 When talking about transit, a few countries are really important to mention because of their status as legends of transit, such as Japan, Switzerland, and Austria. I don't talk nearly enough about these countries because I'm always a little afraid I won't do them justice. But today that starts to change because we'll be looking at the excellent Vienna U-Bahn. A huge shout out to the folks from Vienna who helped me with this video, including Max who has a great video about cycling in Vienna. I also want to thank Patrick for lots of interesting information about this system. As well as Sebastian for providing excellent additional footage. Thanks so much for making all of this possible. Make sure you're following me on Twitter to stay tuned to whether I'm making a video in your city next. If you're not already, consider supporting me via Patreon, YouTube Memberships, or Substack. As with all transit explained videos, we need to begin with getting familiar with Vienna, which is not that big of a city, for this North American at least, with a regional population of around 3 million and an urban population of about 2, which is actually a really high proportion to be living in the urban area. Nice job Vienna. Of course, you've probably also heard a lot about Vienna, as it usually tops quality of life and sustainability metrics, and high quality public transport plays a big role in that. Looking at the city's features, it's located along the Danube as with Budapest, on the eastern slopes of the Alps. Here is the central area of the city, which isn't circled by tram services, which I'll cover more in a full future video. As with any proper urban transport system, Vienna's fares are fully integrated as well. Vienna has several major railway stations, including the relatively new Wien, Hoppenhof, as well as Vienna-Westbenhof and Praterstern, the latter of which mainly serve regional and S-Bahn trains. To the city's southeast, we have the airport, which is connected to the city's S-Bahn network with a tunnel underneath it, akin to Amsterdam Schiphol. Vienna is also doing a ton of new transit-oriented suburban development in areas like C-Stadt, which are located on transit to the north of the Danube. Vienna of course also has a very famous tram network, which we've talked about a few times on this channel. The tram network densely covers the city, south of the Danube, and even has offshoots to the north. As the U-Bahn network has expanded, sections of tramway paralleling it have actually been removed, not unlike in St. Toronto, but the network has also been growing. Given the great size of the Vienna tram network, a number of models of trams operating on it, including some high-floor models, but the most iconic tram is likely the ULF, or ultra-low floor model from Siemens. On the whole, the Vienna tram network is really quite good, and poorly of its own video in the future, as I mentioned before. Roots aren't super long, and trams provide an excellent local service, filling in gaps between rail and U-Bahn lines. So now that we have a rough overview of the city, let's take a look at the U-Bahn, shall we? The network currently consists of five lines, numbered from U1 to U6, but there is no U5, I'll explain that later. Line 1, or more accurately, U1, has 24 stations over 19 kilometres of track, from the south to the northeast, making it the longest in the network. Something I really appreciate is that in the moderately low density extensive line to the north and the south, portions of the line are above ground or even elevated. Oh, and U1 connects to Vienna-Helpenhof. The U2 runs from a connection point with the U1 at Karlsplatz in the centre, out east to Sistat, and connects to the U1 again at Pratterstern. U2 has 20 stations over 69.5 kilometres of track. The northern part of U2, including the park crossing the Danube, is quite new, and it's virtually all elevated, as with portions of the U1 I mentioned, including into Sistat where it terminates. U3 is a 13 kilometre route from the west to the southeast of the city, with 21 stations in total and connections to the U1 and U2 in the centre. U3 spends almost no time above ground unlike the previous lines. U4 has 20 stations on 16.5 kilometres of track, from the southwest to the north. Thanks to its arching shape, it has two connections to the U1 and U2, as well as a connection to the U3. The vast majority of U4 is above ground, but it does go below grade sometimes, running alongside canals and other waterways, and when the line goes underground it's typically not very deep. The line even has a very cool bridge where it pops out over a waterway for a couple of metres before passing back underground. U6, the final line, has 24 stations on 17.5 kilometres of track, from south to north. U6 has a connection to U3, as well as two connections to U4. U6 connects to the west bandhof, and much of it runs elevated above ground, often on historic elevated guideways through central areas of the city, as well as across the Danube to the north. Now, the system actually has some pretty solid expansion plans as well, especially for the fairly modest system in a relatively small city that it is today. Those plans call for extending U2's south with six new stops, with connections to U3 and U4, as well as the creation of a new line U5. U5 would start at the intersection of U1 and U4 at Carlsplatz, taking over the previous U2 tracks from Carlsplatz to Rathaus, before travelling northwest to intersect and terminate near U6. A reduced version of these works with shorter versions of U2 and U5 is already under construction. With the network out of the way, let's dive into the many unusual features of the NSU bond. The first that's always stood out to me has to do with the depots on the system. Many of them are near the ends of lines, including one elevated in Zistat, and they often have a very long linear format, which reminds me a lot of Mexico City of all places. The rolling stock of the system is also really interesting. Trains include six car sets of 2.8 meter wide trains, which measure roughly 110 meters long. The original rolling stock was similar to some models in Germany, but the newer rolling stock is actually from the Siemens modular Metro family, which you might recall is also used in Taipei. The newest Taipei V sets are probably the most interesting, as they're fully walkthrough and have a front fascia design courtesy of Porsche design, who also had their hands in the design of the iconic QLF tram. The Taipei X trains, which have a design reminiscent of the Taipei V and are also being manufactured by Siemens, will be capable of fully automated operation, and will be used on the U5, making it one of the few automated subway lines in the German-speaking world. And it'll actually have platform screen doors as well, which is also fairly uncommon in the German-speaking world. You might have heard me mention in a previous video, but Vienna's U6 is quite unique. It has its origins in the earlier Vienna stop-on system, which was Vienna's main form of rapid transit prior to the U-Bahn. When modernizing the line that became U6, there was a consideration as to whether conversion to the more typical high-floor cars used on the system was possible. But in order to maintain the historic nature of much of the line and its stations and way of infrastructure, it has been maintained as a low-floor rail line with metro-like characteristics. Despite this, the tram-style vehicles on the line actually are related to the Bombardier-Flexity Swift light rail vehicles, and they even use parts of the tram network to head to their maintenance depot. As it turns out, U4, which does have proper metro-style trains, also is converted from a previous stop-on line. Now, with that history, you might be surprised to know that the whole Vienna-U-Bahn network is actually quite young, first opening in the 1970s. Prints for a system existed for decades prior, but were repeatedly disrupted. That being said, if you're wondering why Vienna has no U5, that would be because, like many good transit cities, Vienna has had long-term plans for its network development. And for a long time, U5 simply wasn't built, and thus its designator wasn't used. Fortunately, the young age of the system means its signaling is quite modern compared to older systems, with manual driving only still a regular occurrence on the U6. The system even has an automatic reversing feature, similar to what should hopefully be coming to the Elizabeth line in London fairly soon. Vienna's U-Bahn has very nice stations, as you might imagine, from the historic station stops on the U6 to the newest elevated stations on the U2, there are a wide variety of styles used. But stations generally feel quite clean and simple, something which is certainly aided by the lack of fare gates. Since as with most systems in the German-speaking world, the U-Bahn is proof of payment. Reminiscent of Toronto for me, Vienna has nice transfers from its U-Bahn and mainline rail to trams, such as heat sink, for example, or a much larger station like Pratterstern. Perhaps where the most learning from Vienna could come from these days, especially for cities in the Western world, is how extensively elevated and accurate design is used to provide network expansion at low cost to newly developing areas, something that can also be seen with the oldest parts of the network on U6. And with that, we have the Vienna U-Bahn, a truly wonderfully designed system in an iconic urban center. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.