The tram line to Ijburg, a developing community built on reclained islands, has been linked to Centraal Station by a tram line, rather than a metro line as originally planned. New Combino trams provide a high-quality service to Ijburg, and as the largest ever series of trams built for Amsterdam, are now coming to dominate the rest of the network as well.

Amsterdam is still building a metro, but it has been controversial - and work was delayed for over 25 years after public protests. As well as extending its tramway, Amsterdam built "semi-metro" lines dubbed "Sneltram" - and the Amstelveen line is a mix of high and low-platform stations for trams to Amstelveen and Sneltrams beyond to Westwijk.

Despite the new developments, Amsterdam has retained one of the densest street networks in the world. In the 1950s, when there were real chances that the system would be run down and replaced by buses, it was recognised that traffic flows, such as in Leidsestraat (above) could never be adequately handled by buses - and trams remained in favour.