Control Centers of Wiener Linien: Coordination of Incidents and 900 Vehicles

Disruptions are coordinated in the control center, where the staff regularly deal with illegal parkers as well as minor rescue operations and traffic accidents, reported their manager Özgür Akpinar. The subway has an additional control center.

So it doesn't have to be a fire, like recently in a special train of the U1, or a storm with flooding, during which subway lines were partially shut down in mid-September and the control center had to handle many more incidents above ground compared to normal days. On average, according to Wiener Linien, there are 130 to 150 unexpected events daily, with flooding or snowfall 300 to 400. On the stormy evening before the flood, there were nine overhead line failures alone on tram line 60, Akpinar recounted. "So nine times a tree or branch fell on the overhead line."

Deployment and Disruption Management

The control center is located in the company headquarters in Erdberg in a room with several computer workstations. It is "responsible for deployment and disruption management at Wiener Linien. We make sure that the people of Vienna reach their destinations from A to B," Akpinar said during a tour with the APA.

"Everything that is rail-bound poses great challenges for us," explained the head of the control center about the difficulties with traffic obstructions. Buses can be diverted or drive past an obstacle, unless they are in a narrow side street. "With a tram, we have to take longer detours to serve all or as many stops as possible for the passenger."

Incidents due to health problems of passengers are common. In the event of accidents with injuries, standardized questions are asked via radio with the driver, such as age, type of injuries and whether the person is responsive or not. This information is then passed on to the alerted rescue service. "Rescue comes before the police, because the most important thing is saving people," Akpinar emphasized about the workflows.

1,400 Radio Conversations per Day

About 1,400 radio conversations and 300 phone calls with internal and external forces are processed by the control center daily. For 50 to 70 of the incidents per day, one of the nine radio cars of the Wiener Linien is also ordered and an expert assesses the situation on site, for example whether it can continue to drive or not, explained Akpinar.

The control center, which is staffed around the clock, has a total of 17 employees. There are six services per day, with the so-called traffic manager acting as the main shift leader. Right around the corner from the control center staff are the colleagues from passenger information, Akpinar reported. They listen to the radio messages and offer alternatives for their route to passengers in case of obstructions on the track via announcements and other channels.

Vienna Lines: Own Subway Control Center

Larger and more spectacular than the operations control center, the additional subway control center in the round building next to the Vienna Lines headquarters presents itself. On huge screens on the curved wall, the routes and stops of the individual lines can be seen and the trains in the network can be tracked live with abbreviations, number and color codes. A sector is already planned for the future U5, explained Sebastian Czylok, head of the subway control center.

Up to around 20 people are on duty here at the same time, fewer at night. In front of the screens of the subway lines, the signal box operators sit in the first row, two per line during the day, in front of additional computer screens. These "are the colleagues who actually operate the switches and signals" and are in contact with the drivers via radio, said Czylok.

"These colleagues are also the first to react to operational disruptions, who accordingly stop trains once, who have to get an overview of the situation and then discuss and implement further measures with the other supervisory functions via the control center." They are also the contact persons for other issues, such as when a train has to be exchanged, then they are the ones who get in touch with our shunting staff from the various workshops, reported Czylok. "These are very, very everyday processes that happen many times in the network and are practiced every day."

System Falls "On the Safe Side"

"The signal box operators have a very high responsibility in their work," said the head of the subway control center. Depending on the length of the route, 20 to 30 trains are on the move per line at the same time. The computer system is characterized by very high security. "Everything in the railway is technically 'fail safe'. This means that in case of doubt, the technical system falls on the safe side," emphasized Czylok. "But there are also naturally situations where suddenly the human is required to make a decision."

Behind the signal box operators are support workstations, for example those that are occupied at events. This is the case, for example, on New Year's Eve, when there is additional need for coordination. There are also people in the subway control center who "take care of personnel scheduling, i.e. distribute the driving staff in the network," reported Czylok. In the last row sit employees with supervisory functions, where emergency calls from the stations arrive. All the video cameras in the stations and parking facilities can also be accessed live in the subway control center. Similarly, in case of a smell of fire, which can come from the braking process, as Czylok explained, or as in the exceptional case of the fire in the U1, a smoke extraction system in the stations can be switched on from the control center.

Directly next to the subway control center is one of several service centers of the subway revision. In these - without the U6 with its own car types and workshop - about 300 employees of the Vienna Lines are employed. The trains can be assembled, maintained and repaired in various halls, explained Thomas Weber, head of the subway revision.

On other sidings in the huge buildings, the nearly 200-ton trains consisting of six cars can be accessed from below or - primarily for the roof revision necessary for the air conditioning systems - from above. Depending on the type of vehicle, an inspection is due for the subway trains every four to six weeks, reported Weber, and "once a year a major revision".

(APA/Red)

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