Noord/Zuidlijn: from the north to the south of Amsterdam in a mere 16 minutes by underground railway

The Amsterdam Noord/Zuidlijn is a 9.7 kilometre underground railway connection that cuts the travel time from the north to the south of Amsterdam in half. The prestigious and ambitious project involved drilling and construction beneath the busy city, in which people live and work. A widely discussed project, which received a huge amount of publicity, both in Amsterdam and beyond.

It was way back in 1968 when the Amsterdam City Council proposed a plan that defined a phased approach to creating an underground railway network that would connect all areas of the city of Amsterdam. The north-south connection is part of this plan. The construction started in 2002, following the completion of the east-west connection at the end of the seventies. However, it was not until 22 July 2018 that the first travellers could make use of the fast connection. Line 52, better known as the Noord/Zuidlijn, covers the distance from north to south in a mere 16 minutes, making stops at Noorderpark, Central Station, Rokin, Vijzelgracht, De Pijp and Europaplein. It is expected that some 121,000 people will be using the new underground railway line every day.

“It’s a challenge to put a project in motion. But I’ve managed to do this with the Noord/Zuidlijn, both literally and figuratively.”
Victor Sikkel, technical project manager ICT Group for the Noord/Zuidlijn