A.T. Lane's thoughts about transport in Vienna, Budapest and Montreal.

   Three members of the Montreal Bicycle Club went on an excursion to Europe recently.  A.T. Lane & Queen Victoria flew from Montreal to Vienna and after 5 days in that city met with Miss M. J. Frothingham in Budapest for another 5 days before they all returned to North America.  As usual, A.T. looked at how transportation systems work in different cities and felt to write down some of his observations.

   He quickly found out that Vienna, a city perhaps a bit bigger than Montreal but smaller than Toronto, has a Public Transit system that puts these two similarly sized Canadian cities to shame.

  The above map shows the U-Bahn (subway system, 5 lines, 98 stations) and S-Bahn (surface commuter train, many of these lines extend beyond the city) networks.  All the trains were modern and seemed to run approx every three minutes!  In addition the city has an extensive trolley network also running at a very high frequency.

 

      The only city I have ever visited that has a public transit system that I have found to be of superior quality to Vienna is Hong Kong. Automobile modal share for Hong Kong is 10%, Vienna 28%, Montreal & Toronto 70%.

  Both the Montreal Metro and the Vienna U-Bahm have a similar age.  Montreal's began in 1968 and Vienna's began in 1976.  Since then Vienna seems to have invested far more into the system and now has 5 lines and 98 stations compared to Montreal's metro system of 4 lines and 68 stations.  The Montreal commuter EXO trains are very infrequent when compared to the Vienna S-Bahm. Montreal abandoned its once extensive trolley network in 1959. Vienna's trolley system although not as large as it was during the inter war period continues to be the 5th largest in the world.  Vienna has built a dedicated City Airport Train in 2002, Montreal's REM is supposed to connect to the airport in 2023.

  Interestingly Vienna does not have turnstiles for checking tickets on any of its public transit system.  It is not free however and inspectors may ask to see your ticket. 

  

  Although Montreal lags Vienna in terms of Public Transit I feel that the Public bike rental system (Bixi) in Montreal is better than the City Bike System in Vienna.  The Bixi system is larger (540 stations, 6250 bikes) than the City Bike system (121 stations, 1500 bikes).  I also felt that the Bixi bikes were better built.  City Bikes also use a rear coaster brake which I found annoying.

    Montreal also has the Dockless Electric Uber Jump Bike which began in June of this year. Both cities have the Lime electric Scooters.


   I only had one bike ride in Vienna but quickly saw that the paths are more developed than in Montreal.  For example all the intersections seemed to have separate lights for each of the three modes of transportation, walking, cycling and cars.  Generally each had a defined space on the street.

  According to Wikipedia, Vienna has a bicycle modal share of 7% compared to Montreal's 2%.  In my short time there I felt that although Vienna's bike path system was more developed than Montreal's there seemed to be more people cycling in Montreal.  I think that because the Public Transit is so much better in Vienna, the differences in cycling between the two cities seem minor in comparison.


  The second half of the trip was to Budapest.  This city excels at having vintage beautiful buildings, hence the photo of the Parliament on the Danube at the top of posting.  In terms of the Public Transit System, it seemed very similar to Vienna's but on a smaller scale.  Both cities have an extensive Trolley system but because part of the appeal of Budapest is to see the buildings, we tended to favor using the trolley more in Budapest than Vienna.

   Budapest's M1 metro line is the 3rd oldest in the world (after London & Liverpool).  The stations are very short and still have an antique look to them.

   On a day trip outside of Budapest we took a commuter train to Szentendre and then a river ferry back to the city after having lunch at that town.  The restaurant was overlooking the Danube and we saw a large number cycle tourists pass by.  I will have to do a long distance trip like that sometime in Europe.