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VIENNA — Six trains packed with migrants arrived on Monday at the Westbahnhof rail station in Vienna from Budapest and Hegyeshalom, a Hungarian village near the border with Austria.

Roman Hahslinger, a police spokesman at the station, said the first three trains arrived shortly after 6:15 p.m. with about 300 passengers seeking refuge from war in the Middle East or hardship elsewhere.

About two hours later, at 8:20 p.m., another train from Budapest pulled into Track 9 here to a welcoming round of applause from hundreds of people who gathered in front of a banner taped to the glass door at the end of the train platform: “Refugees Welcome — Open Borders.”

Two more trains arrived by 9 p.m. with several hundred more passengers looking for a new home. Those who were requesting asylum in Austria were taken away by the police for processing, Mr. Hahslinger said, but the majority of the new arrivals wanted to press on, to Germany.

“The Vienna police do not have the manpower to deal with a crowd of this size,” he said, so the disembarking passengers were essentially free to go where they wished. “They could scatter to the winds,” he said.

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The Viennese who assembled to greet the newcomers brought shopping carts and boxes full of bottled water, bread, diapers, cookies, fruit and candy.

“They have been traveling so long and must be very hungry and they have been treated so shabbily,” said Marlene Pramhas, a social worker. She and two friends brought as many loaves of bread as they could carry to the train station, where “it is more or less chaos,” she said.

“We felt we had to do something,” Ms. Pramhas said. “It’s a small thing but maybe it will help.”

When the doors of one train from Budapest opened, a stream of people poured off, many clutching bags of clothing and other possessions. There were children screaming as cameras flashed and several people on the station platform waved and called out, “Hi! Welcome!”

Most of the people disembarking from the train headed straight across the platform to Track 8 where a train to Salzburg, near the border with Germany, was waiting to leave. Hundreds of passengers intent on pressing on piled onto the train, filling the seats, then the aisles.

There was shouting and shoving and a few angry arguments. There seemed to be no question of tickets, the determined passengers just got on the train.

The local authorities may not have forced them onto the train, but they made it as easy as possible for the migrants to pass through Vienna as quickly as possible.

When the second-class cars were crammed to capacity, the first-class seats were opened to several dozen people still clustered on the platform. Those cars, too, quickly filled.

One weeping boy was separated from his family. Fellow travelers held him aloft as he screamed “Mama! Mama!” with tears streaming down his cheeks. Finally, a man emerged from one of the cars and scooped the terrified boy into his arms to another round of applause while dozens of onlookers recorded the scene on their cellphones.

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