like trams. I like riding them and I like the idea of them. I like the fact that a city cares enough for public transit to keep a network of streetcars up and running with little interruption for over 100 years. Whenever something does disrupt tram service — like a power disturbance or a huge street-blocking antiwar demo — I'm just reminded of how much I like trams. Too bad they only run till midnight.
Do you really need to use the trams? Depends on how much you like walking, versus how fast you need to get somewhere. You can walk the radius of Amsterdam, say from Centraal Station to Leidseplein, in more or less half an hour. But the width of the city is all curves, no straight lines. So if you're at the zoo in the Plantage (east) and need to get to the Jordaan for a dinner date (west), you may want to give your feet a break and try the tram adventure. A good city map, like the ones published by Falk, shows the tram routes as fine red lines with numbers. Maps are also mounted in most tram-stop shelters.
The city is divided into transit zones, bounded by yellow lines on the map. The whole Centrum is one zone, so if you're just on holiday you may never travel outside it. You can buy a single ticket from the tram conductor, but that costs more. Hence the strippenkaart, a long ticket divided into strips. They're available at the GVB office, post office, and many newsstands, supermarkets, tobacconists and tourist shops. If the usual 15-strip ticket isn't enough, you can get a 45-strip version for less than 20 euros. You "spend" the strips by getting your ticket stamped as you step on the tram — one strip per zone travelled, plus one for the basic tariff. Thus a trip within the Centrum is one zone = two strips, whereas a trip from the Centrum to Station Lelylaan would be two zones = three strips.
Your stamped ticket is good for one hour on all public transporation — tram, metro or bus. So you can change lines as needed to complete your journey. Let's say you're in Koningsplein by the flower market, and you want to get to Weesperplein to meet somebody for a drink at the Marebela. You could hop on line 1 outbound to Leidseplein, then take the 7 across town to Weesperplein. Or you could take the 1 inbound to Centraal, go down to the metro and ride three stops outbound to Weesperplein. Either way, you only need to stamp the ticket once. When transferring, you just show your stamped ticket (unfolded) to whoever's in charge, either the tram conductor or a metro inspector.
Seven steps to a successful and joyous tram ride:
[1] Wait at the tram stop until the tram you want is coming, then wave at it. This lets the driver know you want this tram and not some other one. Some lines share the same track for part of their route.
[2] Enter the door near where the conductor's booth is. With older trams this will be the very back door; with the new "Combino" it's the second-last double door. The entrance/exit doors are not clearly marked as such, so don't be confused by the fact that dozens of tourists are using the wrong door.
[3] Give your strippenkaart unfolded to the conductor, and say "one zone please" or "two zones please" depending on how far you're going. The conductor will stamp your ticket and give it back. (Keep it handy. Sometimes a gang of GVB inspectors in maroon jackets get on and check everybody's tickets, and they issue fines of 29 euros to anyone without a valid stamp.)
[4] Hang the fuck onto something. The door has already closed behind you and you're about to take off like a bat out of hell. If possible, find a seat.
[5] If some frail old lady gets on, offer your seat to her. Then repeat step 4.
[6] If possible, know the name of the stop just before your destination. As soon as the tram leaves that place, press a STOP button (either on the wall or on poles along the aisle) to tell the driver somebody wants to get off next. If nobody wants to get on or off, the tram won't stop there.
[7] When it stops, go to one of the exit doors (not the one you came in), press the deur open button to get out — and try not to step into a bike lane.
At some of the busier tram stops — Centraal, Koningsplein, Leidseplein, Weesperplein etc — electric signs list which trams are expected how soon. Just after midnight you start to see the red annotation laatste rit, or last ride. If you miss that one, you'll be walking or taking a cab.
You may see different kinds of tram vehicles in service. Recently they've been trying to replace all the old trams with the new "Combino" built by Siemens. The Combino has a wide square body, low floor, electronic displays and a digitized male voice announcing the stops. Each car has eight LCD screens showing ads, movie promos, incomplete news stories and lots of really bad Flash animations. Everybody hates the Combino. In one year of service it has become a squealing, shrieking engineering disaster whose wheels are said to be actually damaging the tracks. The GVB tells us everything is gonna be okay soon. While they try to fix the Combino, we keep seeing the good old trams back in service. Which gives us all a chance to ponder: why the hell did we need new trams anyway? The old ones run better and ride more comfortably, and they don't have those pesky LCD screens. But get used to this: some things in Amsterdam just happen whether anyone likes it or not.
Which brings us to the Metro.
When the Metro was built in the 1970s, the protest it raised came just a couple notches short of civil war. But it happened anyway. It's no coincidence that the first Metro line ran right through Amsterdam's former Jewish district. During the Second World War, most of Amsterdam's Jews were deported and killed by the Germans. Their empty houses were scavenged during the Hunger Winter for anything that could be burned as fuel. Some buildings just collapsed. The whole Joodsche wijk was in a state of dereliction, and later became a prime target for urban renewal — with new housing, broad new traffic arteries, a new city hall, and a subway tunnel. But people still lived there, some legally, some as squatters. And their struggle to stay put was legendary. Today it's even commemorated in a work of art inside the Nieuwmarkt Metro station.
Amsterdam's Metro doesn't go all over town, but it does go around the outside. People use it for commuting from the suburbs. As I write this Amsterdam is building a new north-south Metro line cutting straight through under the city from Centraal Station out through the Pijp. Until that's finished, the Metro is mainly useful to visitors as a quick way to Nieuwmarkt, Waterlooplein, the Amstel rail and bus station, Amsterdam Arena for concerts and sport events, and the RAI convention center. The trains are numbered and show their destinations on the front. Inbound trains all go to Centraal Station. The outbound ones go to places like Gein and Gaasperplas, but they all take the same route as far as Amstel Station. Keep in mind that all the doors don't open automatically on the Metro — you have to press the deur open button to get in or out.
To use your strippenkaart on the Metro, you fold your ticket in two to expose the eligible strip, and stick it into one of the yellow self-stamping machines near the stairs to the platform. Again for one zone it's two strips, so you leave one strip blank and stamp the next one. A little bell goes ding when it stamps. If this doesn't work, see if there is a red indicator saying buiten dienst (out of service). If so, try a different machine. A GVB inspector may want to see your ticket as you go downstairs.
Within the next couple years they're going to introduce magnetic cards for the Metro, and strippenkaarten will no longer be accepted. By 2008 they'll be using cards for the trams as well, and the strippenkaart will become a collector's item.
