Amsterdam buses, trams failed to show up at a third of stops in September sample

Buses and trams in Amsterdam regularly fail to show up at scheduled stops. In September, the Society for Better Public Transport (MvB) examined 51 scheduled tram and bus routes in the Dutch capital. 18 of the buses and trams never showed, a cancellation rate of over 35 percent, Parool reports.

The random sample included the trams 3, 4, and 12, and bus routes 22 and 48. MvB checked the buses and trams on these routes over 14 days, evenly distributed through September.

A spokesperson for GVB, the company responsible for public transport in Amsterdam, told Parool that the results of this small, random sample do not match the company’s findings. The GVB recorded a cancellation rate of 3.3 percent on tram lines and 4.9 percent on bus routes through September.

“The timing of the observation is crucial. We record cancellations structurally and comprehensively, based on the entire timetable. This provides a much more representative picture of performance, both over days and months,” the spokesperson said. “Take line 4, for example, where only four or five trams are needed to operate the scheduled service. If a tram is canceled there, you quickly have a 20 to 25 percent cancellation rate at that moment.”

Rikus Spithorst of the MvB told Parool that the sample size was limited, but he believes it was “large enough and sufficiently distributed across routes, dates, and times to form an indicative assessment of the GVB’s performance.” Spithorst called the results a new low. “Public transport users in Amsterdam are saddled with unacceptably poor transport. This is particularly bad because many passengers in Amsterdam are completely dependent on public transport due to factors like age, health, or income.”

According to MvB, the September sample also showed that in half of the cases, tram drivers and conductors were unaware that their vehicle had a boarding ramp for wheelchair users. In some cases, the driver or conductor has to unfold it manually so that the wheelchair can enter. “Even if they knew there was such a ramp in their vehicle, in some cases, they had no idea how to unfold and secure it.”