On 9 April the city transport authority is introducing a new yellow painted tram which will do a circuit of the Ringstrasse every half hour (or 15 minutes if demand is high). This is presumably to replace the much-missed trams 1 and 2 which used to do the circuit in opposite directions to one another and much more frequently.
The new service will be tourist-orientated with picture screens and headphones giving commentary and pictures in seven languages about the places of interest passed on the trip.
It will not be available to holders of any normal Vienna Transport ticket or pass. Instead it will cost a not-insubstantial €6 for adults (€4 for children) whereas the old circular trams cost €1.70 or were included in any period passes. Even holders of the much-hyped Vienna Card don%26#39;t seem to get a discount. You can buy a 24 hour ticket for this tram alone for €9, but how many circuits with commentary do most people want to make? You can get a 24 hour ticket to include the rest of the transport system, but this costs €14 which means you%26#39;re paying a whopping €8.30 more than a standard 24 hour pass to include this Ring tram!
Pardon me if I sound sceptical, but I can%26#39;t see me ever using it, though I%26#39;m sure plenty of unsuspecting tourists will!
|||
Norman - a great bit of information for travellers to Vienna so they don%26#39;t get caught in the money trap.
In January I found it was possible to still do the circuit- it just involved a change of trams halfway when I got to a certain stop- I can%26#39;t remembe the name of the stop. This circuit was well worth it to get an overall view of the Ringstrasse- but not worth 6 euros unless the potential traveller thinks it worth it for the commentary.
My advice- just use the normal daily transport ticket and change trams halfway.
|||
Thanks for the information! I%26#39;ll arrive in Vienna on the 11th of April and had planned to take the regular tram to see the Ringstrasse, so I guess I may now be one of the first people to ride this new tram.
Why did they cancel trams 1 and 2? Are there now no regular trams riding this route anymore?
|||
Trams 1 and 2 have not been cancelled as such, but they take different (and longer) routes now, replacing some other trams such as line J, for example. 1 goes from Favoriten (10th district) straight through to the Prater, 2 from Friedrich-Engels-Platz to Ottakring (16th district).
Due to the new routing system, 1 and 2 do not circle the Ringstrasse anymore and if you wished to do that on the tram, you´d have to change once.
I´d not use the new %26quot;tourist tram%26quot; and stick to walking (particularly between the Opera and University) and maybe take the normal tram for some part of the way.
|||
We visit Vienna two or three times a year and have been doing so for xmf^7sh years!
When the change to 1 and 2 was notified first on Tripadvisor I told my wife. She though I was joking and I had to read her a transalation of the original pages on the Vienna bus/tram website. Even then she thought it must be a joke.
The original route of 1 and 2 is as much a part of Vienna as strudel and the ferris wheel.
Where was their thinking?
|||
Their thinking was probably that they could introduce this new tram and make lots of money out of the tourists!
|||
I will be back to Vienna for my 6th visit in early April and will miss the 1 and 2, and will definitely not use the yellow one!
|||
As mentioned above you can still use the 1 %26amp; 2, just that you have to change tram once to complete the loop.
|||
It must be said that the new routing is a major improvement for many Viennese, who rarely just circle the complete ring but rather want to get from a point outside the ring to a point on the ring or to a point outside the ring but on the other side of the city. So the new routing means having to change trams one or even two times less.
I perfectly agree that the new yellow line will be a rolling tourist trap and I fear it won%26#39;t look very nice either.
Therefore, it%26#39;s the more important to circulate the information to travellers that holders of standard tickets can still round the ring by trams line 1 and 2, now having to change trams once. The necessary change can be performed at many stations: Schwedenplatz, Julius-Raab-Platz, Oper, Burgring, Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring or Parlament.
The following document is in German but the map will give a good impression of the new routing and possible changes:
wienerlinien.at/media/files/2008/die_neuen_r…
|||
For us, the Viennese, it was supposed/advertized to be an %26quot;enhancement%26quot; as you can now reach more sections of the Ringstrasse without transfer. Although this is basically true and appreciated, we now have to deal with (more) delays on a regular basis because of the long route of the trams passing sensitive points and squares.
Furthermore, the prices are ridicolous in my opinion.
|||
so the tram will have the %26quot;nice%26quot; colour YELLOW and the tram has place for 35 people but only 31 will have a plug for the head set
Begin and End is Schwedenplatz
The information in the tram will be available
in German, English, French, Spanish, Italien , Russian and Japanese
I am missing my ring wagen as I could use both to go anywhere and now I have really think which ended last time going in the wrong direction ;))
No comments:
Post a Comment