Vienna U Bahn

[jrparkin]

Next month I will be going to Vienna. Amongst other things I will be attempting to visit every U Bahn station

Given this is only 98 stations this will mean I will have several advantages over the London Underground, namely I won't have to stay awake for 21 hours! And it's a smaller system which means I can do the entire challenge within the daylight hours

My route is pretty strong I think, only the one double back. I have tried numerous methods of cutting it out but this only makes things worse. The other notable thing about it is apart from one small section where I have to take the replacement tram to cover the four closed stations I'm completely within the U Bahn/S Bahn system

I've learnt my one lesson from the London Underground and have already written the route down - not memorised it - so it's ready to be pressure tested before the big day

[jrparkin]

Currently in Manchester Airport waiting for my flight to Vienna.

The current plan is for Acclimatisation practice on Tuesday followed by the actual attempt on the Wednesday

My hotel is close to not only a U Bahn station, but also a Supermarket so I can buy my supplies before I start.

[jrparkin]

Completed my acclimatisation practice. The route worked out fine, just a small tweak needed.

Real attempt tomorrow

[EastActionWoman]

Good luck! Looking forward to reading how it goes.

[jrparkin]

And I'm back at base feeling a little shattered as unlike the London Underground I did run between connections

The weather was a little drizzly, but luckily didn't come down as a deluge like it did the previous evening, which was useful as I had to take the U2Z replacement tram to cover three closed stations as per challenge rules

Things started off very well however when I travelled up the U2 line I had to get off at Aspernstrasse and wait for the Seestadt train. Slightly more annoying was a 25 minute wait for the S80 to Simmering but luckily when that part was over things got a little more smoother. It was also on this part of the line that I noticed that my system map which I was using to tick off the stations was both not fully updated - Messer Prater station wasn't on it - and also inaccurate - Hardeggasse Station was before Donauspital not after it like on my diagram. Thank goodness the train had a schematic over the doors!

I did miss a couple of trains (like an S Bahn train to Florisdorf for instance) but another was along shortly so no problem

The only other significant issue was at Huttledorf. When route planning, I realised when I got off at Westbahnhof, it didn't matter which train I took when I transferred to the U3 line as I had inadvertently created a loop. In effect this meant I should just take the first train that arrived, since I was coming back to Westbahnhof to transfer to the U6 line.

In Acclimatisation practice yesterday the Ottakring train was first. However what I failed to do when I got off my S45 train at Huttledorf was note the platform number.

This created a small problem when today the Simmering train was first meaning I did my loop in reverse so when I arrived at Huttledorf to take the S45 train, it was a bit of a pantomime as I ended up running through the station twice trying to find Platform 11!

There were no other issues and I duly arrived at the final station in 5:04:47

[jrparkin]

Also of note about a month ago, my mobile phone acquired a Pedometer that I can't seem to get rid of. Because my phone was my master stopwatch it logged my steps as well. Incredibly it managed to do this even though I was running for 85% of the time I wasn't on a train!

I would estimate I did about 8,500 steps or so possibly slightly less, I did after all pace about quite a bit at Aspen Nord!