Last week, I visited a very interesting museum in Vienna called the Remise – Verkehrsmuseum der Wiener Linien. This is Vienna's public transportation museum, dedicated to the history of the city's buses, trams and underground trains. Since I spend so much of my time getting around Vienna using public transportation, I thought it would be fun to learn a little more about how the system developed!
Vienna actually has a very long history of public transportation. In the 19th century, before cars and underground trains existed, people travelled around the city using horse-drawn carriages and trams. The first horse-drawn tramways appeared in the 1860s, and by the turn of the 20th century, many had been replaced by electric trams. These are called Straßenbahnen in German, or Bims for short, and they are still a very important part of everyday life in Vienna! Eventually, buses and underground trains were added to the network. Vienna's U-Bahn system officially opened in 1978, and today it has five main lines alongside an extensive network of trams and buses.
The museum itself is especially fun because it is not just a collection of photographs and old objects. It is housed in a former tram depot, where trams were once stored and maintained. Inside, there are life-size reconstructions of historic trams and buses from different periods in Vienna's history. Some of them are so well-preserved that you can actually climb aboard and walk around inside! I loved being able to see what public transportation looked like generations ago, and to imagine what it would have been like to travel to school or work in one of these old vehicles.
