World Cup 2006 - free tickets available

From Wednesday 7th April until Friday 16th April 2004 the U-Bahn U6 from Alte Heide to Garching will be completely closed for maintainance work. A replacement bus service will operate. If you're a regular traveller on the U6 then you're probably already aware of this. For about a fortnight the MVG have been plastering posters everywhere. What the MVG have been substantially more discreet about, however, is that they are offering free tickets to the opening game of the 2006 football world cup! This game will take place in the new stadium at Froettmaning. The building of the stadium has caused a lot of disruption to the northern end of the U6 for over a year. So this special offer is a small sweetener to passengers who have been affected. ...

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/munich-u-bahn-closures.jpg[/img]

This is an amazing offer because opening game tickets usually cost 300 Euros. But before you rush off to claim your freebie, take note that you have to prove to the MVG that you have been severly affected by the building work. To do this you need to demonstrate that you either live or work in Garching and that you frequently travel from Garching to Munich.

The thing that I wonder about this is: surely all residents of Garching have been affected by this building work? All 15,500 of them. Not only residents, but also all students and staff at the Garching campus of the Munich Technical University. If every one of these people claims a ticket they will occupy 25% of the Alianz Arena's full capacity of 66,000 seats.

Here's the poster I saw sellotaped to the platform at Froettmaning U-Bahn station:

[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/mvg-april-fool.jpg[/img]

A bus will replace the train? A bus??? In rush hour that means that there will essentially be no service at all as the roads are solid along that route.

Also take warning: the last "alteration" to the U6 service was a shuttle train between Frottmanning and Garching. This was originally put into effect in for a 2 week period in November 2002, and is still going strong today.

Interesting ... Studentenstadt is a major U-Bahn to Bus transfer point. That's going to affect a lot of people like myself who usually transfer there. Do you know the reason for the closure?

There's been loads of closures along the U3 and U6 over the last year or so, even as far down as Implerstrasse. It's all to do with that bloody stadium that we "aren't subsidising" , apart from the massive rennocvations on the U-Bahn of course. Wait till they start working on Marienplatz station later in the year to put in a brand new pair of escalators and bring the station up to the newest safety standards, now that is gonna be fun! Not.

Hey look at is this way, be glad they are doing the work otherwise it could end up like the underground in london. You have to accept the pain in the short term to keep the long term benefits.

Was in one of my low down drinking holes just before midnight last night and the bar men said there was some kind blockade the polizei were going to do down the street and he had to shut at 12. So he comes round to cash up and I (grumbling) got my money out with "scheiß Bullen" and so on. Then he said he was just joking and gave a round of schnapps on the house for everyone who fell for it!

Ohhh...aren't BMW funny: BMW - A New Way to Cook

BMW do an April Fool in the UK papers almost every year. About 15 yeas ago they did one about tyres that monitored their own tyre pressure and warned the driver if there was a loss of pressure... Only now it's no longer a joke, but a reality... Maybe we'll have microwaves in cars in 2020 YL6