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Posts tagged ‘urban transit’

My Vienna: Imperial Court Pavilion Hietzing (O. Wagner)

Above/featured: Facing east, a U4 train departs Hietzing station to terminus Heiligenstadt.

Along Vienna’s U4 metro line, a dark-domed white cube-like structure seems to float over the tracks between Schönbrunn and Hietzing stations. Most may not realize the building’s relevance to the history of the city’s first railway, the city’s rapid urban evolution into the 20th-century, and the railway architect’s eventual “break away” transition from historicism to modernism.

Vienna was going to look very different after 1890. The city undertook its second and greatest expansion, absorbing 6 outer districts and ballooning the total population to almost 1.4 million (almost doubled in 10 years). The city’s administration recognized the challenge of efficiently transporting people between its new outer suburbs and the inner city. In 1894, Vienna appointed architect Otto Wagner with the complete design and construction of the new Wiener Stadtbahn metropolitan railway. The railway saw the creation of four new lines: the Danube canal line (Donaukanallinie), the “Belt” line (Gürtellinie), the suburb line (Vorortlinie), and the Vienna river valley line (Wientallinie). Today, the city’s U-Bahn U4 and U6 lines and the S-Bahn S45 line operate electrified over much of the original routing.

The Vienna valley line brought track and construction in front of Schönbrunn, the imperial summer palace for the ruling Habsburgs. The rail line’s new Schönbrunn station was located at the northeast corner of the palace grounds. But at the grounds’ northwest corner, Wagner created two stations: one for the public, and one for the Habsburgs. Built for the inauguration of the city railway on 1 June 1898, the imperial pavilion was set aside for the emperor, family, and staff. Emperor Franz Josef I only used the pavilion twice, as he was reluctant (hostile) to accept rapid changes brought by modernity.

Wagner created a domed-building whose interior was furnished with floral and vegetal elements in the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) style, a painting with a bird’s eye view of the city over Schönbrunn, a private suite for the emperor; and whose exterior included the uniform green and white colours seen throughout the entire rail network, glass and wrought-iron elements, and a separate portal providing a covered entrance for the imperials. Out of the many station buildings Wagner designed for the entire system, the imperial pavilion at Hietzing is most associated with the “historical” architectural style. The building is now a part of the city’s Wien Museum after successful post-war efforts to save and restore the structure.

The informal name is the “Hofpavillon Hietzing” (Imperial Court Pavilion Hietzing), but the building’s formal name is “Pavillon des kaiserlichen und königlichen Allerhöchsten Hofes” (Pavilion of the Imperial and Royal Highest Court). In the images below are divided sections: “exterior”, “interior”, and “sketches”.

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Nordfriedhof, Schwabing-Freimann, U-Bahn, U-Bahn München, Muenchen, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday around Munich: the 1st U-Bahn

Above/featured: Near Nordfriedhof station, a steel girder at street level is a monument.

At the southwest corner of Ungererstrasse and Schenkendorfstrasse is a steel girder as modest monument, which marks the first day of construction of Munich’s metro or rapid transit system (U-Bahn) on 1 February 1965. The underground station here was initially called “Schenkendorfstrasse” which was changed later to “Nordfriedhof” for proximity to the city’s north cemetery. Including this latter station, the first Munich U-Bahn opened 19 October 1971 on the present-day U6 line with 13 stations over a 12-kilometre stretch.

Nordfriedhof, Schwabing-Freimann, U-Bahn, U-Bahn München, Muenchen, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

“An dieser Stelle wurde am 1. Februar 1965 mit dem Münchener U-Bahn Bau begonnen.”
(Construction for Munich’s U-Bahn began at this location on 1 February 1965.)

The archival video “U-Bahn für München 1965” is available on YouTube in German. Bayerischer Rundfunk also provides a look-back at the 50th anniversary with this video (October 2021).

I made the two photos above on 22 Feb 2017 with a Canon EOS6D mark1. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-jAQ.

Westfriedhof, MVG München, U-Bahn, München, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday in the Munich Metro: Westfriedhof

I highlight the interiors of four U-Bahn metro stations in Munich, Germany:

6 November – Georg-Brauchle-Ring,
13 November – Lehel,
20 November – Marienplatz, and
27 November – Westfriedhof.

The comings and goings at Westfriedhof station are apparent with this 1-second image. The train station serves U-Bahn lines U1 and U7, and is named for the adjacent 50-hectare (124 acres) cemetery in the western part of the city.

I made the above pictures between 22 February 2017 (IG) with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and the following settings: 1-sec, f/22, ISO500, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ip7.

Marienplatz, MVG München, U-Bahn, München, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday in the Munich Metro: Marienplatz

I highlight the interiors of four U-Bahn metro stations in Munich, Germany:

6 November – Georg-Brauchle-Ring,
13 November – Lehel,
20 November – Marienplatz, and
27 November – Westfriedhof.

At the familiar orange that is Marienplatz, the U6 train has just departed for Klinikum Grosshadern. Marienplatz serves the U-Bahn U3 and U6 lines, and is also a major transfer hub for S-Bahn trains.

I made the above image on 23 February 2017 (IG1, IG2) with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and the following settings: 1-sec, f/22, ISO400, 28mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ip4.

Lehel, MVG München, U-Bahn, München, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday in the Munich Metro: Lehel

I highlight the interiors of four U-Bahn metro stations in Munich, Germany:

6 November – Georg-Brauchle-Ring,
13 November – Lehel,
20 November – Marienplatz, and
27 November – Westfriedhof.

Lehel station serves U-Bahn lines U4 and U5.

I made the above image on 23 February 2017 (IG) with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and the following settings: 1-sec, f/22, ISO400, 28mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ip1.

Georg-Brauchle-Ring, MVG München, U-Bahn, München, Munich, Germany, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday in the Munich Metro: Georg-Brauchle-Ring

I highlight the interiors of four U-Bahn metro stations in Munich, Germany:

6 November – Georg-Brauchle-Ring,
13 November – Lehel,
20 November – Marienplatz, and
27 November – Westfriedhof.

The above is a shot of the weekday morning 7am commute at Georg-Brauchle-Ring station which serves U-Bahn lines U1 and U7. I used this station to visit the ruins of the Olympiastadion ghost station and memorials to the massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

I made the above picture on 21 February 2017 (IG) with a Canon EOS6D mark1 and the following settings: 1-sec, f/22, 1SO500, and 24mm focal length. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ilk.

Munich: Ghost station “Olympic Stadium”

In the vicinity of Munich’s Olympic Stadium is a train station overgrown with brush and weeds. The tracks stretch north and south, but go nowhere.

Munich played host to the Summer Olympics in 1972; physical reminders include the Olympiadorf (Olympic Village), Olympiapark, and the Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium). In 1988, the train station “München Olympiastadion” closed to train service for the final time. Rail tracks which connected the station with the North Ring freight tracks were cut, isolating the station and leaving it to decay.

Since 2001, the Olympic Village has been listed as part of the heritage Olympiapark ensemble which includes the abandoned station. But will the station be left to decay? Or will the station be refurbished in some way to become a living memorial?

Historical maps of the MVV U- and S-Bahn system show how train service from central Munich to Olympic Stadium was utilized. S-Bahn train service carried passengers along the central trunk to Olympic Stadium via Hauptbahnhof, Laim, and Moosach; check out the system maps for June 1972 and June 1988.

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Near Most SNP, Rázusovo nábrežie, Dopravný podnik Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovaka, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Red wave (Bratislava)

This post is the second of four on Bratislava for the month of October.

Like all cities around the world, the streets have to contend with the daily (afternoon) rush of commuters in their cars and on public transport. The eye immediately picks up the brilliant red used by Dopravný podnik Bratislava (DPB) for their trams. The weather was pleasant and I decided to walk throughout the entire nine hours of my day-long visit to the Slovakian capital city.

I made the photo on 17 May 2018 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: 1/250-sec, f/11, ISO1000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-caK.

My Innsbruck: Zaha Hadid’s legacy with the Hungerburgbahn

As much as the Austrian federal state of Tirol is about mountains, spending time in the capital city of Innsbruck is also about reaching those very heights. To that end, Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid left her mark in Innsbruck with her redesigned Bergisel Ski Jump which opened in 2002, and her “Shell and Shadow” design of the Hungerbergbahn stations which opened in 2007.

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Hafelekar, Nordkette, Nordkette cable car, Nordkettenbahn, Hungerburg funicular, Hungerburgbahn, Innsbruck, Tirol, Tyrol, Oesterreich, Austria, fotoeins.com

My Tirol: day trips from Innsbruck

As one of nine states within the federal republic of Austria, Tirol is well known not only for all-season access to the Alps, but also for a variety of other attractions.

With transport authorities IVB Innsbruck, VVT Tirol, and ÖBB Austria, Tirol state capital Innsbruck was the base from which I travelled to Alpbach (half-day), Brenner (half-day), Hall in Tirol (half-day), Nordkette (half-day), Scharnitz (half-day), Stubaital (half-day), and Wilder Kaiser (full day).

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