Tramscape Tramway
Photographs
Amsterdam,
Netherlands :
Amsterdam : Trials and Tribulations of Building A Metro
Metro
construction can sometimes be controversial, but rarely does it lead to open
and violent conflict as it did in Amsterdam in the 1970s, culminating in
riots on 24th March 1975.
The massive cost and disruption of building the first
underground line in Amsterdam brought strife to the narrow streets of
Amsterdam where densely-packed 17th century housing lines the banks of the
numerous canals cut concentrically around the city, the legacy of which has
led to enormous traffic concension in the late 20th century, but also the
influx of millions of tourists keen to see one of the world's most beautiful
cities. The most violent protest, in March 1975, was in response to the demolition
of historic houses in the Niewmarkt area but was also influenced by general
redevelopment in the locality, with new flats replacing older properties, many
of which had been taken over by squatters and the liberal / anarchistic elements
which had been drawn to Amsterdam over the years.
With no wartime destruction, a densely built-up city area and few
wide roads suitable for urban expressways, Amsterdam has relied on a
dense network of street tramways and a high level of cycle transport to
keep people moving . However, with the city rapidly expanding beyond
its traditional boundaries, with new immigrants, not just from former
colonies such as Surinam and Indonesia, but from all parts of the globe
filling large new housing complexes built in wedges to the west, south
and south-east of the city, the city planners identified a fully-fledged
metro system as essential for the city's survival and future development.
The population is over 800,000 and heading shortly for the 1 million
mark.
The first line, fully underground in the city proper, leading from
Centraal Station, to the housing complex of Bijlermeer, with two branches
from Amstel Station to Gein and to Gasperplaats, opened in 1977. It featured
3 metre wide trains with third-rail current collection. The
necessary demolition of properies in the Niewmarkt area of the city led to
the rioting - and also led to a moratorium on Metro development from which
the city, with a new line now under construction from Centraal Station
to Amsterdam-Zuid Station, is only now recovering.
The original metro
plans have, however, been modified. The first new line after 1977 was built
to run through Amstelveen (and later extended to Westwijk), to the south of
the city, but with no direct link under the city to the central area. This
meant that trains were routed around the city centre on new tracks parallel
to the mainline railway and an urban motorway, south of the city, joining the
existing metro just to the south of Sparklerweg station. This involved quite
a circuitous route to reach the city centre. The line south through
Amstelveen was built on a wide reservation but not as a fully-segregated
metro, so the new trains, only 2.65 metres wide, were equipped with both
third-rail and pantograph collectors as the Amstelveen line was operated more
like a tramway than a metro. To reinforce this, street tram line 5 was
extended south from Zuid-Station along the same tracks as the metro (dubbed
"Sneltram") as far as Amstelveen Binnenhof, a street-level terminus stub
reached by a branch off the main line just to the north of Amstelveen Centrum
station. The Amstelveen line, running in the centre of Buitenveldertselaan
and Beneluxbaan, has the unusual feature of high-level platforms for
the "Sneltram" and low-level platforms for the traditional tram line 5,
which does provide "direct" access to the city centre along
traditional street-based track. South of Amstelveen Centrum, the line is high-platform
only and was extended from poortwachter to Westwijk on 13th September 2004.
On 28th May 1997, the metro network
was extended once again, from Zuid Station alongside mainline tracks to run
around the west of the city via Lelylaan and Sloterdijk Station to
Isalatorwag, to the west of Centraal Station. This line, operated by 2.65
metre wide cars, but exclusively with third-rail current collection, was
originally planned to be extended to Centraal Station, but now only
terminates in a "No-man's land" in a desolate docklands area. What the line
does do is intersect numerous tram lines in the west of Amsterdam, allowing
commuters to reach the rapidly growing office complexes being built at
Zuid-Station and near the RAI Exhibition Centre without having to travel the
tortuous tram lines into and out of the city centre. Line 50 also allows
travellers from the south-east to travel to Zuid-Station and western
Amsterdam, without changing at Sparklerweg, and this requires dual-system
Sneltram and Metro operation on the Gein branch of the metro in
Bijlmermeer.
Line 50 does little to help the chronic problem of access to
the city centre from the massively-expanding suburban developments , so it
was decided to proceed with the originally-planned second metro, albeit
with the tunnel profile suitable for 2.65 metre wide cars only. This allowed
for less disturbance to the city during construction, as existing roads
could be more closely followed and there would be minimal disruption to
the (deep) foundations of existing housing, which are essential in
this waterlogged environment. Running from Centraal Station to Zuid-Station,
it will relieve the heavily used tram lines in the area, but not, it
is expected, their replacement as was the case with the first metro line.
The new line is planned to be part of a new access route to the
rapidly expanding Schiphol Airport (already Europe's fourth busiest), but
most importantly, provide the first fixed link to the growing areas of
north Amsterdam, separated from the city by the Ij river channel.
Ferries traditionally provided the link to this area and it was not until
1968 that a road tunnel opened. This tunnel, although allowing bus routes to
run into the city, is a real bottleneck, so public transport would
benefit considerably from a dedicated metro link. Despite there now being no
violent protests, technical problems have put the planned opening date back
behind schedule and services are now unlikely to start before 2014.
Further metro plans
have been put on hold. The original plan to link the newly developing areas
on reclaimed islands at Ijburg, to the east of Centraal Station by metro have
been abandoned in favour of a high-quality tram line (opened on 28th May
2005) and a 500-metre stretch of tunnel at Centraal built in anticipation of
this, lies unused. One suggested use for this tunnel is a theme park based on
Road Dahl's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"!
The legacy of all this is that Amsterdam has a
complicated mix of joint running of full metro trains, narrower dual-voltage
trains and third-rail only trains - and trams running along a semi-metro
line! Had the planners of the 1950s got their way, Amsterdam might by now
have had a more rational "Metro" nework and buses only in the city centre. As
it is, Amsterdam is committed heavily to the tram, which is seen as essential
to keeping traffic moving in the inner city. Several extensions have been
built into the suburbs in recent years, with new lines also outnumbering
closures in the city proper.
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