Public transport

The GVB is the first local transportation company to make real-time locations of trams and buses available for developers to use in apps, Webwereld reports. The terms of the public tender stipulate the GVB must make this information available, but the company also expects benefits from doing so, a spokesperson said.

Amsterdam is a small city and accordingly, its metro plan is also small. Just how it compares to other cities is shown by artist and urban planner Neil Freeman (via flowingdata), who presented a large number of metro plans all on the same scale. One can see that Amsterdam’s metro plan is tiny compared to Berlin and London, but also smaller than Stockholm and St Petersburg.

The GVB has committed to inspecting the tickets 0.9% of metro travellers on a yearly basis. In driver-only trams the share is 0.7%, in trams with conductor 0.3% and in buses also 0.3%. As of 2012, fewer conductors will be available as a result of a 2m-euro budget cut.

The Amsterdam Urban Region has started preparations to put public transport to public tender as of 1 January 2015. The government body insists this is a ‘fall-back option’ and that the preferred option is still to have the GVB provide public transport at least until 2018. The minister opposes this option and wants public transport to be put to public tender as early as 2013.