Amsterdam Centraal railway station

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Amsterdam Centraal

Code	Asd
Opened	1889
Platform tracks	11

Coordinates: 52°22′42″N 4°54′0″E / 52.37833°N 4.9°E / 52.37833; 4.9

Amsterdam Centraal (code: Asd) is the central station of Amsterdam. It is one of the main railway hubs of the Netherlands and is used by 166,000 passengers a day, excluding transferring passengers. It is also the starting point of Amsterdam Metro lines 51, 53, and 54. The station building of Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Pierre Cuypers and A. L. van Gendt, and opened in 1889. It features a roof span of approximately 40 metres fabricated in cast iron by Andrew Handyside of Derby, England.^[1] The station is currently under reconstruction due to the construction of the North/South metro line (metro line 52).

Amsterdam Centraal is twinned with Liverpool Street station in London, United Kingdom—the other terminus of the Dutchflyer rail-ferry service.

Amsterdam Centraal station, c. 1890-1900.

Interior of the station as seen from platform 1

[edit] History

The building of Amsterdam Centraal is situated on three man-made islands, themselves resting on 8,687 wooden piles which have been driven deep into the muddy and sandy soil. The current location of the station is not the site the city of Amsterdam had originally hoped for; other possibilities included somewhere near the Leidseplein, the Weesperplein, or in the vicinity of the modern-day Sarphatipark. Officials in The Hague, however, felt that the eventual location at the head of the city, along The IJ, was the best location. This was a highly controversial decision, as it effectively cut off Amsterdam from its own waterfront, making it, for all purposes, an inland city. In his History of Amsterdam, Dutch historian Geert Mak writes that:

Almost all of Amsterdam's own experts and others involved in thought this to be a catastrophic plan, 'the most disgusting possible attack on the beauty and glory of the capital'. Nevertheless, the building of the Central Station in front of the open harbour was forced through by the railway department of the Ministry of Transport in The Hague, and the Home Secretary, Thorbecke. Finally, the plan made its way through the Amsterdam municipal council by a narrow majority. (Mak 1994)

The Tokyo Station building is often said to be fashioned after it, but there is little evidence to support the theory. In fact, Terunobu Fujimori, a scholar of the Western architecture, denied the connection after studying both the building itself and the styles of Tokyo's station architect, Tatsuno Kingo.^[2]

[edit] Train services

The following train services call at Amsterdam Centraal:

[edit] International services

[edit] National services

[edit] Railway lines

A benelux train

Destination Boards, below the platforms

An ICE at Amsterdam Centraal

ICE leaving Amsterdam Centraal - East Side

[edit] Railway station layout

Amsterdam Centraal station at night

There are 15 tracks, of which 11 along a platform:

• 4 island platforms with on both sides tracks along the full length (tracks 4/5, 7/8, 10/11, 13/14)
• 1 side platform with 1 track along the full length (15)
• 1 bay platform / side platform with 2 tracks (1/2)

10 of the 11 tracks along a platform have an a- and a b-side (all except track 1), hence there are 21 places where a train can be positioned for getting on and off.

One with on one side track along the full length (track 2), on the other side there is track only at the west end (track 1; bay platform), along the rest of the platform is the station building.

Tracks 3, 6, 9, and 12 have no platform.

Diagram (platforms are yellow, tunnels are grey, north is up):

[edit] Other transport

[edit] Metro services

Amsterdam Centraal is also a major station on the Amsterdam Metro, with three of the four lines terminating there.

Amsterdam Centraal station from the side.

[edit] Tram services

Stationsplein, tram stop for lines 1, 2 , 5, 13, 17	Station from Rokin	Three Trams at the Western Tram Stop	Trams at the Eastern Tram Stop, for lines 4, 9, 16, 24, 25 , 26
Metro at Centraal Station metro Station

The following tram services call at Centraal Station:

These tram services leave from outside the main entrance of the station on two sides.

[edit] Bus services

[edit] City services

[edit] City nightbuses

These services operate daily. Services start around Midnight and run until around 6am. On Mondays to Thursday Nights 1x per hour and Friday, Saturday and Sundays they run 2x per hour. The area around Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein are where people go for a night in Amsterdam.

[edit] Noord Holland services

An Arriva bus arriving at the bus station

These services depart from the Eastern Busstation about 100m from the main entrance

[edit] South of Amsterdam services

These services stop at the Prins Hendrikade Bus Station (Bottom of Stationsplein)

[edit] Ferry services

These services start from the quay on the north side of De Ruyter Kade, accessible from the north exit of the station building.

The station building

[edit] See also

• Railway stations in the Netherlands
• List of tourist attractions in Amsterdam
• nl:Stationsplein (Amsterdam) - Station square (in Dutch)

[edit] References

• Mak, Geert (1999, Translated from the Dutch by Philipp Blom, Originally Published in 1994). "Amsterdam, A Brief Life of the City". The Harvill Press. 

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amsterdam Central station

• Schematic maps of all tracks, switches and platforms:
  • west side
  • east side
• Maps of the station buildings (on the NS website):
  • surroundings
  • concourse level
  • platform level
• pictures at Stationsweb,