Hey, thanks for joining us today on the Transit Unplugged podcast, the world's

leading Transit Executive Podcast where we interview the top leaders

of transit agencies around the world.

I'm host and producer Paul Comfort.

We're now in our seventh season and I recently got to visit Vienna, Austria.

Ah, Vienna.

You know, the place for waltzes and beautiful music.

Well, and they, they've got also, if you didn't know this, literally the

best tasting tap water in the world.

it's amazing.

They didn't put bottles of water in my hotel room.

They're like, no, just drink it out of the tap, man.

You'll see what we mean.

And they weren't kidding.

I looked it up afterwards.

But they've also got one of the world's greatest public transportation systems.

It's called, the Wiener Linien transit system.

We spent a whole day with the leaders of the transit system, touring them.

We went underground, where they're building a brand new subway station, Got

to ride their sixth largest tram network in the world, and I had the honor and

pleasure to spend some time with, CEO, Alexandra Reinagel, in her office there

in Vienna, and she shared with me on this podcast, you'll hear all about the

transit agency, how transit's really done differently in Europe and in cities like

Vienna, how important a role it plays in the lives of everyone there, how so

many people ride the system, out of a city of, around 2 million people, you

know, more than half ride the system on a regular basis, and it continues to grow.

They continue to invest in it.

It's phenomenal.

And, we also filmed this episode of Transit Unplugged TV there in

Vienna, and you'll get to see it all.

Plus, a ride on the overnight train, the OBB night jet train will take you inside,

the World Passenger Festival, and the book signing I did there, and some of the

great folks we got to speak there with.

And then, an all around tour of this amazing city, its food, its

fun, its culture, and its music.

It's water and it's amazing transit system, plus some fun guests show up.

Make sure you go to YouTube and watch the video version of this podcast that

shows you what you're going to hear about right now from the CEO of the transit

system in Vienna, Austria, Alexandra

Reinagel.

Great to have with us today.

I'm actually in her office right now.

My new friend, who is Alexandra Reinagel, who is the CEO of Wiener Linen Transit in

the city of Vienna, Austria, which I love.

Thanks for doing this.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for loving us and for all the compliments and thank you

for spelling my name correctly.

Well, we've been here a couple days and already I'm very impressed

with everything I've seen.

You know, I go all over the world.

I see transit systems everywhere.

You guys do it right.

Yeah, thank you.

But, that's the reason is because I'm in a city which always, has a very strong

commitment to the public transport system.

In this city of two million people, the Wiener Linien public transport

system accounts for about 32% percent of the trips in the city.

1.

2 million people ride their public transit system every day.

How do they do that?

Everyone in Vienna is within 300 meters, or a 2 to 4 minute

walk, of a transit stop.

With transit so close by, with bus, tram, or subway, it's easy to get around.

on foot.

Bike, or scooter, not to mention, their buses that come

every two to three minutes.

Across the city, they have 30 tram lines, 130 bus lines, 5 subway lines,

and a 6th subway line, currently under construction, that I got to visit

while filming Transit Unplugged TV.

there.

The full network is served by nearly 9, 000 employees who keep those

multiple modes of transit moving.

The city's historic commitment to public transit has translated into Vienna

being chosen as the most livable city in the world for, get it, 10 times.

once you are in a car, it's very difficult to bring the people out again.

So maybe this is one of the secrets.

Another one is that we have a two to three minutes interval at

peak, interval, in peak hours.

Oh, the buses are coming every two minutes?

Very regularly.

Okay.

So, and we have a reliable system.

We saw that during the pandemic, yeah, car share, for example,

they just went out of the city.

So this was the reason why we said we, already offered an additional

service, with, rental bikes.

But then we realized we must offer for really seamless mobility

chains, we must also offer cars.

and the usage of car.

Okay.

So, but shared cars, yeah?

Shared cars are much better than than private owned cars and we have now, at the

moment we have 100 cars in the CDE cars.

Okay.

which you can share.

it works via, via our app, so, I mean, mobile app, you have their

information, real time information, you can buy tickets, you have your

annual pass in the app, and you can use the bikes and the cars.

That's great.

Tell us more about that annual pass.

I think that's very interesting.

You have one here in the city, and then you have one for the whole

country called the climate ticket.

Yes, that's correct.

Can you tell us about both of those?

Well, you can have, all the public transport network in Vienna

for one euro, one euro per day.

and the whole network in Austria, so Austrian Federal Railway and all

cities in Austria for 1092, euros.

That's three euros a day.

That's three euros a day.

And if you are elderly or if you are, under 26, it's 25 percent reduced.

Very nice.

Who pays the rest?

Transcribed The annual pass of Vienna is subsidized by the city

of Vienna and the climate ticket by the federal government of Austria.

One thing I thought was interesting, somebody told me this, tell me if

it's true, that they changed the name of the Ministry of Transport to

the Ministry of Climate Protection?

Yes,

that's correct.

That's pretty interesting, that's smart.

The Minister, the Minister of, of, of this, The ministry is, is from, is of

the Green Party, so yes, and, and I think, they have done a good job with

the climate ticket because we see also there an amazing increasing of riderships.

Alexandra started her transit career in 2008 as the Managing Director

of the Transport Association for Vienna and several surrounding areas.

She became the Chief Financial Officer at Wiener Linien in 2011 and the

Chief Executive Officer, in 2022.

Like all transit CEOs, she spends a lot of her time connecting with

employees and staying in touch with stakeholders at the city government.

I asked her about a "day in the life" at the CEO, besides just the

usual meetings with stakeholders, and she said this about her staff.

I love to visit my staff.

So, you know, we have a lot of sites outside, a lot of depots and, workshops,

and I love to go there and, um.

Talk to, to our employees and look, what they need and, how they are feeling.

So because, as a service provider, if you have a lucky

staff, you have lucky customers.

As I said before, Wiener Lenien has almost 9, 000 people at the

agency, and it continues to grow.

Like many agencies, she has a team of security staff in distinctive red jackets

to help keep riders and operators safe.

Alexander went on to talk about her maintenance staff.

Who, in addition to keeping all the "modern" parts of the system running,

have to keep portions that are over 100 years old in top condition.

Now, keeping things in top condition means sometimes you have to disrupt

service, right, for construction.

But Wiener Linien takes a typically Viennese approach to signage.

With signs that say, "sorry, not sorry.

Those are the messages they give about those disruptions.

when you spoke the other night, we're here, you and I were both at

the World Passenger Festival, we were at a reception the other night,

you spoke, I love the picture you put up that said, sorry, not sorry.

for your construction project.

Tell us about that and what that means and I think that's very interesting.

I think people in America could learn from this.

Oh, okay.

Well, we have a major construction program.

We set that up last year in consultation with the city of Vienna and so we

have very big construction sites every year and where not only we

are modernizing our network, but, we also, do a new surface then.

Broader footpaths, bike lanes, hopefully mostly dedicated lanes for the public

transport, and also, one lane for the individual, transport for the cars.

And, as you know, construction sites are not only pleasing,

they trigger displeasure.

So we had to found a communication, line, which touches emotions and not

are only appealing the mind, of people.

And we are playing a little bit with our special kind of Vienna humor,

we call that the Vienna schmeh.

And, that means, we say, well, stroking tracks is not enough any

longer, we really have to build them.

Or we are not running a petting zoo, we are running one of the, of the best

networks of the world and that need, that needs now a little bit help and

support and renewing and modernizing.

And, the, the general claim is a little bit, sorry, not sorry.

Yeah.

So you're basically.

Tell me if I'm saying this right.

You're basically telling people, look, we're sorry we're disrupting your

daily life by your, you know, having construction here, but we're not sorry

because we're making this better for you.

That's correct.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

I think, I think that's a great kind of little play on things and

helps people remember, okay, Yeah, I have, you know, no pain, no gain.

I gotta have a little pain, but then I have a big gain.

Yeah, that's

a good summary, but, you know, there is a lot of work behind it

because it's not only these claims.

It's also, we are, this is, communication in general.

Okay.

But each site has a special communication than there.

it's, it's, people who live there, the residents, surrounding,

uh, uh, construction site.

They get, certain, how to say bodies i would say near the construction

sites where they can have a daily communication with so oh really they

tell you what's going on how long it will take where the diversion is

going so Which trips can you take, for these weeks, yeah, because we have

disruptions and we have slow zones there.

So there is a regularly information face to face.

And we have also a stakeholder communication, you know, we are

owned by the city of Vienna and politicians, elected persons, so,

I mean, they want to have the right messages also for their voters.

Yes.

So this is what we also prepare for them.

As Alexandria said, they are owned by the City of Vienna, but

there's a lot more to it, too.

Wiener Lenien is part of a larger company owned by the City of Vienna.

In some ways, like how contracting companies work in other parts of the

world, but with unique Viennese twist.

We are part of the Wiener Stadtwerke Group, and the Wiener Stadtwerke

Group, so we are a subsidiary of the Wiener Stadtwerke Group, and

this is actually a private company, but owned by the City of Vienna.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yes.

Wow, do you have a board of directors?

we are a board of three female directors here at Wiener Linien.

And then there is a board of directors of the Wiener Stadtwerke Gruppe.

These are two men and one woman.

So also the female director is responsible for Wiener Linien.

And then we belong, so to say, to the city government.

So you're kind of responsive to the voters.

So, you know, it's a lot of different things

through that network going on.

Not

directly, but indirectly.

Indirectly, yes.

Like all agencies, Wiener Lenien gets revenue from the farebox.

They have about a 55 to 60 percent farebox recovery, which is very good,

with the remainder picked up by the city.

Large projects, like their subway expansion, have significant amounts of

funding from their federal government.

One of the most interesting things about Vienna is their holistic

approach to transport, something they call a modal split, looking

at how people break up their trips across all modes, including cars.

Well, the modal split says what is the market share transport modes in Vienna.

And 32 percent of the daily trips are done in the public transport network.

And 32% is walking and 10% is cycling.

So, there is left 36% of the, of the day, of daily, six per 26% of

the daily trips are, done by car.

In car.

Right.

Yeah.

And so how are you addressing it?

You're trying to get more out of the car into your system?

Yes, and we

do that, we do that, in, in offering, Seamless mobility chains, so we're

not only running our core system, trains, metros, trains and trams,

but we're also offering additional mobility services such as rental

bikes, e cars, and on demand shuttles.

I understand, yeah.

And I love your idea of going from a mobility provider to a mobility designer.

Can you talk more about that a little bit?

Yeah, it's we're talking about the freedom of mobility or the

flexibility, mobile, mobile flexibility.

Our claim is mobile flexibility.

Okay.

That means you don't have to own a car in Vienna because it doesn't

matter which mode you prefer today as long as it is a sustainable mode.

So you can take a car, you can take a shared car, you can take a rented bike.

You can rent a bike, you can take the public transport system, or if

you have a short distance and the weather is nice and you don't have

a heavy luggage, you just walk.

Because what we are doing together with the city government and with

the urban planning department is, Bringing back really good green

and cooled areas in the city.

I mean, you know, worldwide we face the trend of urbanization and, the

unstoppable, unstoppable urban heating.

So we do a lot to green the city and to cool it down.

And, sustainable transport modes and the good offer support these, these efforts.

That's great.

And a little bit, maybe you could tell us about your baby, which is, Wing Mobile.

Tell me about that.

That means that we add mobility services to the classic network of

underground lines of trams and of buses.

And so, we have mobility hubs.

at the public transport stations and offer their rental bikes, and

on 100 mobility hubs also e cars.

You find taxis there and service stations also for bikes.

And what we are testing now is, Those two on demand shuttles at the suburbs

of Vienna, where the population is not so dense, you have the houses,

swimming pools, people with garages, and the stations are not in that

dense range as in the city center.

So you need Different answers there, and different offers there, and on

demand mobility is one of the answers, and in the future, I hope, autonomous.

yes, yes.

Alexandra, you have a wonderful city.

On the way in here today, we saw so many people on scooters, on bikes, walking.

Of course, it's a beautiful day, but it's so much to enjoy here.

Vienna is already one of the largest public transport networks in the world,

and with the expansion of their subway and tram lines, it's only growing.

you're also going to be having some new tram lines, I understand, coming up?

Yeah, we already have a pretty big network, right?

Aren't you one of the top 10 in the world?

Well, as I, as I told you, we have five underground lines and we are

building actually the sixth one and get there some connecting, connecting

hubs with the existing system.

So we are always planned a network and, we know since very long that we have to

build the fifth, the sixth underground line is the reason why we already

have a U6, but now building the U5, so then the network is, is, is, closed.

and we get new 12 new subway stations, and they will provide, faster

connections and create space for more, 300 million more passengers per year.

But we are also building new tram lines and I'm very happy about this.

We have currently the sixth biggest network, tram network in the world.

That's amazing.

I've been to, where did I go to in Australia?

Yara Trams.

Yeah, we're going to go back there this November.

They have a pretty big one too.

And, your, your system here, we're going to ride it today.

I can't wait.

For those of you who are listening to the podcast, We're filming too

today, and so you can listen to the podcast and then watch it all.

You'll see it all on the upcoming September episode of Transit Unplugged.

Like most places in the world, Vienna is working on decarbonizing their fleet,

but Vienna's unique geography makes the battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell

choice less either or and more yes and.

Tell me about decarbonizing your bus fleet.

Well, we are, we have a philosophy of having two new technologies in our,

offer, because, as we have a very dense range of stations, and very short

distances between the stations, and we have a hilly topography in our city,

we talk about having a heavy, a heavy traffic with stop and go, movings.

So, covering, or, replacing our diesel bus fleet, so we are, at the moment we

have, Euro 6 diesel buses, about 500.

Cover, replacing them only by electric buses won't, be enough.

Because we would need so many buses, and so many new depots

and a lot of drivers more.

that's not, quite efficient.

So we have divided Vienna into two parts.

We have the northern part with the really long and heavy bus lines and

this will be run with hydrogen buses.

Hydrogen, I love hydrogen.

Yes, okay.

And we reproduce the hydrogen by ourselves because as I told you, we are

part of the Wiener Stadtwerke Group.

Our sister company is producing hydrogen and sells us this hydrogen.

Wow, that's great.

So, and it's green, it's completely green, it's 100 percent green,

green, engine, green hydrogen.

And, the southern part of Vienna, there we have the competence

center for electric buses.

And this is, so run by electric buses then.

currently we are buying 60, 60 electric buses and 10 hydrogen buses and preparing

tenders for the next, the next vehicles.

How's

the, How's the market for buses?

In America, we don't have enough manufacturers anymore,

so there's long lines.

Sometimes it takes two or three years to get a bus.

Are you having that trouble here in Europe?

Yes, we are facing a similar situation.

It's very difficult to get the supply at the right moment, so yes, we are

waiting actually for the electric buses.

I mean, They are delivered, but not in the promised way.

Right,

I always like to wrap up these conversations asking folks about their

vision for the future of mobility.

Alexandra paints a picture, a dream.

of what she hopes Vienna will be like in a few short years.

give 100 countries.

What do you see as the future of mobility?

In Vienna and for the world.

The future of mobility is that, as I said, we are mobility

designers, run by trusted brands.

we are under the responsibility of, of public transport operators, and people

don't have to think about, and don't have to take care about weather conditions

or personal conditions because they have a broad range of sustainable,

mobility offers, near, their, residence.

We don't see an enemy in the car.

But maybe we see an enemy in the private owned car, so there are needs for

car usage, we know that, and you have then to have a car nearby you if you

need one, but it must be a shared car.

So, I love to talk in pictures, so I always say, when you live at

the city center, and we still have some crowded streets there, And we

have one which is called The Belt.

It's a belt around the city center.

And, the picture of the future, which I like to draw, is, you open the window

because you have an apartment there.

And when you open the window today, you hear a lot of, noise.

Imagine you open the window in about five years, and you're not sure if the

window is open because you hear nothing.

Yeah, because you have, underground trains, you have, the few cars

you have there are electro engine driven, you have pedestrian down

there and a good and clean air.

And this is the picture.

We also have a real picture and, which we always take when we

talk about, about the future.

This is our vision.

That's wonderful.

Well, I hope you can make it happen.

Me too.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for being with us today and for being so welcoming We look

forward to touring your whole system today and we'll bring it to the world after.

Thank you for your interest.

That's great.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Transit Unplugged with our

special guest Alexandra Rheingold, I'm Tris Hussey editor of the podcast.

And coming up next week, we have a fascinating panel discussion about the

state of the OEM bus industry in the us.

We feature Sherry little from Cardinal infrastructure and Jennifer McNeil

and Stephanie . Dean of new flyer.

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