Transportation: Efficiency and Speed

 

Stadtbahn station Karlsplatz, Vienna

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Pre-Ringstrasse Vienna was difficult to navigate, and the maze of streets were devoid of a quick route to anywhere. This lack of an efficient transportation infrastructure was unquestionably a serious detriment to both residents and visitors to Vienna. The construction of the Ringstrasse represented the tee off to the beginning of a useful transportation network within Vienna. It gave visitors a sense of direction when they visited, and finally made it easy to get to and from major locations. Visitors could stroll along the Ringstrasse and never get lost, or have to take useless indirect routes to get to the city's main attractions. Although Vienna was great on foot, the new transportation network made it even more accessible to tourists by providing cabs, buses and trams. A cab could be caught anywhere, and once a tourist "had been deposited at his Ringstrasse or City hotel, would need to use buses and trams only for excursions to Schonbrunn or Grinzing and cabs only for occasions of state. Practically every tourist attraction would be within easy walking distance." Furthermore, in the late 19th century, the Stadtbahn came to Vienna, and widened the range of a tourist's exploration to citywide proportions. "Work began on the metropolitan railway system in 1895 and was completed in 1901. The entire network consists of four lines and covers some eighty kilometers (almost fifty miles). The very hilly terrain over which some of the lines run required construction of both elevated and subterranean sections of track. The bridges and viaducts built are functional works of engineering the smallest details of which were carefully designed by Wagner: Even today they are a characteristic element of the city's architecture." The stations themselves, designed by the famous Otto Wagner were works of art as well, drawing in tourists solely because of their spectacular architecture. "Those on the Karlsplatz and the imperial pavilion near Schšnbrunn palace deserve special mention. The former is a skeleton construction clothed in marble slabs. The sumptuous ornamental decoration, on which Olbrich, Fischl, and Plecnik all cooperated, reflects more clearly than the other station buildings the influence of international art nouveau. The imperial pavilion, a centrally-planned structure topped by a cupola, is remarkable for the extraordinary rich decor of its interior with partially gilded wood-paneling and walls covered with textiles." The system was also incredibly fast, crossing the entire city via the Stadtbahn took only 18 short minutes. Vienna's efficient and user-friendly transportation system, was an important factor in bringing the city up to the standards of London and Paris in the competitive and difficult business of international tourism.