Nick does the new Amsterdam tram routes. All of them.

In the summer of 2018, the city of Amsterdam completely restructured its tram system. It took effect pretty much all in one go, overnight. To make sense of all these changes, Nick Nugent decided to try out the new tram routes for himself. All of them. In one day. 

Broadcast Amsterdam joined him for part of the route. You can watch the short trailer here:

It took Nick about 5 hours to come up with his plan to travel on all of Amsterdam’s tram routes, a plan he consults as his journey progresses. He started around 07:00, and planned to finish around 20:30 in Rembrandtplein, with the cost of his travel only €7.50 for a day card (loaded on his OV chipkaart).

It was also a chance for him to discover for himself an overview of how the city is changing. By the afternoon, when we join him, he had already seen a lot of new developments.

He said: “There’s a hell of a lot of building in Amsterdam. It’s crazy … especially the Ijburg leg, there’s so many new buildings going up around there … everywhere you go there’s new building, new building.”  He also observed the amount of new hotels that are being built on the outskirts of the city, since the ban on the building of new hotels in the city centre.

We joined Nick on the following routes and interchanges:

• tram 17 to Ingelandenweg (the end of the line)
• interchange between tram 17 and the tram 1 (a bit of a walk), where it starts at Matterhorn
• tram 1 to Surinameplein
• interchange between tram 1 and the new tram 11 at Surinameplein
• tram 11 to Leidseplein
• interchange between tram 11 and the tram 12 at Leidesplein (many tram stops have moved btw)
• tram 12 to Amstel station

The Diemen leg was especially tricky, Nick explains, but he was particularly excited to try out the 11-12-4 leg of his extended route. “When I was building the plan, the logic of it just made lots of sense” Nick said. He admits, he’s a bit of a nerd.

Watch the full video here:

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