Vienna Underground – A quick History

People transport in Vienna isn’t alone around the subway. You can find driving busses, trams and the overground train. You do not have a perfect date for your first day, when drives began on the subway from Vienna. It had been an extremely complicated system. The very first date inside the books is 1898 using the opening of Otto Wagners citytram – something that is nearly exactly the same today. We speak from Line 4 along with a section of Line 6, known today as modern trains plus 1898 as rail steam locomotive. The main difference is only a a few changing times.

U-Bahnnetz Wien, 2017

Timetable
1925 was the season, in which the City Train was reopened being an urban transport system after being electrified through the city of Vienna. The operation occurred, however, with streetcar sets.
In 1969, three lines were built: U1, U2 and U4 and connected plenty of places in the city. Within the time between 1883 and 2000 came two new lines within the center: U3 and U6 and in the subsequent years to 2028 will build the extension in the lines U1, U2 and U5.

New dates for opening
The 3rd first date from the subway of Vienna was 1976 if the first new subway train ran on the way between Heiligenstadt and Friedensbrucke. This is known as a “test operation”. In addition, the traveled route ended up operational since 1901.
Last but not the very least, around 1978, was built the first new tunnel between Karlsplatz and Reumannplatz. It absolutely was opened with big celebrations. Nevertheless, subway trains had already been on the U4 line for 2 years.

1898
I tend to observe the year 1898 as correct, analogous towards the opening date with the London Underground in 1863: this year too a steam locomotive-powered metropolitan railway was opened in open cuts or shallow tunnels in addition to their electrification occurred some time later. The very first electric subway in mining tunnels was opened there in 1890, but there is nowhere a reference – the London Underground will not have been opened until 1890. On this sense, 1898 seems to me being acceptable to U1 Wien.

The center of a lifetime
After The second world war, it was decided in 1946 to come back two-thirds from the area “Greater Vienna” to Lower Austria. The emergence of the “Iron Curtain” and also the occupation of Vienna through the four Allies, which lasted until 1955, also acted as a brake on growth. Although a reconstruction-enquiry declared world war 2 project of the Siemens Building Union as an official subway network; it was targeted at a town of 3 to 4 million inhabitants, and even today just isn’t in sight. In 1954, Karl Heinrich Brunner therefore presented a streamlined concept – but without any potential for realization. Another utopian project was Rudolf Maculan’s trackless subway (1953).

City Tram
In the city, motorized private transport increased strongly from the fifties. The resulting conflict of use in public roads was then often solved in support of private transport: As in many places in Europe, the tram network was reduced from 1958, however, not as radical as in other cities. The jobs of the abandoned tram lines were transferred mostly to the new bus lines. During these years, there is also an unfortunate politicization of the subway question, since the conservative OVP inside the municipal election campaigns in 1954 and 1959 massively advocated for the subway, the dominant SPO and also the housing inside the foreground. Roland Rainer’s traffic concept 1961 was accordingly pronounced as U-Bahn enemy. It had been assumed a Viennese subway would cause excessive promotion with the centrality of the inner city.
For details about Vienna underground take a look at this useful internet page: here

Leave a Reply