On the Austrian Straight and Narrow Part 3

 Wednesday, 4th August 1982

I woke up aboard train 396 somewhere in Switzerland and remember being disappointed that the scenery wasn't particularly alpine, although that wasn't surprising as we were nowhere near the alps. It then became obvious from some of the station stops that we were running well behind time  - over an hour late.

This put the day's schedule in immediate jeopardy, which was compounded by a ticketing problem. When planning the trip I'd intended to stay on the train as far as Bludenz, which was the junction for the first of the minor lines I wanted to experience: The Montafonerbahn, a private standard-gauge branch line running through the Montafon valley to Schruns.  The line was included in the "Austria Ticket" so when buying my international ticket to Austria I paid only as far as the frontier station at Feldkirch, intending to stay on the train and use the Austria Ticket from there to Bludenz and on the Montafonerbahn.  The snag was, as I belatedly realised, that what I thought was my Austria Ticket was in fact only a voucher, that needed to be exchanged for the ticket itself, and that could only be done in Austria.

Not wishing to risk being caught without a valid ticket once I'd passed the frontier I had to alight at Feldkirch and seek out the booking office to exchange my voucher.  The booking clerk, at what was a very sleepy station on a quiet Wednesday morning was very surprised to say the least, clearly never having seen such a voucher before, nor probably having issued an Austria Ticket. He required me to show him my international rail ticket and was highly amused to see that it was made out from "London" (which he clearly thought a large and important city) to "Feldkirch" (which he equally clearly thought was neither!).

Nevertheless, I eventually obtained my Ticket and was able to continue on the 10.25 to Bludenz, which was then announced as running 35 minutes late!  Even then, I nearly ended up being even further behind schedule as it was only by luck that I boarded one of the leading carriages in what was a lengthy train, most of which was left behind as we departed Feldkirch.

As I was now over 90 minutes behind time I reluctantly had to abandon my trip on the Montafonerbahn as to wait for the next departure would have destroyed the rest of the day's plan, which I thought was not a good start. I did however, manage to get a photo of a Montafonerbahn train as a reminder of what I'd missed.

The Montafonerbahn train I had to miss at Bludenz

Austrian Railways ran a large number of named trains in those days and so it was on the "Dachstein" (due 1143 but suffering another 30 minutes delay) that I left Bludenz for Innsbruck.

The "Dachstein" running 30 minutes late at Bludenz

Most visitors to Austria would no doubt have alighted at Innsbruck to see the sights, but I just wanted the connection for Jenbach, which I made with a few minutes to spare. The diary records that I celebrated my arrival in Jenbach with my first Austrian beer - a glass of Adambraü in the station buffet, which set me back 16 Austrian Schillings.

Jenbach was an unremarkable town, worth visiting only as the junction for two narrow-guage railways, both of which were rarther more tourist-orintated than some of the lines I would visit later. The Achenseebahn was a steam-hauled narrow-gauge line using a rack-and-pinion system to climb the steep gardients from the valley in which Jenbach sits to the Achensee lake in the mountains over 400m above the town.

The Achenseebahn

The return trip was marred somewhat by torrential rain, which meant the curtains on the open sided carriages had to be dropped, cutting off the views!

By the time I got back to Jenbach it was late afternoon and I still had nowhere to stay the night. The large and imposing "Hotel Terminus" opposite the station looked too expensive for me, so I wandered into the town looking for somewhere cheaper. At first there seemed to be plenty of small hotels and guesthouses, but it quickly became obvious that they weren't interested in taking someone just for one night. It then became clear that I wasn't the only person looking or having the same response. So the Hotel Terminus it had to be "regardless of price" as the diary records, "and of the Tyrolean music in the restaurant in the evening", but after days of kipping on friends' floors or trains it was nice to sleep in a bed again.

to be continued.