Very few problems on first day of Amsterdam's new Noord-Zuid line
The first official traveling day for Amsterdam's new Noord-Zuid subway line happened almost without a hitch on Sunday. By 5:45 p.m. only one train did not run according to schedule, a spokesperson for Amsterdam public transit company GVB said to Het Parool.
As a result, passengers had to wait 12 minutes for their train, instead of six minutes. "Within half an hour, the subway was back on schedule", the spokesperson said. The GVB deployed extra personnel to help guide travelers on the first day of running.
There were also some problems with various apps showing the wrong ticket prices. For example, app 9292 showed that a ticket from Noord to Zuid costs 2.85 euros, while the actual ticket price is 2.37 euros. The correct amount was deducted when checking out, the GVB assured.
Passengers could already travel on the Noord-Zuid line on Saturday, but only for the line's festive opening. Sunday was the first day the line ran according to its public transit timetable. The first train departed at 7:30 a.m.
The live broadcast of the opening of the Noord-Zuid line on NPO1 attracted 22 thousand viewers on Saturday morning, a quarter of the total TV watchers at that time. Some 707 thousand people watched the review of the festivities around the opening on Saturday evening, also 25 percent of people who were watching television at that time, according to figures from Stichting Kijkonderzoek.
