After much anticipation and the opening date having been postponed eight times, the North-South (Noord-Zuid) metro line in Amsterdam has finally been completed and will be opened on July 22, 2018.
The idea and plans to build a metro line running from the north to the south of Amsterdam were already made in the 1960s. The building of such a line was halted after protests.
In 2002, the municipal council of Amsterdam agreed to the North-South line plans and in 2003 construction began. The project was supposed to be finished in 2011, but it has taken a little longer than planned due to certain unexpected setbacks, such as the subsidence of properties in the surrounding area.
In 2015, the basic concrete construction was complete, and now come 2018 the metro line is completely finished. Along with the extended time frame has come the increase in cost. The costs for the metro line have ended up at almost triple the original estimate, coming in at a massive 3,1 billion euros.
The North-South line will be opened on July 22, after test runs have been conducted this spring. During the open day on Saturday, January 20, visitors could take a sneak peek around six of the eight metro stations on the line. And take a peek they did, a record 40.000 people went to look at the shiny new stations.
The stations open on the open day were: Noorderpark, Centraal Station, Rokin, Vijzelgracht, De Pijp and Europaplein. During this day, it was only possible to view the stations, as the metro was not running.