Wiener lines

WIENER LINIEN GmbH & Co KG

Basic information
Company headquarters	Vienna
Web presence	www.wienerlinien.at
Reference year	2018
owner	WIENER LINIEN GmbH (general partner) WIENER STADTWERKE Holding GmbH (limited partner)
Managing directors	Günter Steinbauer technical area, chairman of the board of management Alexandra Reinagl commercial area
Transport network	Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR)
Employee	8600
sales	722 milliondep1
Lines
Gauge	1435 mm
Subway	5
tram	28
bus	129 including order traffic and Nightline
number of vehicles
Subway car	768
Tram cars	630
Omnibuses	447
statistics
Passengers	Total: 965.9 million Underground: 463.1 million Tram: 305.5 million Bus: 197.3 million
Mileage	Figures in million square kilometers: 20.2 thousand subway: 13.2 thousand tram: 4.2 thousand bus: 3.2 thousand
Stops	Metro: 109 Tram: 1051 Bus: 4230
Catchment area	414.9 km²dep1
Residents in the catchment area	1.89 million
Length of line network
Subway lines	87.4 kmdep1
Tram lines	220.5 kmdep1
Bus routes	848 kmdep1
Operating facilities
Depots	1 main workshop 3 underground 4 tram 3 bus
Track length	Underground: 253.2 km, tram: 417.1 kmdep1
Switches	Metro: 619 Tram: 1110

U2 train on the Donaustadtbrücke ( type V )

Train of line 43 in Hernals (type ULF B ₁ )

Train (type ULF B ₁ ) entering the Rudolfsheim Remise, 1150 Vienna

Mercedes-Benz Citaro II Euro 6 bus on line 35A

Emergency vehicle of the Wiener Linien at Stephansplatz

Combined stop signs for trams (red) and buses (blue, with additional panel for H symbol)

The Wiener Linien GmbH & Co KG (abbreviated WL , until 11 June 1999 Wiener Stadtwerke - Verkehrsbetriebe ) is the municipal transport company of the federal capital Vienna and part of Wiener Stadtwerke Holding GmbH .

Structure and company key figures

Although Wiener Linien is no longer part of the Vienna city administration, as it has been for almost a hundred years, its strategic decisions are still made by Viennese local politics. Ulli Sima , the incumbent city councilor for the environment and Wiener Stadtwerke, has been the member responsible for Wiener Linien in the city senate and state government since November 24, 2015 .

In 2015, Wiener Linien employed 8,759 people and carried 939.1 million passengers a year. The number has been increasing since the 1970s. Around a quarter of all passengers are schoolchildren. The turnover in 2015 was 503.1 million euros. The sale of annual tickets in particular has increased significantly since the introduction of the 365-euro ticket in 2012. While there were still 356,838 annual ticket holders in 2010, there were already 711,250 in 2015. In Vienna, 39% of all trips are made by public transport .

According to a mobility study commissioned by Siemens, the public transport infrastructure is among the most powerful in the world. Although it only ranks 179 among the largest metropolitan regions in the world , Vienna operates the sixth largest tram network in the world. With 510 million passengers annually, the subway was the fifth largest in the EU in 2009 (although passenger counts have only been carried out in Vienna since 2012, with significantly lower numbers).

The passengers of Wiener Linien are heard on a passenger advisory board and can make suggestions for improvements. The members are each appointed for four years.

Passenger development since 2003

year	Subway	tram	bus	total
2003	409.7 million	203.8 million	108.6 million	722.1 million
2004	420.2 million	204.7 million	110.5 million	735.4 million
2005	427.4 million	207.7 million	111.7 million	746.8 million
2006	450.0 million	204.7 million	117.5 million	772.2 million
2007	476.6 million	200.4 million	116.0 million	793.0 million
2008	498.2 million	190.5 million	115.0 million	803.7 million
2009	510.2 million	186.9 million	114.7 million	811.8 million
2010	534.4 million	189.9 million	114.4 million	838.7 million
2011	567.6 million	193.8 million	113.6 million	875.0 million
2012 ¹	444.4 million ¹	295.1 million ¹	167.1 million ¹	906.6 million
2013	428.8 million	293.6 million	177.6 million	900.0 million
2014	439.8 million	304.8 million	186.6 million	931.2 million
2015	440.0 million	298.0 million	201.1 million	939.1 million
2016	440.1 million	305.8 million	208.3 million	954.2 million
2017	453.6 million	305.8 million	202.3 million	961.7 million
2018	463.1 million	305.5 million	197.3 million	965.9 million

(Source: Statistical Yearbook of the City of Vienna 2018 - Living in Vienna)

¹ The allocation of passengers to the branches of operation was based on the number of kilometers traveled until 2011, and on the basis of passenger counts from 2012 onwards.

Route network

The line length is the total length that results from adding up the length of each traffic line - so if several tram lines use the same route section, they will still be added. The operating length, on the other hand, indicates the length of the entire rail network used according to the timetable, i.e. without multiple counts.

The number of passengers on Wiener Linien has been rising steadily since 1995 and work is also ongoing on expanding the network. In 2015 there were:

5 underground lines with a length of 78.5 kilometers (79.1 km operational length, 82.9 km construction length, 236.9 km track length) and 428.8 million passengers
29 tram lines with a length of 222.7 kilometers (174.6 km operational length, 178.1 km construction length) and 298 million passengers
127 bus routes (including contract transport and Nightline) with a total of 846.7 km route length and 201.1 million passengers

The lines with the most passengers in 2013 were:

Means of transport	Subway	tram	Public bus
1st place	136 million	29.5 million 6	13.0 million 13A
place 2	118 million	26.5 million 43	11.3 million 11A / 11B
place 3	112 million	21.5 million 26	9.9 million 14A

In order traffic, bus routes are operated by subcontractors who also operate their own routes in and around Vienna. There are also collective call taxis .

Most day lines run from around 5:00 a.m. to 0:30 a.m. At rush hour , many lines operate every two to five minutes, in the evening the underground runs every 7½ minutes, tram and bus lines every ten or 15 minutes. From 0:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., the night lines run every 15 minutes (subway on the nights before Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) or 30 minutes (night buses). On average, almost 45,000 passengers use the subway every night. Overall, the number of passengers in night-time operation has roughly tripled since the start of the night-time subway. The night-time U-Bahn recorded the largest number of passengers on New Year's Eve with around 145,000 passengers.

In terms of tariffs, Wiener Linien is integrated into the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR). The Wiener Linien network is located entirely in its core zone (Zone 100). Schoolchildren, students, the unemployed and pensioners are promoted at greatly reduced rates.

Subway

The Vienna U-Bahn has existed under this name since 1976, when the Vienna Steam City Railway , which opened between 1898 and 1901 - from which the Vienna Electric City Railway emerged in 1925 - was experimentally adapted for underground traffic between the two stations of Heiligenstadt and Friedensbrücke and as Line U4 went into operation. Decades of political discussions preceded the construction of the underground, as the social democratic majority in Vienna initially preferred other modes of transport. The first section of a newly built underground line went into operation in 1978 (line U1 from Reumannplatz to Karlsplatz). The Vienna underground network currently consists of five underground lines, comprises 104 stations in 93 station structures and is around 80 kilometers long:

Oberlaa ↔ Leopoldau

Seestadt ↔ Karlsplatz (from 2027: Seestadt ↔ Matzleinsdorfer Platz)

Ottakring ↔ Simmering

Hütteldorf ↔ Heiligenstadt

(from 2025: Frankhplatz - Altes AKH ↔ Karlsplatz )

Siebenhirten ↔ Floridsdorf

tram

The Viennese tram has existed since 1865, when the first horse-drawn tramway started operating; In 1897 the first line was operated electrically. Originally run by private transport companies, the tram was bought up by the city administration around 1900 and was massively expanded in the following decades under the name of Municipality of Vienna - Urban Trams . In 1925 the tram, electrified at the city's expense, was integrated into the transport network. The tram was the main means of public transport in Vienna until the underground was built.

After 1945, numerous lines were abandoned in favor of motor vehicle traffic or replaced by bus lines due to inefficiency. In the course of the underground construction, tram lines that ran parallel to underground lines were discontinued from 1978. Nevertheless, the tram network in Vienna is still one of the largest in the world. Currently 29 lines operate on a route network of 222.7 km. Although there are occasional adjustments due to the expansion of the underground, new lines and new sections are also planned.

bus

Bus routes were introduced by the city of Vienna in the 1920s, and they only gained greater importance when urban settlement activity in the outskirts required additional transport connections and when many tram lines in the densely built-up area were replaced by bus services.

The approximately 140 city bus routes, including the night bus routes, are almost entirely operated by Wiener Linien and subcontractors commissioned by them. Some lines operate entirely or at certain times as shared call taxis . In 2013, 469 buses were used on a route length of around 774 kilometers, transporting 178 million passengers.

Between 1946 and 1958, the WVB also operated the Vienna trolleybus (line 22), which ran between the Währinger Gürtel and Salmannsdorf . Battery buses have been operating on Line 2A since the end of 2012 . In the meantime, as part of the renewal of the Wiener Linien fleet, liquid gas operation has been switched to diesel operation.

Ongoing operation

Customer service

The Wiener Linien customer center has been located in Erdberg since 1994, together with the management, in the immediate vicinity of the subway station of the same name . There are also information and ticket sales points at several important subway hubs.

Headquarters

The management building is owned and managed by WIENER LINIEN Direktionsgebäude GmbH . The shareholders are WIENER LINIEN GmbH & Co KG and WIENER LINIEN Verkehrsprojekte GmbH .

Announcements to the passengers

In all vehicles, after a gong, the next station and the transfer options (under Franz Kaida also infrastructure facilities) are announced. In addition, fault reports and safety-relevant information are communicated in the stations themselves. This was first introduced in the 1960s in the trams that were then switched to conductors-free operation. Since then, Franz Kaida has been the “voice of Wiener Linien”. At that time he was the head of the security service and is now retired.

As part of a newly created “acoustic identity”, the acoustic appearance of Wiener Linien was revised from 2012. Since January 2013 there has been only one voice for all announcements in the subway, since May 2013 in the tram and since autumn 2013 in the buses. Since a survey showed that the majority of passengers wanted a female voice, a new female spokesperson was sought in a selection process, in which passengers could also take part. The voice of the Austrian actress Angela Schneider was selected . Since then she has spoken all station announcements and occasionally also fault reports and Wiener Linien advertising campaigns. In addition, all signal tones, such as the warning tone on the subway doors or the stop gong, have been replaced.

qando

The qando software, a mobile timetable service for all public transport in Vienna, has existed since 2009. In addition to the scheduled times, passengers can also access real-time information, purchase tickets and plan their travel route. Tram routes also show whether a ULF ( low-floor vehicle) will be used on the next trip . Current fault reports are also imported into the system. This service is provided by Wiener Linien and the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR) free of charge for mobile devices to download. Qando has also existed in the Salzburg transport association SVV since 2015 .

The software is now to be replaced by a new map-based app and was removed from the app stores for iOS / Android in March 2020 .

Security service

In 2017 the security service Wiener Linien Security was created, which monitors compliance with house rules, especially in the underground area. In 2019, a total of 120 employees are to be employed, who are equipped with stab protection vests, body cams and pepper sprays for their protection . Since 2019, the Securities as railway supervisory bodies have also been given the right to arrest.

Further information

Operation on May 1st

Decorated tram line 167 on May 1, 1976

From 1913 to 1998, operations did not begin until 1:30 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. on May 1, to give employees the opportunity to take part in the May rally , even though this contradicted the operating obligation and was not communicated in the timetable. The first vehicle on each line then drove out on the front, festively decorated with green garlands, flowers and the Viennese flag. This was interrupted by the First World War and from 1934 to 1945 by the corporate state, the time of National Socialism and the Second World War. On May 1, 1934, tram drivers fought against each other because some wanted to drive in the morning and others didn't.

In 1998, the local council decided to run all-day, but the union decided against it. This led to the historically unique emergency solution that the transport company commissioned four private bus companies to operate the night bus routes that morning . This was also the last year the vehicles were decorated.

The usual holiday schedule has been used all day since 1999, only on the Ringstraße there are the diversions or short tours that are usual for major events.

Tramway day

The Tramway Day has been held annually since 1985. Every year a different depot or garage organizes this open day. As part of a vehicle show, old and new vehicles are presented to visitors and old-timer tours are offered. There is also an insight into the respective operational area of the venue.

Transport Museum Remise

Tram museum before the renovation

The Vienna Tram Museum , now the Remise Transport Museum , opened in 1992 in the former Erdberg depot as the successor to the Vienna Tramway Museum . The museum was and is dedicated to urban public transport and the largest tram museum in the world, which deals with the public transport of a single city. The focus of the collection of the Transport Museum lies in the most complete documentation possible of original historical trams and buses that have been used in Vienna . The museum is one of the most extensive original collections in the world. The Tram Museum was closed in 2013 and reopened on September 13, 2014 as the Remise Transport Museum with a new design (Museum of Public Transport) .

criticism

In 2005 the company received the negative Big Brother Award in the “popular election” category for its “populist” surveillance policy with camera surveillance. However, the surveillance cameras comply with the legal requirements.