Vienna public transport balance sheet

Flood had “unprecedented impact on public transport”

Almost one million liters of water were pumped out of the Vienna subway.

(Bild: Wiener Linien / Jakob Schönfeldinger )

Vienna also experienced an extraordinary flood event last weekend. The Vienna River, normally a small trickle, swelled into a raging torrent and burst its banks in Penzing. The Danube Canal and the Liesing were also severely affected. The flood also had a serious impact on public transport. Wiener Linien is now taking stock ...

Wiener Linien had a total of 700 employees on flood duty over the past weekend, according to the municipal transport company. 400 sandbags were piled up and 12.8 tons of dam beams were erected. Nevertheless, in the end 960,000 liters of water had to be pumped out and five kilometers of subway track had to be cleaned.

Damage kept to a minimum
The damage to the public transport infrastructure was ultimately kept to a minimum, it was emphasized. The flood alarm plan regulated the levels at which protective measures had to be taken and operations had to be interrupted, which was the case on several subway lines for several days.

Thanks to the flood alarm plan, damage to the public transport infrastructure was kept to a minimum.

(Bild: Wiener Linien / Jakob Schönfeldinger )

Almost one million liters of water pumped out
In addition to the barriers with sandbags and dam beams, the overhead lines and conductor rails were dismantled or de-energized and reassembled after the barriers were removed. 17 locations had to be monitored around the clock due to the ingress of water. A total of almost one million liters of water was pumped out at twelve locations.

Subway line inspected for damage
Until the closed subway lines were reopened, all sections, a total of more than 40 kilometers, were walked and inspected for damage.

There was also a lot to do on the surface, Wiener Linien emphasized. 50 kilometers of streetcar tracks were cleaned with sweepers and the incident response service was called out on 50 occasions.

Several fallen trees had to be removed from the road in Vienna.

(Bild: Wiener Linien / Jakob Schönfeldinger )

For example, fallen trees had to be removed and a major incident on lines 40 and 41 was repaired within just 36 hours. There is good news from the construction site on Universitätsstraße: according to the press release, the 43 and 44 can resume their route to Schottentor from Saturday.

Water up to ten meters high
Clean-up work was still underway at the Pilgramgasse U2 construction site on Thursday. The water there was up to ten meters high on Sunday evening.

Pilgramgasse U2 construction site at the weekend.

(Bild: Wiener Linien)

As soon as the clean-up work has been completed, the tunnel and station structures of the U2 extension will be inspected. The next steps and schedule for the subway construction site can then be determined.