Metro aan Zee: From today, Rotterdam metro runs all the way to Hoek van Holland beach

From Friday, the Rotterdam metro on Hoekse Lijn will run all the way to Hoek van Holland Strand station, nearly a year later than planned. Until now, beach visitors who wanted to go to Hoek van Holland had to take the bus, Rijnmond reports.

The opening of Metro aan Zee also means the new Hoek van Holland Haven metro station is opening. Metro aan Zee was eight years in coming since Rotterdam public transport company RET first signed for the purchase of 16 new metros for the Hoekse Lijn between Schiedam and Hoek van Holland in February 2015.

Since then, the Hoekse Lijnk, 23 kilometers of former train track, has been converted into a metro line that connects directly to the metro network from Schiedam Centrum metro station. Metro line B now runs over 40 kilometers between Nesselande and Hoek van Holland.

The project was budgeted at about 400 million euros when approved, but wound up costing close to 500 million euros. An additional 80 million euros was spent on vehicles used for the metro line.

On weekdays and Saturday afternoons, the metro line B will run three times an hour - once every 20 minutes - to and from Hoek van Holland Strand. In the evening and on Sundays, it will run twice an hour. From Ascension Day and during the summer holiday, the metro will run every 15 minutes during daytime hours on Sundays.

RET could operate extra metros during busy beach days or events, up to one leaving every 8 minutes on the route. These additional beach trips will take place between Blaak and Hoek van Holland Strand. The extra beach trips are still in the test- and permit application phase, but RET expects to have it sorted by the beach season.