Public transport chaos summer

Wiener Linien and ÖBB: Management failure!

For many U6 passengers, the journey ended at the Gürtel. A seat on the replacement buses was in high demand.

(Bild: Groh Klemens)

A series of bad decisions at Wiener Linien and ÖBB plunged the city into public transport chaos this summer. Advance warnings were thrown to the wind. 

Nobody would think of closing two hospitals at the same time. Or the Gürtel and Tangente. But that's exactly what happened to the public transport system this summer: two vital traffic arteries were taken away from the Viennese at once. The subway chaos predicted by the "Krone" has come to pass. Responsible for this: the recently contractually extended Wiener Linien boss Alexandra Reinagl and ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä.

ÖBB boss Andreas Matthä and Wiener Linien boss Alexandra Reinagl - the people in charge of the transport company. The public transport summer is worse than ever this year.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Peter Tomschi)

The three biggest mistakes:

• Mistake number one: ÖBB and Wiener Linien decided on two construction site focal points at the same time in a behind-the-lines mentality. The S-Bahn main line between Floridsdorf and Praterstern and the U4 subway line between Schwedenplatz and Schottenring were cut. The timetable for the closures is almost perfectly coordinated: for ÖBB from June 29 to September 2, for Wiener Linien from June 29 to September 1. Months of parallel closures.

• Mistake number two: U4 construction work while the Vienna network is not fully operational anyway. The U2 between Schottentor and Karlsplatz has now been closed since the end of May 2021 (!), as the end of the construction site has been delayed by a year. The U3 is particularly prone to disruption - as was the case on Monday evenings in the hottest weather. In the areas where the U4 is currently running, passengers have to get used to creepy intervals (nothing works below 7 minutes). As a result of Tuesday's U6 service failure, for the first time there was no way to get from Westbahnhof to Heiligenstadt by subway.

• Mistake number three: It is obvious that nobody at Wiener Linien was prepared for an emergency. The rail replacement service after the U6 accident got underway far too late on Monday and was also too short. Hundreds of Viennese waited angrily for the buses, long queues formed outside the stations and then public transport users had to squeeze into the vehicles in the morning heat. Thousands and thousands were late for work.

Conclusion: no crisis management at Wiener Linien, no joint construction site concept with ÖBB. Plus - as every year - the fairy tale: Not so many people travel by public transport in summer. This is not how the city's most important transport companies should be run!