Amsterdam metro wants East/West subway to airport

The director of Amsterdam's public transit firm Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf, known locally as the GVB, wants more money invested in public transport in the region, primarily in expanding the subway network with a new line to Schiphol Airport Alexandra van Huffelen, general manager at the GVB, is advocating for a subway connection between Amsterdam and Schiphol, she said in an interview with the Financieele Dagblad. This is also in line with the wishes of Schiphol chief Jos Nijhuis, who advocated for the North/South line to extend from the Amsterdam Zuid Station to the airport. Van Huffelen strongly supports a new subway line, but sees more advantage in an East/West route beginning in IJburg, making its way to Osdorp and the Riekerpolder, before heading to Schiphol. The project could be a tough sell to people who have watched the North/South line balloon in costs, and face years of delays. The line is expected to cost a total of 3.1 billion euros, roughly 1.7 billion more than projected, and it is not expected to be online before 2017. Van Huffelen optimistically thinks the city has a great deal of newly-found knowledge from venturing on the North/South line project, to make tunneling more efficient, and give more honest estimates of the project costs. Likewise, she is proposing a more creative take on financing the project. Instead of tapping only local and national money for the project, she advocates tapping into a 300 billion euro European Union fund that invests in infrastructure and economic needs.