What happened to the U5?

Hey, since there now seem to be a bunch of Viennese folks in these forums, how come there%26#39;s no U5 line?

|||

don%26#39;t know - just ask the viennese city planning office.

the u6 was the former %26quot;Vorortelinie%26quot; (translated does that mean, that this is a %26quot;train%26quot; for the suburbs). and why they called it u6 - really don%26#39;t know it. maybe there are some others who know it.

|||

While the Vienna Transport System works very well and allows travel to almost every part of the city easily, its planning has been a governmental nightmare.

Plans have regularly been drafted, porposed, redone and rejected again and again. I believe that the engineers spent too much time drinking wine and not thinking about work

Several plans had a line U-5, proposed- never built.

The line U-6 did not need to be constructed, except for recent extensions, as it follows the tracks of a steam train line that existed from the time of the Emperor. It, thus was an easy project, which was still %26quot; messed Up%26quot;

You wil note that the cars used on the U-6 line are completely different than those on all other U-bahn lines.

They must be as the %26quot; guage %26quot; or width of the wheel base of cars for this line is different

None of the idiots ,in charge recognized this until it was too late.

Not to be %26quot; Out Idioted%26quot; by former planners, recent additions of many cars( they are white and lower to the platform) proved too much for the engineering wizards, as they ordered cars too wide and that would hit the station platforms.

This skandal was fixed by trimming the station platforms to allow new cars to be useable.

Other examples of flawed planning exists on the street cars lines too.

Several lines were relocated underground in some places. This part of anothe rgrand plan.

This too fell victim to new plans and this concept was abandoned.

Ride lines #62 and 65 to see this marvel of poor planning.

Yet, some how the system is made to work by those who perhaps did not learn everything from a book and had no concept of the Real World.

Long explanation- but old history- some day , we get a U-5.

Now, we just get extensions to U-i and 2.

Buy many transport tickets while here, they need the money

|||

Thanks for the history lesson about the U-bahn. One of my favorite aspects about visiting my brother in New York is exploring the history of the subways there.

I am sorry about the government foul-up of your U-bahn system. To see a really splendid job of a government ruining a subway system, please visit Washington DC soon. Or if you%26#39;d like to experience a billions-overpriced tram system, may I suggest Los Angeles.

|||

Now we know where the planners emigated !

|||

Whatever the mistakes in planning, Vienna%26#39;s transport system is still the best I%26#39;ve ever used, anywhere...

|||

Whatever the mistakes in planning, Vienna%26#39;s transport system is still the best I%26#39;ve ever used, anywhere...

|||

Not to go off-topic here, and we can discuss the Washington, DC Metro in another forum, but I do want to point out %26quot;for the record%26quot; that the current problems with that system are not so much with the government agency that runs it (although that agency is far from blameless), but with the elected state and local governmental bodies that are responsible for fundiing it, and who seem to think that -- like refrigerators -- once built a railroad will operate forever without maintenance, much less replacement of worn-out machinery. And this is not even to mention those elected officials%26#39; apparent inability to fathom that more people using the system requires the purchase of more cars to carry them. And of course the current federal Administration (and past ones, for that matter) does not seem to think that just because it is the employer of the great majority of Metro users, it has any serious responsibility for funding either operations, maintenance, or infrastructure.

But we digress.

|||

hoftraveler, your point is well taken, but I was not going to sit by and listen to the Viennese say that their trains were worse than ours. Americans can take pride in the mediocrity of their mass transit, especially in Washington, DC, the second-most likely city in the country to be visited by foreign tourists!

While we%26#39;re digressing, does the subway go to Georgetown yet?

|||

To ttlms:

You did not read my post carefully- I did not say our system was worse- My comments were made regarding the planning of the system not the operations. Those comments were in answer to your question.

In, fact, I commented that it was good and provided service to most parts of the city. I would suggest that you read posts more carefully in the future.

|||

Umm ... okay.

There is an American phrase, tongue in cheek. I was really joking in my last posts. Everything I hear about Vienna%26#39;s subway is that it%26#39;s the best in Europe. If it%26#39;s better than Paris%26#39;s that%26#39;s very good indeed.