Broken lifts making Amsterdam metro stations inaccessible to wheelchair users

Broken lifts are an increasing problem at Amsterdam metro stations, especially for people with mobility impairments. The lift is broken at 14 of the total 38 metro stations in the capital. Ten of these 14 metro stations are even completely inaccessible for wheelchair users because all the lifts at the station don’t work, NH Nieuws and AT5 reported.

The Amsterdam public transport company GVB also has lifts at 12 tram stops in the city, several of which are also broken. In total, 21 of the 93 GVB elevators are currently out of order.

A spokesperson for GVB acknowledged the problem to AT5. The company is waiting for elevator parts, the spokesperson said.

The problems are particularly severe on the route between Isolatorweg Station and Amsterdam Zuid Station. Seven of the ten metro stations on this route, where lines 50 and 51 run, are inaccessible to people who use a wheelchair.

Frans Rademaker lives near Henk Sneelvlietweg station, where the lift is broken. He is dependent on a wheelchair and the metro to get around. The lift is also broken at his second-nearest station on Meestedestraat. “My range is small. I have limited options,” he told NH.

Paul Carstens, head of technology at GVB, told NH that the broken lifts are all relatively old and will eventually be replaced.

In the meantime, the GVB has an on-call bus service for people with mobility impairments who can’t access the station. The bus service is rarely used at the moment, Carstens said, maybe because people are not aware of it. “We may still be able to improve that, so that everyone is aware of the alternative transport and we may have to explain it even better.”