Wiener Linien Reviews 

I recently had a deeply disappointing and traumatic experience with Wiener Linien during a visit to Vienna. We purchased valid 24-hour tickets on the tram the same day but failed to validate them due to unclear instructions for tourists. Despite having paid in full, we were slapped with an outrageous EUR 115 fine per person. This felt excessive, especially as it was an honest mistake, and no financial harm was caused.

Even worse, the behavior of the ticket inspectors was terrifying. They immediately began shouting at us when I asked a question, refused to introduce themselves, and made any conversation impossible. My elderly godmother and I were so intimidated that I had to call the police, fearing for our safety. Their brutal, unforgiving approach—especially towards women and elderly tourists—was shocking. A simple warning or taking our tickets would have sufficed, but instead, we were harassed and left shaken by this aggressive treatment.

Wiener Linien's treatment of tourists is unacceptable, and their lack of compassion for an honest mistake is appalling.

This is the most confusing public transport system I have come across in a European city. No maps anywhere. No information on where to buy tickets. It's hard to buy tickets. Lucky if you find a ticket machine. Otherwise you need coins to pay on the vehicles. Staff are rude and unhelpful. Most cities I have visited have a simple tap card upon entry. Vienna should be ashamed of its antiquated, confusing system that makes it imo the worst public transport in Europe. Got off and walked in the end. Honestly, Vienna isn't that great a city. My recommendation is to visit somewhere else that makes it easier for tourists to find their way around.

My son and I bought tickets from Schweden Platz to the Schonbrunn (EUR 4.5) and was unaware that we had to validate the tickets. We were stopped by control officers and fined EUR 105! We saw others in the same situation. What a tourist trap and money machine by Wiener Linien!

My 18 year old daughter and her three friends in Vienna tried to buy a ticket and couldn’t find anywhere to buy it , so thought they could pay for the journey from the ticket inspector .
Wrong …the aggressive gangsters were extremely nasty and fined them €105 euro’s .
Their first day abroad on their own .
Welcome to Austria !
On my list of places to never visit ..

Poor customer experince. We tried to buy single tickets at the main railway station. It was practically impossible. Three is only one ÖBB automat with many people in the queue and one of the most user hostile customer interface. The app is also awful. I really tried to buy tickets but is was nőt abke…

Why are Wiener Linien trying to ruin the reputation of Vienna and Austria?

Actually not me, but my wife was the victim of the Wiener Linien. We bought a trap called "24 Stunden WIEN" ticket printed on huge characters: the time & date when you bought so she thought it will valid from this timestamp for 24 hours. Next day (hours before expiring of the ticket) she run into the rude, tuggish and unpolite inspectors. She were treated as criminal, made photos about her ID and forced to pay the fine of €105 under the threat of physical harm or calling the police to double the fine, just because there was not stamp on it.

I made a written complaint about the treating of my wife. I asked them to investigate the case. They could not understand it is not about the fine, but the reputation. I did not ask back the fine never, be happy with that Wiener Linien, I wrote in my all email. Answers always: "A refund of EUR 105.00 is not possible, we ask for your understanding.", but they didn't apologize about treating Tourists never.

We will be avoiding Vienna far again because of this. There are plenty of other capital cities to visit in Europe where you aren’t treated like a criminal.

So be careful with them, unfortunately I found this site to late...

Absolutely Disgraceful behaviour , pure disgraceful me and my partner were using the tram service and we believed our ticket covered us both ways, when we showed the ticket the inspector wasn’t happy and stole my passport refused to give it it back , they demanded 210 euros in cash when I released my mistake with the ticket wasn’t getting me anywhere I offerd to pay with card , she got smart and held her phone up and said do you think this is a card machine completely refused to give me my passport back unless they got there money in cash , as I rang the police the male inspector got aggressive and forced me and my partner to walk away they refused to let us take photos of there ID absolute Thugs pure thugs and Thieves and liars as when I went to the police my self they told me that Wiener Linnen forgot to give me it back , lucky I had my passport book with me to get get home , please if visiting Vienna do not use this service you will be bullied, robbed and humiliated completely ruined my vacation

Are Wiener Linien actively trying to ruin the reputation of Vienna?

Do they need money so badly they attempt to extort tourists by intimidation for a cash bump at Christmas time?

Like so many others, I have fallen for the “Weekly Ticket” scam which lasts only until Sunday night, despite buying it on a Friday, so I paid almost €20 for 2.5 days of travel.
I found out later if you have the app, there you can get a “7 day ticket”, why not make it available on the machine?
While this is excusable under the pretence it is my fault for not knowing this, what is not excusable is the thuggish behaviour of ticket inspectors. I and many others I witnessed were treated like criminals, physically grabbed, shouted at, pushed again and eventually forced by physical confrontation to pay the fine of €105 under the threat of physical harm or calling the police to double the fine.
I would expect this from some Tyrannical society, not Vienna, apparently the nicest city to live.

Shameful and I will be avoiding Vienna directly again because of this. There are plenty of other capital cities to visit in Europe where you aren’t treated like a criminal or intimidated by thugs.

Targeting ignorant tourists with extreme fines!!!
You honestly feel you're back in East Berlin 1975. Undercover staff of Wiener Linien dressed in black jumps on ignorant tourists who have just arrived and don't know the U-Bahn system. Ausweis!!!!! and immediately a 105,- euro fine for not having or not having stamped your 2,- euro ticket. We are a family of 6 and had to pay euro 315,- to 3 men in black leather jackets with straight faces!! Children shocked and scared. Welcome to Vienna.
Please don't expect you can buy tickets on the U-bahn platform; you can't. Shocking experience in this beautiful city!!!!

Arrived in Vienna on a Sunday, and as I was there for a few days bought a full week ticket which would be more than needed.

I went out, visited the Christmas Market, when I arrived at Schottenring, my stop was met by a guy just in a high vis. He asked to see my ticket, I showed him that I had bought it this very day. He then asked to see my I.D, but refused to show me his. He issued me a fine straight away. I said why he said In Vienna a week ticket runs from Monday to Sunday, therefore your ticket is invalid until tomorrow. He would not give my I.D back until I had paid, threatened to call the police and even had the cheek to say that I should thank him for him familiarising me with the rules.

It was clear I wasn't trying to rob the system. It was clear I was trying to obey the rules and it was clear that they had been deployed with the clear intention to catch people out this way rather than genuine fare dodgers.

I love visiting Vienna. The people are generally not friendly but the ticket inspectors behave like facists and totalitarian jobsworths with a Napoleon complex.

We just arrived in Vienna yesterday.
We were at a station trying to buy a ticket and couldn’t find ticket machine .
We walked down the escalator and trough the station and up the escalator hoping to find ticket machine
Up the escalator we were met by the controllers and asked for our ticket .
We explained we were never on any train
But they issued us a 260 euro fine for walking up and down the escalator
They wouldn’t check their camera for evidence !!!!
The metro control in Vienna are scammers and bullies!
Be aware !
BTW We never paid this fine. We just walked away as we read online that they have no power to fine you!
When we started telling the controller to call the police he started shaking as he knew he was in the wrong!Just throw away the piece of paper and Don't pay on the spot as you will not get your money back!
Vienna people are the most disgusting people I've met on my many travels!

Very rude and disrespectful people. The Wiener Linien team is super disorganised.

Can only agree with all the other comments mentioning how ruthless the ticket conductors are. They do prey on tourists and never wait for an explanation. Even better when they resort to yelling or insulting you.

And frankly, the transportation system has gone downhill in the past three years. Trams are delayed all the time or have sudden interruptions, night buses are a hit-and-miss, AC during the summer is non-existent.

Tourist scam!!!!

We brought the 24 hour Ticket, and Got a 105€ fine Because we didnt “validate” our tickets at the small blue anonymous boxes(wich are placed far from the ticket booth) , even tho we had paid the tickets and the have the date and the time from where i brought it. Seriously?! Its a Big scam and they profit of the turists not knowing the rules. Very sad and angry!

Wiener Linien undercover officers are targetting tourist to give very high penalties. We were fined 105 EURO per person for our ignorance, no mercy from their part...

Be careful if you are a tourist, the controllers may make racist jokes at you!!!
I had experience with controllers. I was recently in Vienna and I bought a ticket for 72 hours for transport in Vienna, but I didn’t know that I needed to validate it (because I am not a frequent user of public transport and the last time when I was in Vienna I had an online ticket with qcode)… There were controllers at the Landstraße station, to whom I gave the ticket without hesitation. 1)The controller refused to communicate in English, 2)took my id and refused to give it back until I paid the fine, 3. he screamed to me that it was my problem that I don’t speak German language.
At the same second, another controller came (who is a reason of this post), he started shouting "ALWAYS ONLY WITH UKRAINIANS SUCH PROBLEMS." And many offensive words. He tried to prove his superiority (he pointed out that he was also not an Austrian by nationality, but nevertheless he is better because doesn’t make such a stupidity). He sometimes screamed sometimes laughed at me, at the level of a person with a disorder. I assure you if I were not in tears at that moment and managed to record everything on video, I would have written on this worker a statement to the police because he repeatedly violated my human rights and crossed the line towards racism.

And the problem is not in the fine, which of course I paid, but in RELATIONSHIP to the clients. I am writing this review not to justify my inattention, but to let you know that some controllers are incompetent, they can afford unacceptable things in relation to customers and they shouldn’t work in Wiener Linien. It was revealed to me not just disrespect but real racism. And if it’s happened with me it’s also can happen with some of you …. I would like to leave his photo here so that everyone knows this insolent person by sight, but I'm not sure that this will not violate his personal rights. I also left my message to the Wiener Linien e-mail and they promised me to bring it to the attention of the team leader of the control service ... but we'll see ...

Online and most of the personal customer service experience is positive. Overall nice and helpful both in English and German.

Handing out fines for wearing wrong type of facemask in 2023, while in public, ski-resorts, supermarket, metro, airplanes and trains it's not needed anymore, come on

Discriminatory behavior against tourists. We payed a 50 euro fine each, for not wearing masks, although half of the wagon's passengers weren't wearing masks. Wiener Linien Officer not only didn't fine the locals for not wearing masks, but he didn't even bother to check their tickets!!! He also demanded to check our passports, althoough he was no police officer.
I am very disappointed with this racist company policy.

Despite having 72 hour tickets via the app - we were pulled aside at Schottentor station in January 2023 and asked why we were not wearing masks (by a badged officer of Weiner Linien) - he proceeded to fine us for not wearing masks while his colleagues let 'locals' through unmasked and asked.

We were fined 50 Euro (x2) & proceeded to stand back to watch for 5 minuates. It was clear that there was some sort of 'nationalistic' underbelly to this human barrier created by overly rude & obnoxious men - targeting tourists and people of colour / looking not from Austria. Disgusting.

I immediately tried to report this to the nearest WL kiosk, and they shrugged their shoulders and pointed to an email address. I emailed the details (inc videos I took) & my concerns about this - only to get a reply stating that the rules were upheld their side and nothing was wrong. Sorry Vienna, but not worth this awful (and racist) service.