Creating timetables

How to teach Vienna’s public transport system the rhythm

For the first time, Wiener Linien showed the "Krone" the exact calculations behind the timetable in Vienna's public transport network.

(Bild: zVg)

Following criticism of its summer construction site timetable, Wiener Linien provides an insight into the data and figures that determine how long journeys through the city take 

How do you convert a subway train into a bus? What sounds like a joke is part of everyday life for the Wiener Linien timetable tinkerers: one subway train is 900 passengers, which means either nine articulated buses or twelve normal buses, comes the answer like a shot from a gun.

Numbers are the daily bread of the "service planners" (meaning the range of connections for passengers). The most important figures concern passenger flows. Boardings, alightings and vehicle occupancy are counted. If something gets out of balance, the timetable is adjusted.

The "worry line" for many passengers: the U4.

(Bild: Manfred Helmer)

You have to "hang" a line on a station
In the case of buses, passenger counting works automatically thanks to systems at the doors; in the case of streetcars and the subway, it only works partially due to the age of the vehicle fleet.

Once the figures are available, the big arithmetic begins, especially with replacement timetables: How can a gap in the subway be filled? Buses were ruled out as a substitute for the U4 this year, for example, as the number of passengers on the section of line would have required a 40-second interval, which would have been impossible to achieve.

Endless long tables and route evaluations, which could be mistaken for ECGs, are at the beginning of every new timetable.

(Bild: zVg)

Intersections need to be considered
Above all, however, it's about connections: When two lines intersect, that means eight different passenger routes that need to be considered.

What hardly anyone knows is that in order to have a fixed starting point for planning, each public transport line is "hung up" at a specific station, for example the 13A at Pilgramgasse, the 49 at Hütteldorfer Straße: planning then starts from there.

Lines with character
The service planners are almost a little bashful in admitting that, over time, all lines will acquire their own character: The 32A, for example, is "the" school line of Vienna, the 33A, on the other hand, stands for the way to the daily shopping, and the ring lines belong to the tourists, one learns there. Timetable planning also needs feeling.