The ÖBB 1044 096 with a Südbahn EuroCity heading for Villach at Wiener Neustadt Hauptbahnhof

There was disturbingly little snow at the station, so we feared there was going to be less snow in the mountains (of course, Semmering being only at 896,20 m is not a high mountain pass) than there was in Hungary. That would have been a waste. We couldn't chicken ot though, we had our tickets and were already transferring from the small 5047 railcar that brought us from Sopron to Wiener Neustadt on the Mattersburgerbahn on the double-decker train Wiesel that went on the Wien-Raaber-Bahn to the foot of the Semmering pass.