Museum Remise

Vienna’s Arbeitsgruppe des Verbandes der Eisenbahn freude (Working Group of the Association of Friends of Railways, or VEF) was formed in 1969, and formally organised from 1972. The association opened a Museum of the Vienna Tramways at Ottakring station in 1972 after six years of collecting, but space was limited and in 1986 the collections were moved to the Erdberg station near the Stadium Bridge. The station was opened in 1901 but closed, with the re-routing of traffic, in 1990. The museum was closed at the end of the 2012 season in order to allow restoration of historic buildings but re-opened from 13 September 2014.

The museum is concerned with Vienna’s tramways, underground railways and buses, and their history is portrayed in 15 chronologically arranged displays. The city’s first horse buses appeared in 1815; there were horse tramways from 1865, then steam trams, and the tramway system was electrified in the twentieth century. Exhibits include more than 100 trams and light railway vehicles, amongst them a steam tram set of 1885-86. Visitors can drive an underground train on the US line from a simulator. The exhibits include modern tramcars with panoramic glazing, electronic controls, automatically-opening doors, linked by radio with control centre. One of the displays details international solutions to urban transport problems.