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[Austria] Vienna Streetcar


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Vienna has the sixth largest streetcar network in the world and in this topic I'm going to introduce you to it.

 

Let's start with a quick recap of the network's history:

 

First opened in 1865, the network expanded rapidly until the second world war. Many routes were impassable in 1945, but with a great amount of work, most of the network was operational again after a relative short amount of time. Starting in the 60's, the goal for Vienna's politicians was to make the city car friendly. Two routes were put underground, making place for more car lanes overground. Many routes were converted to bus operation. Then, in 1969, it was decided to construct a subway network. Many more streetcar lines were "replaced" by the new subway lines. This obsession faded slowly away, and on next week's Saturday, hopefully for the last time, part of a streetcar line will be closed down because of an opening of a subway extension. Although all this sounds rather dark, Vienna's network is with 29 lines (28 as of 2 September, but not because of the subway extension mentioned earlier, but a restructuring of the network in the west) still a major part of Vienna's dense public transport network.

 

Enough history, now let's look on the rolling stock currently in service.

 

High-Floor Streetcars

 

E1 Stock motor car

 

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338 of these 6-axled articulated motor cars were built between 1967 and 1976, they were designated the numbers 4461 - 4560 and 4631 - 4868. Today only less than 70 are left in active service, many of the withdrawn cars found a new home in Kraków and Katowice (Poland), Miskolc (Hungary), Rotterdam (Netherlands), with the latter two having them already withdrawn from service and sold or scrapped.

 

c3 Stock trailer car

 

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190 of these 4-axled trailer cars were built between 1959 and 1963, they were designated the numbers 1101 - 1290. They are Vienna's oldest rolling stock in service and were for the last time in regular service on 30 July 2017 (on which this picture was also taken). One of the four left will however be in service for the last time in a special E1+c3 set on 1 and 2 September besides (other) heritage streecars for farewell of line 58 and the closure of part of line 67.

 

c4 Stock trailer car

 

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73 of these 4-axled trailer cars were built between 1974 and 1977, they were designated the numbers 1301 - 1373. They are the further development of the c3 stock and were redesigned to fit the looks of E1 stock and so that they could be operated conductorless from the start of their service. Almost all of them are still in service today.

 

E2 Stock motor car

 

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122 of these 6-axled articulated motor cars were built between 1977 and 1990, they are the successor to the E1 stock and were designated the numbers 4001 - 4098 and 4301 - 4324. They are the last generation of high floor streetcars and brought some severe changes with them: Instead of classical line-number-discs, they were originally equipped with line roller blinds. They were also equipped with a extendable 4th step at every door. The roller blinds were replaced by LED-displays and their switchgear was changed since 2007 respectively 2009. Only four were withdrawn from service because of severe damage due to accidents. They are likely to serve 10 more years.

 

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117 of these 4-axled trailer cars were built between 1978 and 1990, they are the successor to the c5 stock and were designated the numbers 1401 - 1517. They are the trailer equivalent of the E2 stock motor cars, with a tiny difference: Just one was withdrawn from service until now.

 

Low-Floor Streetcars

 

A and B stock motor cars

 

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The 51 A stock cars (numbers 1 - 51) and 101 B stock cars (numbers 601 - 701) were built between 1997 (1995 if you count the prototypes) and 2005. As the first generation of the Siemens "ULF" (Ultra Low Floor), they have - as the name suggests - the lowest floor of any streetcar on the world. Altough that sounds great, this comes with two great downsides: Due to the narrow aisle in the independent supsension portals, it's impossible to not blockade anyone when standing in or next to them and the cars also tend to literally squeak in curves as they get older. They also have no aircon, that's why the local transit fans call them "Backbox"*.

 

*) "Backbox" literally translated means "Bake box". This name originated from an ad one of the B stock cars was bearing for the "Backbox"-section of a grocery store (where you can get "fresh" pastry) and is used as an idiom which describes the summer "experience" in these cars perfectly.

 

A1 and B1 stock motor cars

 

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The 80 A1 stock cars (numbers 52 - 131) and 100 B1 stock cars (numbers 702 - 801) were built between 2006 and 2015 (A1 stock) or 2009 and 2017 (B1 stock). They are the second and last generation of Siemens' "ULF" and have some improvements compared to their predecessors. They are all equipped with with aircon units and seem not to squeak in curves. This generation also has one great contra point, but that has less to do with the stocks themselve, as with the order of the 80 A1 stock. Because the A1 stock are shorter than the B1 stock, Vienna now has 131 short streetcars. The problem is: We don't need so many. Instead, some more B1 would have been a better option. The extension of A1 with two modules is too expensive.

 

Flexity motor cars

 

Rendering

 

The Flexity motor cars will be Bombardier's Flexity Vienna. The identification letter isn't known yet. At least 119 are ordered, but up to 156 can be delivered. One or two "prototypes" (they're not really prototypes, but I don't know the English term for that) are currently under construction at Bombardier's plant in Vienna. All 119 will be delivered until 2026 according to the local transport company Wiener Linien. They will probably get the numbers 301 - 419 (456) designated.

 

I hope this is of interest to you and that you enjoyed reading this introduction to Vienna's streetcar rolling stock. I'll post interesting news from here from time to time in this thread. For all bus and subway fans: I'm going to do something similar for the buses and subways too.

If you have any questions (also about public transport in Vienna in general), just ask me - I am pleased to tell you everything you want to know!

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  • 2 weeks later...

As mentioned before, on last Friday and Saturday were two major network changes, which were celebrated with two special heritage services each and a special service of an E1 + c3 stock set.

 

End of Line 58

 

Streetcar line 58 once connected the outer borough of Hietzing with West Station and the city center. First operated as line 58 on 13 October 1908 - after the start of the line name reform in 1907 - the route was shortened to West Station in 1993, when the new extension of U3 replaced the streetcar between West Station and the city center. In the very same year, it was also proposed to split the remainder of line 58 at Hietzing subway station, so line 60 would take over the branch to West Station and line 10 the branch into the center of Hietzing. Nevertheless it took politicians 24 years to approve this network restructuring, and on Friday, 1 September 2017, the last day finally started for line 58.

 

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The sky was crying over Vienna that afternoon. One of the special services was the decorated E1 4523 + c3 1213 set, here depicted in the West Station loop - in front of a stupidly denglish (Deutsch/German + English) named shopping mall next to the station.

 

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Here is A1 86 in Hietzing Main Road leaving a stop. The stop sign line identifier to the right still shows 58, a Wiener Linien van followed the route in the evening and replaced every hint of a line 58 with line 10, respectively 60 on the branch to West Station, signage.

 

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A stock 1 (its actual number is 11, but the owning club insists that this is number 1) with m2 stock 5210 were also in service on the afternoon. 30 of the historical A stock motor cars were delivered 1944 to compensate the destroyed cars. This so called "War Streetcars" ("Kriegsstraßenbahnwagen [KSW]") were developed for this purpose at the end of the Third Reich and delivered to many (at that time) German cities. However, the 30 motor cars for Vienna were delivered without a motor - that's why their first time in service was ironically long after the Third Reich collapsed, in December 1945.

 

50 m2 trailer stock cars were built in 1928, they were in service until 1978.

 

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The A stock was originally delivered in a sandy brown unitary livery, here is A 2 with k2 3443. This trailer car was already in service, when Austria still had an emperor!

 

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One more picture of this set. This was taken at Hietzing subway station, the streetcar tracks are located on a bridge - which is called Kennedybrücke! (I think you can figure out on your own, who's ment :D)

 

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Time travel: It's 2 September, shortly after midnight - the best time to take pictures of the last 58 services near the last stop. Here's A1 71 in the penultimate stop.

 

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Just before 1am, A1 120 is the last regular 58 streetcar to Unter St. Veit ...

 

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... hadn't there been the known E1 4523 with c3 1213, which was the very last 58 service. Unfortunately, the set didn't stop at the stop from the latter picture, even though he should have according to current regulations. Bye, 58er!

 

The last service of the day of a line was formerly known as "die Blaue" ("the blue"), because they were denoted by a blue plexiglass over the destination signs (on stocks which had ones and not rollerblinds or matrix displays - like the E1). This practice was abandoned in the 90s and since then is only used for the very last service of a line, like here.

 

Partial Abandonment of Line 67

 

On the same day - 2 September 2017 - the opening of the southern U1 extension was celebrated. But because the official opening was on 10:30am - that's when officials like the CEO of Wiener Linien and dignitaries like the mayor and even the federal chancelor take the first ride - streetcar service had to be obtained until around 11am.

 

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One day prior, E2 4082 and c5 1482 stand at Reumannplatz, the future destination of line 67.

 

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E1 4523 and c3 1213 were in special service again on Saturday. It was their last service and the last passenger service for the c3 stock. Here the set drives on the provisory tracks next to Troststraße subway station - cityscape interfering ventilation towers can be seen next to the streetcar.

 

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M 4077 and k5 3940 were also in service that day. The M stock was the last stock with non-automatic doors, where passengers could get on between the stops, although this was technically prohibited. They, like their trailer car counterpart stocks m2 and m3 were withdrawn from service in December 1978.

 

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L4 548 and c3 1261 on the same spot.

 

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You know what the blue plexiglass on the destination sign means? The very last 67 streetcar to pass these tracks is on its way to the final stop. Underground, the first subway trains already roll in the same direction. This time, the driver extra stopped for some photographers (me included). The BMW driver on the other hand was a bit impatient and eventually overtook the streetcar.

 

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A 180° turn reveals, that the L4+c3 set is also in Troststraße stop. A glimpse of the subway station entrance can be seen in the background.

 

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As I've missed this last streetcar, I took the new subway to the next station, I preferred it to the streetcar loop, as there would be EVERY photographer and it wouldn't be fun. Here is M 4077 with k5 3940 at Altes Landgut ("Old Manor").

 

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And here's the last regular service on this branch, B1 747.

 

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Again, a 180° turn reveals the vast subway entrance. I will do a post about the extension soon!

 

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While I was here, in relation to the final stop uphills, my friend from Graz meanwhile took this picture of the very last exit of a streetcar out of this loop ...

 

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... and I photographed the last 67er here at the known position. Shortly after this set passed Reumannplatz stop, the power was shut down and the catenary removed.

 

I hope you liked this report, which got a little bit longer than I've expected! :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Some varied pictures of the Vienna Streetcar system from the last months.

E1 stock + c4 stock

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A nightly view into Tokiostraße (Tokyo Street) with E1 4858 with c4 1318 in Prandaugasse stop. Some trivia to this little 1km (0.62mi) stretch: It was opened in late 2012 and is actually going to "celebrate" its fifth "birthday" on 21 December. As you can derive from "Tokio Street", all street names in this little neighborhood are Japan-themed (except for the stop name).

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E1 4774 waits with c4 1323 for their departure in Stammersdorf loop. The first steam streetcar line was opened from the city center to the outskirts of the city in the 1880s. Stammersdorf is one of Vienna's Heurigendörfern (= a village with many taverns that sell homegrown wine (which are called "Heuriger" (sg.) or "Heurigen" (pl.))) – you will find these in many tourist guides, although I for myself have never been to a Heuriger (at least not in Vienna).

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E1 4548 with c4 1370 in Urban-Loritz-Platz after operating as a special service for a soccer match. This picture actually has a cute little anecdote to tell: When I took this picture (and several other pictures – just in case, one was for some reason ugly), I didn't realize the operator actually came out to switch the points (is that right? My smart dictionary tells me, that this expression is "British" ...) in the direction of the depot. While I grabbed my tripod to go to the stop in the right, the operator came to me asking, if I could switch the points for her – I'd thought it would be easier until then!

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An autumnal shot. No, the EU didn't become part of the new British Empire: In Vienna, streetcars tend to switch from driving on the right to driving on the left, so passengers don't have to cross the tracks for getting to the subway station and vice versa.

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Fortunately, my school canceled all lessons in the morning, which gave me the chance to spot some rush-hour-trains heading back into the depot. One of them was E1 4855 with c4 1351 on line 26, they will reach the depot entry soon and have already dropped all passengers, which can also be indicated by the open first door – the operator obviously wanted some fresh air.

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After seemingly all elementary school pupils of Vienna emerged from E1 4791 and c4 1328 (which reminded me a little bit of this scene from the "Life of Brian", the set finally came near enough so I could take this picture. Unfortunately, the sun clearly glared the operators face.

E2 stock + c5 stock

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E2 4319 and c5 1519 under the railway-bridge at Radetzkyplatz. Radetzky is a famous imperial Austrian field marshal of the first half of the 19th century, you may have heard the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss Sen., which is "shockingly" named after him. On the railway bridge is a ÖBB class 4020 of the Viennese S-Bahn (formerly known as "Schnellbahn"/"Rapid Railway" – a suburban railway kind of comparable to Paris' RER-network).

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E2 4029 with c5 1429 on 12-February-Square. The square is named after 12 February 1934, the start of the three-day Austrian civil war between the austrofascist government and units of the social-democratic paramilitary.

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E2 4066 and c5 1466 eagerly waiting for their departure on the other end of the line mentioned earlier, that was opened as a steam streetcar line.

Second Generation-ULF (A1, B1)

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A1 127 at Praterstern. The name compounds "Prater" (a large recreation and amusement area nearby – you maybe know the famous ferris wheel, which is the oldest still operating in the whole world!) and "Stern" (star), because at the time this square was designed, major streets and boulevards joined here to form a star. Unfortunately, the street layout resembles more a "Praterkreis" (Prater circle) than an actual star ...

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A1 69 and B1 723 in Volkstheater (People's theatre) loop. The imperial Hofburg palace and seat of the president nowadays can be glimpsed in the background behind the streetcars.

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B1 763 at Schwarzenbergplatz. An interesting landmark can be seen in the background: The Soviet War Memorial (or Heroes' Monument of the Red Army) was quickly erected by said army after they liberated Vienna in April 1945. It is colloquially known as the "Russians' Memorial" and had some other colloquial names in the past. A funny side note here: There's another Soviet memorial in Vienna depicting Stalin's head on the house, where he lived in in 1913 (remember: Vienna is the city, where "all" dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Tito lived here for some time) may have unwittingly met each other at one point). After De-Stalinization began in the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev asked for the removal of that plaque, but as the Austrian State Treaty obliged Austria to maintain all Soviet memorials, the local authorities declined his request.

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B1 735 just came out of Kagran depot and meaningfully displays Kagran as its destination – the operator changed it to the correct one certainly.

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You are welcome!

I've had a special reason to go take pictures today: For the fourth time in this year, and simultaneously for the fourth time in years, Wiener Linien sent a solo E2 stock in service. This time it was 4059 on line 33, the last line in the whole network to occasionally get solo high floor streetcars, because on every other line where the old cars operate, they have always a trailer car with them.

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Let's start at Friedrich-Engels-Platz loop, where the operator's probably focused on checking his WhatsApp, Facebook feed or E-Mail inbox. My plan was to take line 31 from there to a junction some stops away, where both lines meet again. The odds were fortunately in my favor and I'd reached it just in time for 4059.

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After that, I decided to stay there a little bit longer and further tried out my new wide-aperture lens.

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Here's E2 4038 with c5 1438 on line 5 passing the junction in the direction of Praterstern. Praterstern railway station used to be called North station until the 2000s, when it was rebuild to a through station only and international trains stopped to start or terminate there. Vienna originally had five great railway stations: North, East, South, West and North West station. Today only West station remains, the new Main Station having replaced both East and South station. Sadly no original building remained of any station, as they were all heavily damaged in WW2.

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A stock 11 also on line 33 passing the junction. Although Vienna's public transport system is one of the best in the world, here's one little flaw: The sometimes unnecessary information on destination signs. This for example says: "Floridsdorf Market/Floridsdorf Depot" – why should any passenger be interested in the fact, that this car is on the way to the depot. The first line would be enough information, although I would even prefer displaying "Floridsdorf S U", a great hub just one stop before the currently displayed one. This would increase readability drastically.

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1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Thank you very much!

My camera is a Canon EOS 760D, I use a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens for night shots and a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 III for daytime or long-exposure (night) shots.

I was thinking about getting the 50mm f/1.8 — do you recommend it? 

Again, wonderful stuff man, keep it up!! 

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12 hours ago, RR503 said:

I was thinking about getting the 50mm f/1.8 — do you recommend it? 

I would totally recommend it, it's a relatively cheap lens (at least here I bought it for €110 (~$130) that's great for getting startet in night photography without a tripod. There are just two (or one, if you've already worked with a fixed focal length lens quite often) changes one has to adjust (or at least I do): As just mentioned the fixed focal length, but that's really just a matter of getting used to, and when to use which aperture for sharp objects in a picture. The range of apertures is from f1.8 to f22 – f1.8 to f3 are best for night photography. My current drop-out-rate of unsharp pictures is relatively high, but it's getting better every day. I would say you will get used to it in two or three weeks.

Thanks again for your praise!

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A little photo reportage from the last week.

E1 stock + c4 stock

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E1 4771 with c4 1329 on line 30 in decorated Brünner Straße (Brno Street, which shockingly ends in the former Austrian Czech city of Brno ...) turning into Schloßhofer Straße.

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E1 4776 with c4 1336 on the lawn track in Prandaugasse.

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E1 4779 with c4 1319 leaving Kagran station. Again driving on the left, until ...

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... crossing the other track and therefore switching back to normal driving on the right. Funny story about the stop in the background: Since its opening in 1982, its name was "Donauzentrum" (literally "Danube Center") – like the shopping center that spans over three blocks and that can be seen in the top and left of the picture. Only this year, some smart people at the Wiener Linien HQ thought: "Hey, we're advertising this mall – that's unbearable! Let's rename the stop to the lesser known street name!".

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One of the few visually excellent E1+c4 sets is 4861+1317. Here it's just leaving Kagran station. On the left track is NG273T4 8028 as a "Sonderwagen" ("special vehicle" – this corresponds to "Out of Service"). Fresh Christmas trees from the Waldviertel ("Forest Quarter", one of four quarters/regions of the surrounding state of Lower Austria) are being sold to the right of the streetcar.

Long ULF (B, B1)

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B 670's ad won't be very effective, or have you ever wanted to go to an ice cream parlor in the middle of December?

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B1 735 speeds on the lawn track in Prandaugasse.

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While B1 733 just came out of Kagran depot for his service on line 26.

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The oldest streetcars are currently the E1 stock (built between 1967 and 1976) cars built in 1972 (4776 and 4779 are both one of them), so they're turning 46 next year. I have to point out, that their design was already used by the predecessor stock (E stock), which was built from 1959 till 1966.  

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Dear all,

I want to wish you a merry Christmas from Vienna! I hope you'll have a great time with your families and friends in the coming days. In honor of this occasion, here are some festive pictures from today.

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I took a walk today around Vienna's Ringstraße (loop), where two special Christmas vintage streetcars drive around. One of them is a M + m3 set (I don't know the fleet numbers), that operates as Ströck Weihnachtsbim (Ströck Christmas Streetcar) since 2006 I think. Ströck is a major bakery in Vienna, the price increased from €2 in the beginning to €6 in this year, but the revenues are going to be donated to a charity organization. The set is in my opinion very ugly this year, as the bakery put white adhesive film on the usually red areas of the cars.

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The second Christmas streetcar is the Manner Christkindl-Sonderzug (Christkindl special service), which is free to use. Here the set GS 6857 + k3 1620 stands in Universitätsring (University ring – the Vienna Ring is divided in nine parts that have individual names). Most of the Ringstraße is decorated with gorgeous decorations. You can see the decorations of City Hall Square in the background.

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Directly on City Hall Square is Viennas biggest Christmas market. Here is B1 780 just after leaving City Hall Square stop.

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E2 4031 with c5 1431 nears from the other side on line D in the direction of Nußdorf. As you may have noticed, this place name has the German ß in it, which actually is wrong since the last orthography reform (Nussdorf would be correct). The "sharp-s" (ß) indicates a long vowel or short diphtong before it, but here it would actually be a short vowel. The place name is by the way literally translated Nut Town. 

So again, I wish you a merry Christmas! 

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On 23/12/2017 at 5:22 PM, Patrick said:

Dear all,

I want to wish you a merry Christmas from Vienna! I hope you'll have a great time with your families and friends in the coming days. In honor of this occasion, here are some festive pictures from today.

2017-12-23%C2%B0IMG_6505%C2%B0str%C3%B6c

I took a walk today around Vienna's Ringstraße (loop), where two special Christmas vintage streetcars drive around. One of them is a M + m3 set (I don't know the fleet numbers), that operates as Ströck Weihnachtsbim (Ströck Christmas Streetcar) since 2006 I think. Ströck is a major bakery in Vienna, the price increased from €2 in the beginning to €6 in this year, but the revenues are going to be donated to a charity organization. The set is in my opinion very ugly this year, as the bakery put white adhesive film on the usually red areas of the cars.

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The second Christmas streetcar is the Manner Christkindl-Sonderzug (Christkindl special service), which is free to use. Here the set GS 6857 + k3 1620 stands in Universitätsring (University ring – the Vienna Ring is divided in nine parts that have individual names). Most of the Ringstraße is decorated with gorgeous decorations. You can see the decorations of City Hall Square in the background.

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Directly on City Hall Square is Viennas biggest Christmas market. Here is B1 780 just after leaving City Hall Square stop.

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E2 4031 with c5 1431 nears from the other side on line D in the direction of Nußdorf. As you may have noticed, this place name has the German ß in it, which actually is wrong since the last orthography reform (Nussdorf would be correct). The "sharp-s" (ß) indicates a long vowel or short diphtong before it, but here it would actually be a short vowel. The place name is by the way literally translated Nut Town. 

So again, I wish you a merry Christmas! 

I find that the "umlab" isn't used as much as it used to be... At least in Deutschland anyway. It's easier to just use the double "s".

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The use of the ß was lowered due to the 1996 orthography reform, because before then there was a ß everywhere, where a ss would be (although this is simplified, as there where words with ss anyway). Swiss German actually got rid of the ß long ago, they simply write ss instead – although this could lead to pronunciation issues when a word is seen without context (e.g. "Maße" is "dimensions", while "Masse" is "mass" – in Switzerland it would be spelled the same). The Council for German Orthography recently introduced a capital ß (ẞ), which is a very good thing for surnames in passports, so there can't be any doubts anymore in foreign countries when for example someones name in the passport is "STRASS" but the name is actually spelled "Straß". Unfortunately the implementation into the major fonts probably will take for a while, if not forever. 

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3 hours ago, Patrick said:

The use of the ß was lowered due to the 1996 orthography reform, because before then there was a ß everywhere, where a ss would be (although this is simplified, as there where words with ss anyway). Swiss German actually got rid of the ß long ago, they simply write ss instead – although this could lead to pronunciation issues when a word is seen without context (e.g. "Maße" is "dimensions", while "Masse" is "mass" – in Switzerland it would be spelled the same). The Council for German Orthography recently introduced a capital ß (ẞ), which is a very good thing for surnames in passports, so there can't be any doubts anymore in foreign countries when for example someones name in the passport is "STRASS" but the name is actually spelled "Straß". Unfortunately the implementation into the major fonts probably will take for a while, if not forever. 

Sorry, I used the wrong word. I meant to say "ß" (eszett) not umlaut, but you understood what I was referring to. Stupid autocorrect... I speak a little German. Oddly enough I started with a Swiss German lady, and I was concerned about my German since as you know the German from Switzerland is not the same as it is in Deustchland oder Österreich.

I would imagine that they are still popular on street signs and the like, and words ending in "Strasse/Straße" still get abbreviated since they can be so long. They must do this with the buses and streetcars as well. When I was Frankfurt I recall how the signs were there. I have never been to Österreich though, and I know the Austrians can be a bit more rigid.

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Longer terminus names are also abbreviated here (or sometimes the font size gets ridiculously decreased).

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I wish you all a happy new year – ein fröhliches neues Jahr – good health and great success! Vienna's already in 2018 for 36 minutes. :)

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(Yeah, the picture actually isn't the best, I forgot to remove the screen against insects ...)

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1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Longer terminus names are also abbreviated here (or sometimes the font size gets ridiculously decreased).

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I wish you all a happy new year – ein fröhliches neues Jahr – good health and great success! Vienna's already in 2018 for 36 minutes. :)

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(Yeah, the picture actually isn't the best, I forgot to remove the screen against insects ...)

Dänke! :D

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A brand new oddity in the Viennese streetcar network can be marveled at as of today: Due to construction works at Brigittenau Depot, some trams for line 2 had to be moved to other depots – which isn't the odd thing yet. That an total amount of three services* is now stationed at Kagran depot - whit is far off the route itself or any of the depot routes, is quite surprising. Ironically, you can now reach the city center from Kagran directly by streetcar - for the first time since 1981 ... although today's route has "some" detours in it, compared to subway U1 line (colored red – the former streetcar lines roughly followed it until the first real interchange with today's line 2).

*) What do you call an individual train/streetcar service on a line, which has a fixed timetable for its tour? E.g. if line X needed five streetcars, they are (internally) numbered 1-5, what's the correct substantive for one of these streetcars? Different dictionaries show me different words for what I mean, can you proof if anyone of these is right?

run, journey (doesn't that just refer to one trip from point A to point B, without iteration?)

I'm afraid I might have expressed me unintelligibly. Here are some pictures found in the internet depicting trains with their individual "course number" (that would be the literal translation of the German word (whereas I'm only interested in the "course" part)). "Course 4" "Course 9 of Metro line 4" "Train 16"

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But enough of explanations and linguistic questions – let's see some pictures. Well. Actually, just one – since one service ends in the morning, only two return to Kagran depot between 7pm and 8pm, and unfortunately only the first one in the evening was a "success" picture-wise.

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As all three services are high-floor E2+c5 stock sets, it's also the premiere of regular passenger service of these streetcar stock in this part of the network. Here's E2 4075 with c5 1475 in Prandaugasse stop. Amusingly, line 25 (which is the only line here) once was said line that connected Kagran to the city center!

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E1 4730 with c4 1314 on line 25 at Kagran station, in front of "Donauzentrum" shopping-center. This station forecourt actually has a name - "Dr.-Adolf-Schärf-Platz", named after the third president of the second Republic of Austria (est. 1945). By the way – the republican Austria celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding (although this refers to the first republic, which was established after WWI in 1918 and dissolved in 1933) this year! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some resent pictures from today. As there where two high floor E2 stock cars out on line 33 today – which is very rarely, as stated in my post from December 13th – I grabbed my camera and tripod and made my way to said line, only to learn that one had already been switched out with a boring low floor A stock car ...

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So let's begin with a short background information about line 33. It was originally a peak-hour line which was called 31/5 because – you guessed it – it was a union of the northern part of line 31 and the western of line 5. Since 1996, it is known as the all-day line 33 and was even shortened from the north bank of the river Danube to the south bank (Friedrich-Engels-Platz) in 2004. So nowadays it's main purpose is the support of line 5 only in the most frequented part. 

So here's E2 4059 with c5 1459 on line 5 in Wallensteinstraße, already on the ramp to Friedensbrücke (Peace Bridge) going for West Station.

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The aforementioned street is called Alserbachstraße at the other side of the Danube Channel (Donaukanal), named after one of the many creeks that once streamed on the surface and are now banned to the underground levels of the city. In this case, the Als Creek once ran there, but I'm getting off the point. At the end of Alserbachstraße, it meets Nußdorfer Straße, where a mid size interchange is located for the streetcar lines 5, 33, 37, 38 and bus line 40A (which once had been a streetcar). Here's E2 4018 with c5 1418 in Nußdorfer Straße.

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And here's the quota low floor car picture, in case you've got the wrong conclusion that there are only vintage high floor streetcars in service. ;) B 676 on line 5 turning from Nußdorfer Straße into Alserbachstraße.

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At Josefstädter Straße station I was finally able to take a good photo of the only E2 left on line 33 – the sun was never on my side before. E2 4077 is in the loop around the 1898-built Art-Nouveau underground station built by famous Austrian architect Otto Wagner. 

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Line 2 also serves this underground station, there's even a U6 line train visible at the top. Although this set of tracks seems suspiciously like part of a loop it's not. This is actually the crossing of the so-called "Gürtel" (which would be "Belt" in English), a terrible automobile hell around the former suburbs (they've naturally grown to more than that for the last 150 years) of Vienna, where a protective wall (at the time of its construction as protection for a possible third siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, but later as a protection against all possible enemies) once stood until the mid 1800s.

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And to come to an end, E2 4078 with c5 1474 on line 31 at Friedrich-Engels-Square. The pole in the right was so beautiful, it had to be on the picture. *cough*

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  • 4 weeks later...

Vienna's subway celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, which also means, that the oldest section of the network have to be renovated. This long process started in 2012, when the oldest sections of U1 line were refurbished in two months during summer break, two replacement streetcar lines where installed and this concept proved to work pretty well. The U4 line is Vienna's oldest subway line, it was originally opened as part of the Stadtbahn system ("Metropolitan Railway") in 1898 and converted from Stadtbahn to U-Bahn between 1976/78 and 1983. The western part was completely rebuilt (in terms of platforms, trackbed and the tracks themself) in four months in 2016. Other parts weren't always closed during construction works, rather were individual stations closed or even only one platform of a station.

This was the reason for last weekend's closure of the northern part of line U4, during which the replacement streetcar line E4 ran again. These additional tram services halve the frequency of trams of the dedicated replacement route. Line E4 also ran in the night from Saturday to Sunday, which is extraordinary itself, because the regular night network at weekends only consists of subways and buses. 

Enough said, here are some impressions and a video – more information is again in the CC!

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Let's begin at Schwedenplatz ("Sweden Square"), where E4 terminates. As the odd stop sign may reveal, on the E4's track is usually only the touristic Vienna Ring Tram. The U4 line actually terminates one station prior to Schwedenplatz, so E4 and U4 overlap. Depicted is B1 791 and 780 on line 1 to Stefan-Fadinger-Platz.

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Some hundred meters away I caught B1 754 on line 1 at Morzinplatz. Partially hidden by the streetcar and the overhead wire mast is the memorial for the victims of the Gestapo, the German Reich's secret police, which had it's headquarters in Vienna located right at that spot. As there was a police action happening on the other side of the inner city, this service was shortened to restore normal intervals.

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Said Vienna Ring Tram also promptly arrived, in this case it's the converted E1 4867 (the other would be 4866). If you were ever to visit Vienna, you should definitely take the VRT around the Ringstraße for € 9.

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At Schottenring station ("Scot's Ring"), I met this lovely set of E2 4030 and c5 1415, with the motor car being the most beautiful E2 in the whole system, as it recently got new paint. Yes, rich Vienna is too stingy for the repainting of the high floor stock. 

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There are still parts of the network, where I've never been taking photos – so I was positively surprised when I saw this lovely street, where I eventually decided to start taking moving pictures. Depicted is E2 4031 with an unknown c5 (I didn't note its number, but it is likely to be 1431) on line D.

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And hey, Winter came back again this week. Here are some pictures from yesterday.

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When the green lawn track turns white: E1 4833 with c4 1331 on line 25 in Prandaugasse.

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E1 4771 and c4 1335 heading for the opposing terminus, here leaving Prandaugasse stop in Tokiostraße.

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B1 739 also in Tokiostraße further away from the stop.

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B 668 coming down from the elevated section of line 26 in Forstnergasse stop.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally, the first car of the new D stock (Bombardier Flexity) recently made its first trial trip through nightly Vienna – it will take at least another half year until the stock's first passenger service, or as the Viennese would say it: Much water will stream down the river Danube until then.

Here are some photos and a video provided by the local transit authority Wiener Linien. I'm really looking forward to taking the first picture of them myself. 

By the way: The slogan below the Wiener Linien logo is "The city is yours." in English – pretty catchy and appropriate I think.

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  • 3 months later...

Hello,

some news concerning the new Bombardier Flexity: the second one (302) has been delivered to the WL some weeks ago and already drove around the whole network. It was also on display at the annual Streetcar-Day (this year Subway-Day). Yesterday I caught it in Tokiostraße.

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