a “surprise egg”.
“Please just sit down in a free seat,” says the conductor to the grumpy passenger, who says there are no two reserved seats in second class. There are still free seats at the front, so the man should or must be content with that.
The person concerned doesn’t want to see this at first. He paid for a service that he did not receive. “Then I don’t need to make a reservation,” the man says angrily and leaves angrily. If necessary, he can have the reservation costs reimbursed afterwards. The ÖBB recommends reservations costing three euros.
“Maybe he wants to be angry,” one observer speculates – albeit sitting in her first-class seat. However, a look at the second class of the Railjet shows that this could be difficult – although not impossible.
“You see, on the train it’s often like being in a surprise egg these days – you never know what’s inside,” says the conductor, probably reflecting the annoyance of the angry traveler, as he moves on and meets a family – with seats but no reservation Tickets checked. Their children are allowed to eat this sweet despite the early hour.
The conductor’s classic Austrian insult was well received by those sitting around, and many smiled. It is not clear whether this is the case on the entire train that connects Vienna to Lienz via Klagenfurt, Villach and Spittal-Millstätter See.
“Hello, Merry Christmas, would you like a small piece of chocolate?” it continues sweetly as a young man wearing an ÖBB jacket walks through the train and hands out mini chocolates from a quality Austrian manufacturer to the passengers. It remained unclear whether this consolation would also find its way to the man whose reservation didn’t work.
As has been widely reported, the ÖBB has seen immense increases in passenger numbers on passenger trains since the end of the Corona crisis and is expecting a new all-time record this year. The lack of Railjets due to force majeure recently caused more trouble on the southern railway, but these days all of the 60 trains in the fleet are running again. Until mid-January, there will still be a few repeater train failures on the western route every day.
(By Philip Stotter/APA)
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