№18 — Remise
I always liked the public transport system of Vienna. Reasonably reliable, relatively cheap and gets you most places within the city in about 30 minutes. Lately, the company that runs the system, Wiener Linien, was advertising their museum of public transport — I even got a voucher with my new yearly pass. They also started to promote fan articles heavily the last year, which I also needed to check out. Tram-themed suspenders sounded funny enough. Therefore, it was time for a visit. So Paul, Kevin and I met at Schlachthausgasse to check it out.
We entered through the gift shop but wanted to keep the best part for last, thus we went straight to the cashier to get our tickets and start the exhibition. The exhibition was very well done. You can see the different trams throughout the years, starting with the horse-drawn caravans all the way to the current subway generation. Each epoch had a dedicated stop within the museum explaining everything from the development of the network to the public transport during the world wars.
Fortunately, the target group for the museum is children and thus, there are lots of things to do for young and old (like us). There are gears to figure out, a panel with AC and DC currents to learn how they work and a “build-your-own-tram” stop. But the best of them all was the subway simulator. You take your spot in the driver’s seat of a Silberpfeil, the previous but still in use generation of the Vienna subway, and try to steer the subway through Vienna. Paul did a fantastic job, he should apply for a job there if this engineering thing does not work out.
Last but not least, we visited the gift shop. You can purchase all of your favorite Wiener Linien apparel and memorabilia. If you are a big fan, you can purchase your favorite station on a t-shirt, get fridge magnets, a LEGO U6 or — like Paul — a plan of all the stations and lines of the Wiener Linien network in Vienna. Definitely worth lingering for a while. Also, the temperature in the exhibition was only slightly above outside temperature — a chilling 0°C with rain — so it was nice to warm up for a minute.
If you are in Vienna and run out of things to do, check out the museum. It is worth visiting if you are interested in public transport. It is easily reachable by subway (U3).
