It's not possible right now but I assume they'll open in a few days.

Looking at the 09:28 train on next Monday there are 96 available seats so I don't think seat reservations are necessary. 146 seats for the 09:55 train so don't worry :)

Thanks for the response. I’ve been looking for a couple of months. Must be looking too early. I’ll wait and see if any Seat Reservations open up. And if not, since you looked at a Monday, just a couple of days away, and found seats, then we should be OK. Thank You. 

I am in the exact same situation, but for May 5th.  I had tickets from Salzburg to Munich already (don’t ask), and bought tickets from Vienna to Salzburg for the same train, hoping to just stay on the train.

The OBB website said, “Peak travel day/no seat guaranteed without reservation,” which is what it said for the Salzburg-Munich part of the trip as well.  I was like, sure.  I already bought reservations for the Salzburg-Munich portion, and planned to do so as well for the Vienna-Salzburg portion.

I expected it to prompt me for reservations during checkout, but it didn’t.  This is only my third time buying tickets from OBB, so I thought I misremembered the process.  I went back to purchase reservations: “Ticket not available.”

That’s disturbing.  Well, it’s a standard ticket, so I can take any of the trains to get to Salzburg (I think?), right?  But every other RJ and RJX train that day is also “Ticket not available.”

And the next day.  And the next.

Reservations are possible on those trains TOMORROW.  Lots of open seats.  Lots of open seats up until May 1.

I checked every day. Lots of open seats on most days from now until May 1.  On May 1?  You can still reserve seats, but there’s only like 12 left.

On May 2?  “No ticket available.”  Then there are “No ticket available” every single day until May 23rd, when lots are available again.

I am confused and stressed out by this.

May 1st is a holiday so a lot of people will be travelling, it's not a usual weekday.

I don't think it will be a problem to find a seat on 5th May. Don't worry and wait a few days until reservations for that day open.

Maybe there are engineering works and the schedule hasn't been confirmed yet.

There is no way that every train will be running at capacity all day every day for several weeks, with the exception of specific busy periods such as national holiday peaks these trains do not generally run at 100%, looking now for tomorrow and this Monday every single train RJ/RJX on that route is still available to book, none are full.

Tickets for those dates are on sale but they appear to not be selling/issuing reservations either with tickets or on their own. You are in the same situation as everyone else travelling on these dates.

I wouldn’t be overly concerned, either there is a bug on the reservation system or the timetables are not yet finalised due to possible works. In all likelihood they will release reservations closer to the date and if not the trains will be reservation free. Check back in a week or so and see if they are available.

The Westbahn in Austria (that’s the line between Vienna and Salzburg) will get a massive track maintenance in May (2nd to 22nd) and June. For the dates asked here, the affected section is between St. Pölten and Pöchlarn.

Because of that, there will be many timetable alterations and train cancellations (cancellations for long distance trains mainly in June).

The timetable is not confirmed yet. So it’s not possible to book any train going from Vienna to Salzburg at the moment. Don’t rely on any timetable you see right now and don’t plan for tight connections.

Timetable changes will occur between Budapest / Vienna and Linz in May (for long distance trains +/- 13min; most regional trains won’t run so expect people travelling by long distance trains instead). 

I wish that was mentioned on the timetable for those dates.  Wow.

I literally just changed my plans, yesterday, based on my previous route being closed for maintenance and being nervous about taking my somewhat disabled wife on a somewhat ill-defined “rail replacement service” in Czechia.  Since OBB listed that train as impacted, but didn’t have any notices like that about its own trains in Austria, I thought that it was relatively safe.

I guess I’m a bit confused because my OBB app claims my ticket is for that train at that time with that schedule.  So they’re listing trains at schedules that they don’t expect to be accurate and letting people buy tickets for them? 

Why wouldn’t they at least put a notice that the timetable may not be accurate?  I can understand surprise maintenance issues popping up, but if they already know it’s a problem and are not letting reservations be purchased for that reason, why list the train as usual and have the first inkling that there’s a problem be “The website didn’t ask for a reservation as an add-on before you hit ‘Book now’”?

Edit: I should have thanked you for your help.  It’s good to know.  I’m just back to being entirely freaked out about this whole thing.  

Hektor, and Al_G, and others, 

I am confused. I have a few questions.

If there is Maintenance work on the Tracks (affecting Vienna to Salzburg Routes) from May 2 to May 22, does that mean that NO Trains travel over those Tracks?  If so, what are people going to do - who travel regularly (between Vienna and Salzburg)? 

I have not yet looked to see what type of Flights, or Private Van Shuttles might be available  

Question-1: I was planning to go from Vienna to Salzburg on May 15th.  Does that mean no trains on that date?

Question-2: When I look at OBB, it lists the following Trains (RJ, RJX, and ICE). I assume that RJ and RJX are both RailJet? And, ICE - I think it InterCity Express? Does that maintenance work impact ALL Trains (RJ, RJX, and ICE)? I guess that this is similar to my question-1. 

Question-3: My preference was to take the RJ or RJX (at 9:28am, or, 9:55am), which appear to be Direct Routes (without many stops). I was unable to Reserve a Seat for the 9:28am, or the 9:55am Trains. However, I was able to Reserve a Seat for the 10:13am ICE Train. If they permitted me to Reserve a Seat, then can I assume that the Train will be running? 

Question-4:  Do the RJ/RJX trains and the ICE trains run on the same Tracks? Or different Tracks? When I look at the ICE Route, it looks like it stops every 5 minutes (or maybe it was every 5 KM). 

Thanks.

1) No there will be trains but with a changed timetable.

2) RJX Railjet Xpress service that does fewer stops between Vienna and Salzburg than RJ Railjet services.

ICE  is Intercity Express, the German Railjet, they are long distance trains to Germany (but not via Salzburg and Munich) so the planner showes you only to Linz and than change to a local train to Salzburg that stops often.

4) Wien-Linz yes, from Linz RJ goes to Salzburg and other destinations like Munich, Innsbruck or Zürich; and ICE to Passau and Nürnberg to Frankfurt, Collogne, Berlin or Hamburg.

Regional trains won't run. There will be a bus replacement service between St. Pölten and Pöchlarn for them. 

Long distance trains (Railjet, ICE and Westbahn trains) will run. 

All long distance trains will run.

It may impact all trains as written before.

All long distance trains will run. But their timetable is not confirmed yet. 

The only exception are the ICE trains going to Passau. That's why you are already able to book them. 

But the connecting train from Linz shown in the tlmetable is a slow suburban train (S-Bahn) that does stop at every station. Don't use this connection. 

ICE and RJX have just a few stops (St. Pölten and Linz). It's the RJ that does stop more often.

I think you had a look at the connecting S-Bahn from Linz that does stop at every station (as written before). Again: Don't use this connection. But the ICE to Linz itself has just one stop in between. 

Summary:

Don't care too much about this. 

During daytime, there will be two direct trains every hour from Wien Hbf to Salzburg Hbf and one direct train from Wien Westbahnhof to Salzburg Hbf every hour.

The only problem is that a specific train may run up to 13 minutes earlier (as written in my last posting), not more (it may also run up to 13 minutes later).

That's why you can't do a reservation right now. It's just to prevent people coming last minute seeing their train already gone.

FYI: RJX trains on those days are now able to be reserved. Looks like they're leaving 7 minutes earlier than they were earlier planned.

Shad, you got my hopes up. I went to the website to reserve seats, and got this error message:
 

Vielen Dank für Ihr Verständnis,

Ihre ÖBB

Timetables, Tickets and Itineraries are currently not available. We are attempting to resolve this issue promptly.

Alternatively, please visit fahrplan.oebb.at to access the timetable.

Tickets are also available

• via the ÖBB Customer Service on +43 5 1717
• at the ÖBB Ticket Offices at the stations
• from ÖBB Self-Service Machines at the stations

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Your ÖBB

The website is on maintenance I believe, I wanted to book an entirely different train and it wasn’t possible

Wat.

Wow, I'm sorry. I literally checked the day you mentioned right before hitting post.

Maybe they're just doing site maintenance right now? Ugh, sorry.

Seems to work for me:

Yes it works again for me too :)

Add Interrail/Eurail as a discount and then select one-way tickets. Otherwise OBB doesn’t want to give you a free seat reservation !

There are 41 seats available on the 09:21 RJX right now btw

I just got in, and got 2 Seat Reservations for 9:13am (Wien to Salzburg)

Thank you all, very much, for posting when they became available.

We are SO HAPPY.

Thanks

I meant 9:21am ^ above