Amsterdam Trams/Metro/Heavy Rail help needed please :-)

[Techniquest]

Hi all,

I'll not go into huge detail right now, there is going to be a trip report after all, but I'm currently planning what exactly I'm doing in Amsterdam on a visit from 9th-12th January 2023. Just to put it out there, no I am not going to do any 'adult' activities in the Netherlands! One of the main reasons for going to Amsterdam is to actually see a bit more of the city, as last time I went there I only used it as a stopping off point in the west of the city, as part of an InterRail adventure.

Given I'm going in January, the chances are it's not going to be hugely focused on any real level of intense physical activity due to the possible inclement weather. If it turns out to be nice weather, of course this will change! This point was noted in a video I watched today about the downsides of living in the Netherlands, but it did remind me that there's some fantastic public transport options in the Netherlands.

Which leads me to this thread. I haven't been to that part of the world since 2014 according to my notes, and not to Amsterdam since early 2013. So anything I knew about the country, and indeed its trains, is basically history now. Its Metro I did one single journey on, and the trams I didn't touch. So I've a lot to catch up on, and my primary question right now is this:

Are there any particular tram or Metro routes I should prioritise doing?

On a similar note:

In terms of heavy rail, is there anything in particular I should try to experience? I'm guessing the locomotive-hauled trains are all but finished now.

Finally, is there an option for a day ticket on the trams/Metro? I'm all up for walking, absolutely, but if the weather is against that then I shall be avoiding too much walking!

 

[StephenHunter]

The Berlin InterCity and the Nightjet services are still hauled.

 

[43096]

In terms of heavy rail, is there anything in particular I should try to experience? I'm guessing the locomotive-hauled trains are all but finished now.

Loco-hauled stock (trains top’n’tailed by TRAXX locos) is still running on the services on the high-speed line to Rotterdam/Breda/Brussels (and Den Haag-Eindhoven) - new stock delayed by Covid to next year - and the Amsterdam-Berlin service is still hauled, too. The Berlin service Is currently 1700 locos to the border but will be going over to leased Vectrons throughout. There are also now sleepers out of Amsterdam again, also worked by Vectrons leased from ELL.

 

[Techniquest]

The Berlin InterCity and the Nightjet services are still hauled.

Thanks, I did wonder about the DB trains. What's on the Amsterdam-Brussels non-HS trains now?

 

[StephenHunter]

186s, I believe.

 

[DanielB]

186s, I believe.

That's correct.

Regarding the question of TS about metro services: the M52 from Noord to Zuid wasn't there yet during your previous visit. Worth to experience that line being the only real deep level line in the Netherlands. With some impressive stations en route.
For example De Pijp station where the two platforms are below eachother instead of next to eachother.

Day tickets are available, see GVB.nl for all options.

 

[Techniquest]

Loco-hauled stock (trains top’n’tailed by TRAXX locos) is still running on the services on the high-speed line to Rotterdam/Breda/Brussels (and Den Haag-Eindhoven) - new stock delayed by Covid to next year - and the Amsterdam-Berlin service is still hauled, too. The Berlin service Is currently 1700 locos to the border but will be going over to leased Vectrons throughout. There are also now sleepers out of Amsterdam again, also worked by Vectrons leased from ELL.

Sorry I missed this post earlier! Thanks for the informative post, I shall be keeping an eye out on those, I've not sampled one of those 1700 locos yet and it could be fun.

That's correct.

Regarding the question of TS about metro services: the M52 from Noord to Zuid wasn't there yet during your previous visit. Worth to experience that line being the only real deep level line in the Netherlands. With some impressive stations en route.
For example De Pijp station where the two platforms are below eachother instead of next to eachother.

Day tickets are available, see GVB.nl for all options.

Thanks, that definitely needs investigating!

I do wonder where I put my Dutch phrasebook, it will be incredibly useful!

 

[StephenHunter]

Not long left for the 1700s; NS are hiring in extra Vectrons to replace them.

 

[Techniquest]

Not long left for the 1700s; NS are hiring in extra Vectrons to replace them.

Are they likely to be around in January?

 

[biko]

Are they likely to be around in January?

Yes, I understand they will remain for another year. The shortest trip you can do with the Intercity Berlin from Amsterdam is to Hilversum, you can just use a normal ticket as it's seen as a regular Dutch Intercity within the Netherlands.

 

[duncombec]

Hi all,

I'll not go into huge detail right now, there is going to be a trip report after all, but I'm currently planning what exactly I'm doing in Amsterdam on a visit from 9th-12th January 2023. Just to put it out there, no I am not going to do any 'adult' activities in the Netherlands! One of the main reasons for going to Amsterdam is to actually see a bit more of the city, as last time I went there I only used it as a stopping off point in the west of the city, as part of an InterRail adventure.

I had my first trip to Amsterdam in September, and found it a really interesting city. Depending on whether you mean transport only items or the more touristy things as well, I found an IAmsterdam card to be very useful - it looks expensive, but if you plan what you want to do, and take into account the fact transport and a canal cruise are included, it's easy to get the value back.

One thing of note: none of the museums, nor any public transport, takes cash (only the GVB office opposite Centraal seems to accept cash for transport). Make sure you have a card that doesn't charge, or go for something like the IAmsterdam card where you only have to pay once! The "no cash" principle also extends to gift shops and cafes in those museums.

Are there any particular tram or Metro routes I should prioritise doing?

I'd recommend route 26, out to Ijburg. It's the only route run regularly with double trams, and at one point goes over a bridge, through a tunnel, and crosses motorway junction on a level crossing! It's not the most scenic in the world, but is "structurally" interesting. It, and route 24, also don't have conductors, but the rest do.

On a similar note:

In terms of heavy rail, is there anything in particular I should try to experience? I'm guessing the locomotive-hauled trains are all but finished now.

I noticed that every type of train is painted in a slightly different version of yellow and blue, but they are all equally filthy!

Finally, is there an option for a day ticket on the trams/Metro? I'm all up for walking, absolutely, but if the weather is against that then I shall be avoiding too much walking!

Yes - €8.50, as above, only payable by card or on the OV Chipkaart. I'm not too sure on how one-off tickets work (various suggestions about surcharges if you buy them from a ticket office, and are apparently issued on smartcards whatever), but I had a stored value card (bought from the GVB office opposite Centraal, where you can pay by cash), and there is a minimum starting balance of €20* on the OV Chipkaart for any NS (heavy rail) journey, so you may have to account cleverly if you don't want too much balance left. Luckily for me and my trip to Den Haag (Trams on a bridge across the station concourse!), the ticket clerk was very willing to work out how much to load on so I had €20 to start my return journey without too much excess balance to use on the last morning I had left.

Some interesting vehicle types, mostly operated by Connexions in R-Net livery - articulated Van Hool types, 15m VDL Citeas, and I did see an Ebusco electric vehicle (another Chinese supplier) out on the 347 in the south of the city centre. As far as I can tell, all, or at least most, GVB buses were electric. I had quite a nice ride out to Zaans on a 15m Citea (including an accident where bus + car didn't fit around the same corner at the same time!).

The ferries across the IJ from the back of central station are free, and you can share them with hundreds of bikes, mopeds and pedestrians.

Hope that helps!

* Some places, including staff, will tell you €16, but it seems it changed at some point earlier this year.

** Should also add that Amsterdam is quite walkable: my hotel was on what you might call the outer canal ring (Stadhouderskade), and it was about 30 minutes walk from Centraal, although I do walk fairly quickly.

 

[dutchflyer]

A little more about various 1-2-3 day tickets:
GVB is the city-owned urban operator: metro/tram/bus, incl 1 busline to airport from outer suburbia. It offers the cheapest dayticket (can even buy from busdriver, only for 1, not for 2-3 days etc.)
Besides this there are 2 types of daytickets that include all GVB and a small/larger area around the city, on both trains and regional buses (incl. the faster and very well used Connexxion bus from airport into town passing lots of HTLs.
ATT: Amsterdam Travel Ticket, also trains and some buses beside GVB, incl airport.
ARTT: Amsterdam REGION travel ticket (would also incl. the Hilversum train)
Due to how its organised as for now, these are all as single use chipcards (this means not 1 trip, but 1 time to use-not reloadable again).
THese tickets do NOT include other entries, but some of these may give tiny discounts. The Amsterdam Ticket cost a lot more and does incl various touristy-entries. At least in main season there are stands at airport able to sell the whole lot.
In fact the most frequent loco-hauled (and pushed too) service is city-airport, as both the ICD to Rotterdam Breda and the hourly INTernational to Brussel/BE use them-there are all kinds of warnings about supplmt-but this ONLY applies to the ride airport-ROTTerdam, via hi-speed, not for Ams-Airport.

 

[DanielB]

and I did see an Ebusco electric vehicle (another Chinese supplier) out on the 347 in the south of the city centre.

Ebusco is actually a Dutch company. Their vehicles used to be built in China (up to the 2.2 you've seen). But as of the Ebusco 3.0 the buses are built in their own factory in Deurne, the Netherlands.

Some places, including staff, will tell you €16, but it seems it changed at some point earlier this year.

Nothing has changed, its just different ways of explaining it. The deposit taken from your card upon checking in for a train is indeed € 20, but as you're allowed to have a negative balance of -4 euro on your card you'd actually only need € 16 on the card to be able to check in.

 

[Techniquest]

A lot of really useful information there, I'm reading this in a hurry so I can't go into a big reply, but my many thanks for the help so far. I will no doubt have questions later!

 

[duncombec]

Ebusco is actually a Dutch company. Their vehicles used to be built in China (up to the 2.2 you've seen). But as of the Ebusco 3.0 the buses are built in their own factory in Deurne, the Netherlands.


Nothing has changed, its just different ways of explaining it. The deposit taken from your card upon checking in for a train is indeed € 20, but as you're allowed to have a negative balance of -4 euro on your card you'd actually only need € 16 on the card to be able to check in.

Thanks for the corrections! I admit I didn't realise Ebusco was Dutch, and the styling of those vehicles is very "Yutong-King Long-y".

Now I understand why both ticket offices in Centraal gave me the two amounts (€16 at the bus station side, €20 in the main office at the front). As a tourist, they obviously didn't want me owing them any money!

 

[AdamWW]

I noticed that every type of train is painted in a slightly different version of yellow and blue, but they are all equally filthy!

Their "Sprinters" (local trains) have a rather different livery with lots of white in. I prefer the regular yellow and blue.

Yes - €8.50, as above, only payable by card or on the OV Chipkaart. I'm not too sure on how one-off tickets work (various suggestions about surcharges if you buy them from a ticket office, and are apparently issued on smartcards whatever), the last morning I had left.

You can pay for individual trips with a single-use chipkaart for 1 Euro on top of the normal fare (from a machine - I think if you can actually find a ticket office they'll charge more). It comes on a card ticket somewhat less robust than a regular OV Chipkaart.

Or you can buy an e-ticket for the same as you'd pay with a chipkaart.

With an e-ticket (and maybe a single use chipkaart ticket?) you can break your journey for an arbitrary period so long as all travel is on the correct day. With a regular chipkaart apart from short breaks it will price as more than one journey and thus be more expensive in general.

I'm not sure about NS but I believe contactless credit/debit cards are being enabled on other transport as an alternative to chipkaarts.

but as you're allowed to have a negative balance of -4 euro on your card you'd actually only need € 16 on the card to be able to check in.

Wish I'd known that when I was in the Netherlands recently. I let my balance drop below 4 Euros and bought a 2 hour ticket instead as I assumed I wouldn't be allowed to tap in. (And as I wasn't sure if the tram I was catching had a ticket machine I bought it on a bus and had to go one stop and walk back. And then it turned out the tram did have a ticket machine).

Luckily for me and my trip to Den Haag (Trams on a bridge across the station concourse!)

Yes the tram bridge is quite impressive. And so is the way you can catch a "tram" running through the streets, then through a tunnel, over the bridge at Den Haag Centraal, then sharing track with the Metro (where the platforms have sections at two heights since the trams have low floor doors and the Metro trains don't), then on a bizarre route that turns through 360 degrees crossing over itself, then terminates at a station its already passed through but facing in the opposite direction.

 

[johncrossley]

If you are interested in bus priority, then there is a lot around the airport, including the famous route 300, run by Ebusco electric artics. Almost continuous busway from Schiphol Noord to just outside Haarlem.

Thanks for the corrections! I admit I didn't realise Ebusco was Dutch, and the styling of those vehicles is very "Yutong-King Long-y".

VDL gave them grief for their Chinese connections

VDL Bus & Coach rondt overname in Scandinavië af

Eind vorig jaar maakte VDL Bus & Coach bekend dat VDL Bus & Coach Nordic AB alle aandelen overneemt van het Zweedse bedrijf Björks & Byberg. Deze overeenkomst werd gesloten op 4 mei 2018. De overname door VDL Bus & Coach is met t

www.vdlgroep.com

Chinese buses & coaches cost jobs in the Netherlands​

20 January 2020

By Wim van der Leegte
The 259 electric buses intended for the outlying areas of Overijssel, Flevoland and Gelderland will be ordered from BYD in China. The previously-announced 156 electric buses, also Chinese, for use in the transport areas of Amstelland-Meerlanden and Haarlem-IJmond, will be delivered by Ebusco, an importer of Chinese buses and coaches.
Naturally, VDL Bus & Coach, the only Dutch bus and coach manufacturer and part of our family business VDL Groep, would have liked to supply these 415 electric buses. For the record we were certainly able to meet all the requested conditions ahead of the final award: concept and on-time delivery, for which extensive guarantees were provided. The Netherlands has around 6,500 local buses. Given a depreciation period of 10 to 15 years, the market for 2020 has largely been filled. So there’s little room for our Dutch buses in the year ahead, despite the home market being crucial for us as a European leader in electrifying heavy transport.

 

[DanielB]

With an e-ticket (and maybe a single use chipkaart ticket?) you can break your journey for an arbitrary period so long as all travel is on the correct day. With a regular chipkaart apart from short breaks it will price as more than one journey and thus be more expensive in general.

With a chipcard a break of maximum 35 minutes won't affect your long distance discount (longer trips are cheaper than many short trips over the same total distance).
That's the only thing you've got to take into account travelling on an anonymous chipcard. There are some more things to take into account using a personalized card with discount products, but those are not relevant for this topic.

I'm not sure about NS but I believe contactless credit/debit cards are being enabled on other transport as an alternative to chipkaarts.

On several buses, trams and metro services checking in with credit/debit cards has been enabled, but it will take until the end of the year before it is available countrywide.
For trains only trials are running at the moment.

Wish I'd known that when I was in the Netherlands recently. I let my balance drop below 4 Euros and bought a 2 hour ticket instead as I assumed I wouldn't be allowed to tap in.

You'll be able to tap in as long as you've got at least 0 euro credit. The deposit on bus, tram and metro is 4 euro.
Only exception are some long distance routes and night buses where the deposit is higher (8 or 10 euro)

 

[johncrossley]

I do wonder where I put my Dutch phrasebook, it will be incredibly useful!

Just in case you weren't joking, English is spoken to near native profiiciency in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam where you will come across a lot of people who know English but not Dutch. "Transport Dutch" is worth knowing though.

For example

vertrek = departure
aankomst = arrival
vertraging = delay
dit is de eindpunt van deze trein = this train terminates here

 

[DanielB]

These days the departure boards on every station are bilingual Dutch/English, so those will be easy to understand.
Only causes for disruptions have no translation, so a quick list:
Wisselstoring = points failure
Seinstoring = signal failure
Gebrek aan personeel = staff shortage
Verstoring elders = disruption elsewhere
Logistieke beperkingen= logistic issues (usually misplaced rolling stock or staff)
Grote vertraging = lengthy delay

On stations seeing a lot of foreign passengers even announcements are often bilingual. Those are nowadays fully automated with a native English text to speech voice, so no risk of misunderstandings due to staff speaking "Dunglish".

 

[AdamWW]

Just in case you weren't joking, English is spoken to near native profiiciency in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam where you will come across a lot of people who know English but not Dutch.

Indeed - I think you'd have to try quite hard to find a non English speaker.

It does happen though - some years ago I got caught out in a taxi in Leiden with a non English speaking driver. It was a bit of a surprise.

(As an aside, one thing that amuses me a little is the way that people ask for red or blue mineral water (fizzy/not fizzy) in restaurants, based on the label colours of the dominant brand ("Spa"))

vertrek = departure
aankomst = arrival
vertraging = delay
dit is de eindpunt van deze trein = this train terminates here

And a couple of other useful ones:

overstappen = change (train)
geen toegang = no entry

 

[DanielB]

Also handy to know: the departure boards nowadays also show train compositions with an arrow indicating direction of departure. This arrow works as follows: the direction indicated is the direction the train will be going when you turn your head from the departure boards towards the track. That's why you'll notice the direction indicated is different on both sides of the board.

Recently also moving animations have been added indicating if a trainset will be left behind or coupled. And last weekend I've even seen an animation indicating the train is reversing at that station.

 

[Techniquest]

Just in case you weren't joking, English is spoken to near native profiiciency in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam where you will come across a lot of people who know English but not Dutch. "Transport Dutch" is worth knowing though.

For example

vertrek = departure
aankomst = arrival
vertraging = delay
dit is de eindpunt van deze trein = this train terminates here

I wasn't joking, no. I am aware English is widely spoken, but it'll still be handy to know some basics. Stuff like you've shared there I will find very useful, of that I am sure.

I'm loving all the really useful information shared here, so my many thanks to everyone who has posted! If I fancy a spin up to Groningen, which looks like a nice place to visit, I'm seeing suggestions that there will be contactless payments available on NS soon. That's quite handy, it'll save faffing around on a ticket machine or downloading an app for NS. I think I might get the GVB app though, and get a day ticket through that, as I think that'll save a lot of kerfuffle.

 

[rg177]

You'll find that a lot of Dutch is often similar-ish or sounds like English.

I can only speak a few words of it, but can understand a fair bit more. In any case, everyone speaks English by and large, even the older generation. I was initially quite apprehensive just speaking in English without trying Dutch, but nobody seems to mind.

If you download the NS app, the option for English is hidden in the settings - it's in Dutch by default.

 

[StephenHunter]

Also handy to know: the departure boards nowadays also show train compositions with an arrow indicating direction of departure. This arrow works as follows: the direction indicated is the direction the train will be going when you turn your head from the departure boards towards the track. That's why you'll notice the direction indicated is different on both sides of the board.

Recently also moving animations have been added indicating if a trainset will be left behind or coupled. And last weekend I've even seen an animation indicating the train is reversing at that station.

Any videos of that?

 

[duncombec]

Yes the tram bridge is quite impressive. And so is the way you can catch a "tram" running through the streets, then through a tunnel, over the bridge at Den Haag Centraal, then sharing track with the Metro (where the platforms have sections at two heights since the trams have low floor doors and the Metro trains don't), then on a bizarre route that turns through 360 degrees crossing over itself, then terminates at a station its already passed through but facing in the opposite direction.

Which route is that? I was only there for an afternoon, so didn't really do much other than take some pictures at various locations (Then I'll stop talking about the Hague, as this is a thread on Amsterdam!)

I wasn't joking, no. I am aware English is widely spoken, but it'll still be handy to know some basics. Stuff like you've shared there I will find very useful, of that I am sure.

I can only speak a few words of it, but can understand a fair bit more. In any case, everyone speaks English by and large, even the older generation. I was initially quite apprehensive just speaking in English without trying Dutch, but nobody seems to mind.

As a linguist, it did annoy me slightly that my Dutch was so limited, but I found many places in tourist locations seemed to start in English if you looked even slightly like a tourist, switching to Dutch if necessary. "Hello" is a wonderful greeting that allows the other person to start talking without then having to start with 'Do you speak English/French/German, etc.' I noticed some shops were advertising for staff entirely in English, assuming that people they'd want to employ would be bilingual enough to understand the ad.

Quite often, I used a Dutch sandwich around a transaction otherwise entirely in English - start with Goedendag [Good day] or Hello, and end with Dank U wel [thank you]. Either my Dutch was terrible or it was appreciated, because I got quite a few smiles and acknowledgements on finishing.

 

[johncrossley]

I noticed some shops were advertising for staff entirely in English, assuming that people they'd want to employ would be bilingual enough to understand the ad.

They are trying to attract immigrants who don't speak Dutch to fill vacancies. The Netherlands is now the biggest draw for English speaking migrants from within the EU.

 

[AdamWW]

Quite often, I used a Dutch sandwich around a transaction otherwise entirely in English - start with Goedendag [Good day] or Hello, and end with Dank U wel [thank you]. Either my Dutch was terrible or it was appreciated, because I got quite a few smiles and acknowledgements on finishing.

I do try to use a few words in the appropriate language when I'm abroad. I hope it's appreciated, but either way at least I feel I've made some effort.

Which route is that? I was only there for an afternoon, so didn't really do much other than take some pictures at various locations (Then I'll stop talking about the Hague, as this is a thread on Amsterdam!)

The number 3 - the map here shows the rather odd route that it takes.

I wasn't there long either but I fitted part of the route in, before heading for the Eurostar home.

 

[rvdborgt]

In fact the most frequent loco-hauled (and pushed too) service is city-airport, as both the ICD to Rotterdam Breda and the hourly INTernational to Brussel/BE use them-there are all kinds of warnings about supplmt-but this ONLY applies to the ride airport-ROTTerdam, via hi-speed, not for Ams-Airport.

And it applies only to domestic tickets.

 

[DanielB]

Quite often, I used a Dutch sandwich around a transaction otherwise entirely in English - start with Goedendag [Good day] or Hello, and end with Dank U wel [thank you]. Either my Dutch was terrible or it was appreciated, because I got quite a few smiles and acknowledgements on finishing.

A terrible habit of the Dutch is to switch to English as soon as someone appears not to be a native speaker. But, especially in Amsterdam, it happened to me more than once that I got a response in English at a retail outlet in the central station. So it even happens to native Dutch speakers (though it might be that I mix some English into my Dutch, having worked for 9 years at a company where the main language was English)

Any videos of that?

As a reference: This is the normal way of displaying train compositions (note the F1 car, picture is from the Dutch GP weekend)...

And here a video of a train leaving one trainset behind displayed on the boards:

Haven't found any videos of the other two variants yet.