The new draft ‘Transport Plan 2023-2024’ came out on Friday morning. This shows that public transport in Amsterdam will undergo a major overhaul in the coming years. Trams, buses and metros will run less often from next summer and tram line 19, among other things, will be canceled from next year. The regular users are fed up with it, Denk council member Suleyman Koyuncu is concerned: “The city is becoming less and less accessible to suburbs.”
Serious doubts about new public transport plans – NH News
“Tram 19 completely gone!?” Many travelers at Sloterdijk station don’t see that at all yet. “Tram 19 is my favourite, you get on and you’re right at home on the other side of the city,” says one traveler in surprise. The cutback plans of the GVB are due to a decrease in the number of travelers. In addition, according to chairman of the Amsterdam transport region Melanie van der Horst, inflation is very noticeable.
From this summer, metro, bus and tram lines will run less. But the real change will only come in 2024. There is a decrease in the number of lines of 1.5 percent. That may not seem like much, but according to Denk councilor Suleyman Koyuncu it matters a lot.
“Then I’d better take the train to Central Station, but the tram is much more convenient and cheaper”
Unreliable
Tram line 19 between Diemen Sniep and Sloterdijk station is the longest tram connection in the city. This tram line is about to disappear completely. The route is taken over by two other lines, tram 7 for the east side of the city and tram 12 for the west route. “In other words, more transfers to some parts,” adds Van der Horst. The main goal is to limit public transport within the ring. “Sometimes there are three tram lines on one route,” says Van der Horst. “We’re trying to reduce that.”
The city council has focused a lot on keeping the transport connections that exist in the outskirts of the city intact. “Those parts of the city are already the least well connected, so it is nice that there is no cancellation,” says Koyuncu. According to one of the travelers at Sloterdijk, this will cause a lot of hassle: “Then I’d better take the train to central, but the tram is much more convenient and cheaper.”
But according to him, it is precisely the intention that the city center has a good tram network: “The problem is that people can rely less and less on public transport. People want to go from A to B to work and in this way you only make public transport He is referring to the many measures that have been taken recently: “It ranges from scaling down to lines that disappear and rates that go up.
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Car or tram-free?
In addition to the measures for public transport, the municipality also announced that snaps in the city making it more difficult for car traffic to get into the city center. This should ensure that public transport in the city becomes better and faster.
According to the Denk council member, this is incompatible: “On the one hand, the council wants to continue making the city car-free and discourage car traffic. At the same time, public transport is only being stripped down.” Van der Horst does not agree with this: “It is good to realize that this is 1.5 percent. And those measures to become car-free were intended to improve the flow of public transport.” Ultimately, these low-traffic measures would therefore benefit the trams, buses and metros.
Ultimately, if the number of travelers rises again, there is the possibility to expand the public transport lines again and to scale them up again. The draft plan that is now available is not yet final, participation can still change it.
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