VIENNA — The tram that rattles down the Josefstädter Strasse every six minutes was built in a factory that closed before most of its passengers were born. Its doors fold open with a pneumatic sigh. Its seats are wooden.
Vienna could replace it. The city has bought hundreds of new low-floor trams over the past decade. But the old cars still run on the busiest routes, and a plan to retire them has been quietly extended three times.
Transit officials cite reliability: the old trams have fewer electronics to fail. Riders cite something harder to measure.
“A city should sound like itself,” said Gerda Pichler, 74, who has ridden line 33 for fifty years. “This is what Vienna sounds like.”
The newest retirement date is 2031. Nobody expects it to hold.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 11, 2026, Section C, Page 1 of the European edition with the headline: Vienna's Trams Are Older Than Some of the Cars Around Them. That's the Point..
