Photos From Half Way

Here are some photos from my trip to Eastern Europe. I'll describe more when I have time. I've taken about 200 photos so far so i'll get them up eventually.



Entrance to the oldest subway in mainland Europe.



The interior of the Combino Supra streetcar. Always packed.



The Vienna Metro. Comes every 5 minutes no matter what time of day. Even on Saturday and Sundays!!!



A newer Vienna Tram. Very Cool.

Still going to be slow on the posting. I'll try.

Future Posting Gaps & Budapest

Today I'm leaving for Eastern Europe for a week and a half. Hopefully I'll be able to post but as a precursor I wanted to post a link to 'Dodo' and his review of the tram system over at the European Tribune. There are some great pictures as well.

This summer, Budapest put new trams in service on the world's busiest tram line, trams from the Siemens Combino family that are the world's longest trams for passengers:

For me as a railfan, trams and tramways were too ordinary and everyday sights, and never considered them 'proper' railway. So I was astonished to discover that trams have plenty of afficiados among Western railfans. What's more, it turned out my (former) home city Budapest was an eldorado for them: an extensive network even after four decades of closures, lots of different tram types, lots of older types in regular traffic.

So, I thought trams deserve Train Blogging coverage, and took the occasion of the arrival of the Combinos to remedy my long dismissal by reading up on tramways, and present their development via the trams of Budapest. But when the Combinos had big technical difficulties, I delayed posting. Now I do it with a lager picture selection.

Siemens Combino in Budapest

In honor of booking my fall trip to Vienna, Budapest, and Prague, I'll post some youtube clips from some of these cities in the coming days. Anyone have any suggestions on places I should visit? I know I'm going to try and find a Combino Supra like the one in the movie below. Longest Tram in the World. Notice there are no couplers. The locals call it 'the Caterpillar'. Also, Budapest' subway is the oldest in mainland Western Europe (London's Underground is the first).



But I'll make sure I pay the fare, instead of perhaps doing it the more dangerous way as seen below.