Lift Report

The expansion of subway service is an important factor in Vienna’s economy. Not only does it promote growth, but it creates and secures jobs, as well.

But it is not only in economic terms that the expansion of the subway is particularly important for Vienna. It is a milestone along the road to further improving the public transit network and makes a decisive contribution to protecting the environment and the earth’s atmosphere.

Even more people will have the option of switching over to public transit. That means fewer cars and traffic jams. The results are an increase in living quality for people in the city and a boost in environment quality, too.

Even now the Vienna Public Transit Services account for a greater share in transportation than the passenger car. The trend toward public transit has become ever more pronounced in recent years. The number of passengers using Vienna Transit rises each year. In 2006 a total of 772.1 million people were moved by Vienna’s transit system – 42.7 million more than five years before. 450 million passengers were counted in 2006 in the Vienna underground alone. For the first time in 2006 public transit, at 35 per cent, had a greater market share than the passenger car (34%) for all travel covered.

The construction of this extension had originally been scheduled for much later. But at the instigation of the City Planning Department, this project was moved forward since increased ridership was expected in the wake of the urban expansion projects in Aspern.

Following a number of delays it was at last possible to commence construction in 2003. The section through to the stadium was opened on May 10, 2008. For quite some time this date was not one hundred per cent certain, since two homeowners had for years stalled tunneling under their houses. As a consequence, the construction of about 100 meters of tunnel in the 2nd Urban District could not be commenced before June 2006.

The Schottenring and Praterstern stations are presented here as typical for the system. The Schottenring Station is an underground station at the interchange of the U2 and U4 lines. The station is located at Leopoldstadt, between Vienna’s 1st and 2nd Urban Districts. The station is named after the Schottenring, which recalls a Scottish cloister founded by Irish Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages. The station, lying parallel to and located under the Danube Channel, has both a center platform and two side platforms. The trackway for the U4 is elevated and runs parallel to the Danube Canal; that for the U2 is about 23 meters below the Canal. The two areas are joined by way of escalators, stairs and elevators. The station, built by architect Otto Wagner, was initially opened on August 6, 1901, as a part of the Danube Canal Line in the Interurban Railroad. That station was closed in 1918 and reopened on October 20, 1926, after the interurban railroad had been electrified. The original reception building opposite the Kaiserbad weir, also designed by Otto Wagner, did indeed survive the heavy artillery fire along the Danube Canal during the Battle for Vienna in 1945. Ultimately it was demolished in the 1970s in the course of the rebuilding of the Danube Canal Lines and the Vienna Valley Line to form the U4 line. The station was replaced with a new structure. The Schottenring Station has been the terminal station for the U2 line since 1980.

The Vienna Praterstern station is an important transit building in Vienna’s 2^nd Urban District. It traces its history back to the old North Railway Station, opened in 1864 and one of the largest and most important rail stations in the Habsburg Monarchy. Today’s successor structure has a daily passenger frequency of about 80,000 persons.

This is one of the most important public transit interchanges and stops in Vienna. The through station is elevated above the more-or-less elliptical Praterstern, a traffic circle at the entrance to the Wiener Prater amusement and recreation park. This circle connects several streets radiating in a star-like configuration. From this station it is possible to reach, non-stop, almost all the important destinations in the City of Vienna and the nearby surroundings.

In the course of building the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway, Austria’s first steam railroad, the original North Rail Station was built in 1837/38 and opened on January 6, 1838. The steep rise in ridership quickly rendered the station too small. It had to give way to a new structure.

The new station was built, not far from the Praterstern, between 1859 and 1865 and opened on October 15, 1865. Like all the other stations built in Vienna in that era, the North Rail Station was highly prestigious. A rail link started at North Station, passing by and running peripheral to Praterstern in an elevated stretch, and continuing through the Main Customs Office Station where, until 1925, it had a rail connection with the Vienna Interurban Rail network. The line ultimately ended at the South Rail Station. It was along this stretch that for the first time, about 1900, there stood a station bearing the Praterstern name.

During the Battle for Vienna toward the close of the Second World War, this station was bombed on March 12, 1945, and in April 1945 was heavily damaged by artillery fire. As a result of the ensuing Cold War the borders to the neighboring countries to the north and east were closed; the north rail line lost its international significance. Rebuilding and new construction began in 2004. The name of the station was changed – with the completion of the first new platform in April 2006 – to “Vienna-North Praterstern” and ultimately, with the new schedule in December of 2006, to “Vienna Praterstern”. In April of 2007 the new station went into full operation at platform level. Official opening ceremonies followed a year later, on April 4, 2008. The investment volume was 39 million euros.

The underground station was dedicated in the course of opening the fourth section of the U1 line (Nestroyplatz to Praterstern) on February 28, 1981. In the years 2001 to 2003 the station was converted to provide two separate lateral platforms. This was to cope with the steep rise in passenger frequency expected to follow the opening of the U2 line running toward the Stadium. The extension of the U2 made it necessary to bring to fruition earlier planning in which the U1 was to branch off, making the center and side platforms necessary.

It was on May 10, 2008, that the extension of the U2 line from what had previously been the Schottenring terminal station to the new Stadium Terminal, near Prater Stadium, was opened. Access to the U2 is primarily by way of a newly erected glass-front building oriented toward the entrance to the Volksprater midway and concessions. Skylights admit daylight to this new station.

Nineteen elevators were installed by Thyssen. These are found in one bank of three lifts, three pairs and ten single lifts. All these lifts are fitted with a separate machine room, in eight instances located above the shaft. Wittur was responsible for planning the doors.

The design was developed jointly by the Vienna Public Transit Services and the Gerhard Mossburger Architecture Office. All the underground stations and elevators were planned by Mossburger, the elevated stations by the Kartzberger Architecture Office. Different types of elevator cars have indeed been installed but the pattern remains the same throughout.

New regulations specify that a display has to be installed in the car. This prompted cooperation with the Schaefer Company, which proved to be extremely flexible when responding to changes.

The Schaefer GmbH was founded in 1964 by graduate engineer Wolfgang Schäfer. After several years of continuous growth, the company took the Vario and Domino information panel systems to market in the years 1981 to 1983. In 1987 the firm became an active founding member of the VFA-Interlift e. V. association.

Major expansion and restructuring efforts followed in the years 2000 to 2002 and in 2005 the company was rechristened as Schaefer GmbH, a private limited company.

The Lift Info System lets users obtain information even while using the elevator. The Lift Info System links various areas within the building with a continuously updated information and presentation system. Modern visual media technology is used to display the information. Thus current information, perfect orientation within the building, and control mechanisms for facility management are conceivable. Multifunctional monitoring systems made by Schaefer are able to document and update information and to present it in an easily understood fashion. Thus the systems shown can certainly be expanded since the system’s limits have not yet been reached. The only question to be asked in each specific application is in regard to actual utility to users.

This company also offers control panels that comply with conventional standards and guidelines without having to make any compromises in regard to design.

The stations were designed in accordance with the new guidelines for barrier-free access and for fire safety. In case of a fire, the car will always move to the designated escape level. The elevators themselves were not engineered for fire department use.

The elevators represent the interface between mechanical engineering and construction engineering. The Mossburger Architecture Office and particularly architect Vlado Simko are among the few specialists who are able to keep an eye on attractive design, technical challenges and practical necessities, all at the same time.

Architect and engineer Vlado Simko was born in Bratislava, Slovakia, where also completed his studies at the local university’s department of architecture. He commenced his professional career in Bratislava with the planning of the underground system for the city. Regrettably, that project was never realized. Once these efforts had been shelved, and after the Iron Curtain collapsed, he continued his career, from 1990 to 2008 in planning for the Vienna subway system, carried out by the Ku-Pa Architecture Office, now the Mossburger Architecture Office. There he was project manager for several underground stations.

His first project in Vienna was Floridsdorf, the U6 terminal station, representing an important transfer point between the subway and regional rail traffic. Other subway stations showing this Slovakian architect’s “signature” in Vienna’s subway planning were the stations on the U3 line, the Hütteldorferstrasse Station and the Zippererstrasse Station. His professional interest since the start of his career in Vienna was devoted to elevator design and engineering. There, the transparency of the hoistways and unusual steel structures were the most important challenges in his work.

This project signaled the end of his professional activity in Vienna. He then returned to Bratislava, to the project for an underground railway corridor that is a part of the TEN-T 17 European railway corridor planned to link Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna and Bratislava.

In conjunction with extending the U2 line, the Vienna Public Transit Services decided to have handicapped-accessible lift cars developed for the new section of the U2 extension. Following intensive collaboration with Thyssen, these have been implemented in accordance with architect Simko’s draft design along the new U2 line. The most important assignment for car engineering was combining a vandalism- proof car configuration with maximum transparency. Another task was, of course, to achieve handicapped-friendly control with the standard safety elements employed by the Vienna Public Transit Services. The design solution involves the use of large, solid glass panels up to 20 mm thick with the “undercut glass screw anchors” technology developed by the Fischer Company and used for the first time here. This unique mounting concept is not only used for removable wall elements in the car design, but also in the newly developed doors.

When selecting the elevators and cars the passengers’ subjective sense of safety plays a major part. That is why the hoistways are transparent, being made of glass. This also helps keep down vandalism. The special-design glass brackets used here are another safety factor that remains hidden. Thus even in the underground stations the elevators present a harmonious and transparent appearance.

“Minidome” cameras are used inside the cars. This type of camera housing is suitable for use in areas where discrete monitoring is desired without disturbing the overall architectural concept.

The motors are frequency-controlled and optimized for energy efficiency. All the operational and status reports – including emergency calls – are forwarded to the central control rooms of the Vienna Public Transit Services. Unfortunately the bright red and very ruggedly constructed emergency call units have been designated as standard in the Vienna Public Transit Services. They are employed at all the stops and stations operated by the utility. The advantage is that users are fully familiar with them. Unfortunately, they degrade slightly the attractive interior of the elevator cars and distract from the panels.