Amsterdam advice

[scotsman]

'ello!

I've just been tagged in to a mate's 21st weekend in Amsterdam. Given that I have no experience of public transport outside the UK, I have a few questions:

1. Is it easy to get hold of an OV-chipkaart in Schipol station?
2. Do any ICE/Fyra/Thalys services stop there for Centraal?
3. Is Slojterdijk station any good for photos (as in varied stock?)

Cheers

 

[GNER 91128]

'ello!

I've just been tagged in to a mate's 21st weekend in Amsterdam. Given that I have no experience of public transport outside the UK, I have a few questions:

1. Is it easy to get hold of an OV-chipkaart in Schipol station?
2. Do any ICE/Fyra/Thalys services stop there for Centraal?
3. Is Slojterdijk station any good for photos (as in varied stock?)

Cheers

I'm sure you might have other interesting sights to look at.

 

[radamfi]

OV-Chipkaarts can be bought at station ticket offices or ticket machines (however machines only accept coins, Maestro or Dutch cards, although a few also accept Visa/Mastercard for a fee).

Fyra goes between Breda, Rotterdam, Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal every 30 minutes. There is a supplement to use it. It is currently using loco-hauled stock as the Fyra stock has been withdrawn for the foreseeable future. Thalys does not carry passengers between the two stations although it does run between Paris and Amsterdam along that route.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I suspect that if you are attending a "gentlemans" 21st celebration in Amsterdam - you may be led away from some innocent train exploration.!!!

Centraal is a good place to watch the variety of train movements in any case - and you can always escape to say Utrecht for more varied watching (including some freight) and the Dutch Railway Museum. (highly reccomended)

 

[scotsman]

I suspect that if you are attending a "gentlemans" 21st celebration in Amsterdam - you may be led away from some innocent train exploration.!!!

Centraal is a good place to watch the variety of train movements in any case - and you can always escape to say Utrecht for more varied watching (including some freight) and the Dutch Railway Museum. (highly reccomended)

Haha! Not quite, the "attractions" of that bit of town are, how can I put this, "clatty" and we want nothing to do with them. A bit of sight-seeing, aye, not much else...

Our hostel is right next to the station, hence my question about it!

 

[WestCoast]

There's so much more to Amsterdam than the Red Light District anyway, it's a fantastic city that was an absolute delight to live in for a short while when I was young.

As for 2) on your list. You can catch the Frya services from Schipol to Amsterdam Centraal - supplement payable. If you would like to ride on a ICE, simply hop on the ICE International trains heading from Amsterdam CS to Frankfurt/Basel about 4/5 times daily. It's just 20-25 minutes to Utrecht Centraal and it's only a small supplement over the regular price, which can be bought at TVMs or onboard for slightly more. Then you can catch an NS VIRM (EMU double decker) or other stock coming back.

 

[scotsman]

Just to update:

Fyra is valid on all tickets between Schiphol and Centraal, Thalys calls at the airport to set down/pick up only - although I'm told that TMs may bend the rules for rail staff

 

[EWS 58038]

Depends... Dutch staff will most likely take you on board, Belgium or French staff won't.

There is a Amsterdam tourist card (Available from Schiphol ticket window) if I recal correctly which allows for 24, 48 or 72 hour of unlimited public transport in Amsterdam including your rail transfer.

Sloterdijk can be used on the lower level during the afternoon for trains coming from Centraal towards Zaandam.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniskoster/7321405938/in/photostream

A 15 minute walk will take you at one of the harbour shunt locations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69841044@N02/8078869098/in/photostream

If you want a decent shot of a Fyra try Hoofddorp (5 minutes from the airport) http://www.flickr.com/photos/18markrijs/5640414597/ Here all through trains to the HSL and Leiden will use the avoiding lines.

Want something classic? No worries... A few times a day (DB Night trains) will be shunted into the station by Class 1200 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hvondelen/5843088943/in/pool-1298240@N24/
There are three of the class selected for this duty's so it does pay of to come back a few times. Another location is Muiderpoort:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_boere/5523228828/

Do and Don't

Do: Walk through the red light district and do it slowely.
Don't: Get in. Especially not in de Bloedstraat, these are not ladies but something in between. It might sound weird, but the RLD is the safest area in Amsterdam.

Do: Hire a bike. IGNORE red lights.
Don't: Go to Amsterdam West or South (Like Bijlmer) especially not after dark.

If you have any questions please ask, I work in Amsterdam and live 20 minutes away so I know my way around.

 

[scotsman]

Depends... Dutch staff will most likely take you on board, Belgium or French staff won't.

There is a Amsterdam tourist card (Available from Schiphol ticket window) if I recal correctly which allows for 24, 48 or 72 hour of unlimited public transport in Amsterdam including your rail transfer.

Sloterdijk can be used on the lower level during the afternoon for trains coming from Centraal towards Zaandam.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniskoster/7321405938/in/photostream

A 15 minute walk will take you at one of the harbour shunt locations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69841044@N02/8078869098/in/photostream

If you want a decent shot of a Fyra try Hoofddorp (5 minutes from the airport) http://www.flickr.com/photos/18markrijs/5640414597/ Here all through trains to the HSL and Leiden will use the avoiding lines.

Want something classic? No worries... A few times a day (DB Night trains) will be shunted into the station by Class 1200 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hvondelen/5843088943/in/pool-1298240@N24/
There are three of the class selected for this duty's so it does pay of to come back a few times. Another location is Muiderpoort:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_boere/5523228828/

Do and Don't

Do: Walk through the red light district and do it slowely.
Don't: Get in. Especially not in de Bloedstraat, these are not ladies but something in between. It might sound weird, but the RLD is the safest area in Amsterdam.

Do: Hire a bike. IGNORE red lights.
Don't: Go to Amsterdam West or South (Like Bijlmer) especially not after dark.

If you have any questions please ask, I work in Amsterdam and live 20 minutes away so I know my way around.

Thanks - although I posted that after I was home!

You wouldn't happen to have the mileages from Schiphol to Centraal, Centraal to Sloterdijk (low level), and Centraal to Sloterdijk (high level), would you?

 

[route101]

I was recently in Amsterdam and stayed next to Sloterdijk and i remember taking trains from there to Centraal from both levels but not sure if they went different routes?

 

[stut]

Correct - Sloterdijk is effectively four stations stuck together. The low level is the old mainline via Haarlem, now mostly local trains after the mainline was diverted via Schiphol. The high level is the new mainline that runs parallel to the Ring and A4 motorways via Schiphol and on to Rotterdam via both Den Haag and HSL Zuid. Both of these lines head to Amsterdam CS, but the new mainline does so via a long curve through the Western Docks. The two lines join near the Westerpark.

In addition, the Isolatorweg metro branch runs parallel, following the above curve to its slightly oddly-located terminus in the Western Docks industrial area (I actually used to do quite a lot of work out there...)

Finally, there is a relatively new line heading off under the IJ towards Hoorn, part of a project to link the Schiphol area with northern Noord-Holland. These platforms sit apart from the main chunk of the station.

 

[radamfi]

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoorlijn_Amsterdam_Centraal_-_Schiphol
has the distance from Centraal to Sloterdijk of 5.3 km on the line to Schiphol.
has the distance from Centraal to Schiphol of 17.1 km.

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoorlijn_Amsterdam_-_Rotterdam
has the distance from Centraal to Sloterdijk of 4.4 km on the line to Haarlem.

 

[Spaceflower]

Depends... Dutch staff will most likely take you on board, Belgium or French staff won't.

There is a Amsterdam tourist card (Available from Schiphol ticket window) if I recal correctly which allows for 24, 48 or 72 hour of unlimited public transport in Amsterdam including your rail transfer.

Sloterdijk can be used on the lower level during the afternoon for trains coming from Centraal towards Zaandam.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniskoster/7321405938/in/photostream

A 15 minute walk will take you at one of the harbour shunt locations:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69841044@N02/8078869098/in/photostream

If you want a decent shot of a Fyra try Hoofddorp (5 minutes from the airport) http://www.flickr.com/photos/18markrijs/5640414597/ Here all through trains to the HSL and Leiden will use the avoiding lines.

Want something classic? No worries... A few times a day (DB Night trains) will be shunted into the station by Class 1200 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hvondelen/5843088943/in/pool-1298240@N24/
There are three of the class selected for this duty's so it does pay of to come back a few times. Another location is Muiderpoort:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_boere/5523228828/

Do and Don't

Do: Walk through the red light district and do it slowely.
Don't: Get in. Especially not in de Bloedstraat, these are not ladies but something in between. It might sound weird, but the RLD is the safest area in Amsterdam.

Do: Hire a bike. IGNORE red lights.
Don't: Go to Amsterdam West or South (Like Bijlmer) especially not after dark.

If you have any questions please ask, I work in Amsterdam and live 20 minutes away so I know my way around.

Seconded.

 

[stut]

But how do you get your lahmacun met sambal if you don't head to Amsterdam-West?

 

[soil]

They probably have something similar in Jakarta.

 

[stut]

That's a long way to hoof it from the Netherlands in the off-chance of a Turko-Indonesian snack bar...

 

[Techniquest]

Seems a sensible idea to ask then, but ahead of even thinking of when to book my Amsterdam Metro/tram bash, this question comes up in light of the comment of avoiding south/west Amsterdam:

Are all the tram/Metro lines safe for bashing then? I've not looked at a map of where they all go yet but I am dubious about doing them if there's some places seriously recommended to avoid.

Also worth pointing out, even though a bit late, Lelyaan isn't too bad a spot either. South end of the platforms especially by the looks of it. I was going to mention Centraal to Schipol is supplement-free on Fyra, but that's been done. Did wonder why I didn't see any of those new sets out in use, they're really not having much luck with them yet!

Talking of Fyra, I guess that you get Class 28s working them still yet then? Would explain the 28 I saw through Brussels Nord (surprisingly not mentioned in my trip report!) last week going north non-stop on various liveried NS coaches. Only saw two 28s on such workings during the day in Brussels, don't know what other Amsterdam workings there were.

Finally, glad to see that I wasn't the only person to go to Amsterdam and not need to go to the Red Light District. Surprised one of the 'Do' suggestions was to avoid using a camera there mind, that I was warned about before I left but I didn't go anyway.

 

[stut]

The line to Isolatorweg is fine, but can be pretty deserted at nights and weekends as its primarily an industrial area.

Amstelveen, where the sneltram goes, is absolutely fine - a fairly dull new town, to be honest.

The other lines go to the "Zone Zuid-Oost" or the Bijlmer, a huge, 60s-era social housing development, with a strong ethnic character. Its reputation is ten times worse than the reality, and normally spread by people who would never go there, but his certainly isn't the Amsterdam on the postcards.

What you do get out here is a fascinating mix of people, and the opportunity to try Indonesian and Surinamese food of a style you won't get in the main city (as in: better and cheaper). But it certainly isn't easy on the eye. And yes, there are times of day when you'll feel less comfortable out here.

However, one noteworthy station is Bijlmer-Arena, which is rather impressive.

Worth noting that Lelylaan station isn't an especially attractive place to hang around.

 

[starrymarkb]

Seems a sensible idea to ask then, but ahead of even thinking of when to book my Amsterdam Metro/tram bash, this question comes up in light of the comment of avoiding south/west Amsterdam:

Are all the tram/Metro lines safe for bashing then? I've not looked at a map of where they all go yet but I am dubious about doing them if there's some places seriously recommended to avoid.

Also worth pointing out, even though a bit late, Lelyaan isn't too bad a spot either. South end of the platforms especially by the looks of it. I was going to mention Centraal to Schipol is supplement-free on Fyra, but that's been done. Did wonder why I didn't see any of those new sets out in use, they're really not having much luck with them yet!

Trams seemed OK, with the Combinos there is a conductor in a booth in the rear section, on the older BN trams sit near the driver. The set up is more like a Bus in the UK with the driver selling tickets. The Metro did seem a bit more desolate but I only used it in the daytime.

The V250 units were in service for 36 days before being withdrawn after the Belgian Authorities withdrew their licence to operate for safety reasons (I'll try and find out more!)

 

[radamfi]

You may (or may not) be interested in the 25 km long Zuidtangent busway between Schiphol and Haarlem. This is quite an impressive feat of engineering, involving numerous tunnels and viaducts. The bus stops are built to tram standard. There are many road and cycle path crossings where barrier controlled level crossings have been installed. Wikipedia even has distances for it, like it does for railways:

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuidtangent_(Noord-Holland)

There is a somewhat more comprehensive metro system in Rotterdam compared to Amsterdam, which has recently been extended to Den Haag taking over a former railway line. The same thing will happen to the line to Hoek van Holland, so you may want to do that line before metro conversion.

 

[ainsworth74]

Trams seemed OK, with the Combinos there is a conductor in a booth in the rear section, on the older BN trams sit near the driver.

So I wasn't going crazy! I thought I kept seeing trams with conductors but whenever I boarded one I couldn't find them, I began to think I was just seeing things.

 

[DaveHarries]

I have been to Amsterdam a few times and it is one of my favourite cities in Europe. Here are a few thoughts.

Last time I was in Amsterdam (May 2011) I did, on the recommendation of a guidebook, stay in the Owl Hotel (http://www.owl-hotel.nl/gb/) which is in a nice situation: it is near from the museum area and within easy walking distance of nice Vondelpark. Usefully it is also within easy reach of several tram routes to / from Central Station. The hotel rooms when I was there were comfy and well furnished.

The Owl, if you decide to stay there, is also not far from the restaurants and bars around Leidseplein. There are some very nice bars to while away the evening. One bar I had seen in Lonely Planet and which I tried for the first time when I was last there was the jazz music venue Café Alto (Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 115) which I thoroughly recommend. However this venue is currently closed for what the website calls "renovation" and that is to last through to (the end of?) May though the website says "we hope to see you back in April". I really hope they don't wreck it: when I was last there the basement location, combined with the walls being rich with jazz bills advertising many famous names from years gone by, all gave the place a nice atmosphere. Note that if you find Cafe Alto open when you are there then it is a good idea to get there as early as possible as the place really fills up: I think the doors open around 2100 but you will be lucky to get a seat after 2200. There is also table serve for the seats near the stage meaning that you can enjoy the music and atmosphere without having to get up and go to the bar.

There are some very good restaurants nearby as well.

If you decide to eat out in the central area then, in the Newmarket square, is a restaurant / cafe by the name of De Waag (Nieuwmarkt 4 / http://www.indewaag.nl/en/) which dominates that square. Some of the bars on the edge of that square make a nice place for a relaxing evening pint. However the last time I tried De Waag the place was packed. I believe you can reserve tables though and it could well be a good idea to do so if you decide to go there. In addition there are numerous bars & restaurants on the roads leading from Dam Square. Among these, on Damrak, was a good Italian restaurant (between Dam Square and Central Station) which I last visited back in 2007 but the name of it unfortunately escapes me. The food was, as I recall, very good.

If you decide by chance to venture out of Amsterdam then the city of Breda is a nice place to spend a day. However I won't write an expanse on Breda here as that would be OT but if you want info then reply here or drop me a PM.

Whatever you get up to in Amsterdam enjoy it: I always have.

Dave

 

[Spaceflower]

Trams seemed OK, with the Combinos there is a conductor in a booth in the rear section, on the older BN trams sit near the driver. The set up is more like a Bus in the UK with the driver selling tickets. The Metro did seem a bit more desolate but I only used it in the daytime.

The V250 units were in service for 36 days before being withdrawn after the Belgian Authorities withdrew their licence to operate for safety reasons (I'll try and find out more!)

The route to Gasperplaas (to the south) passes through some poor districts and is very desolate on an evening, with unmanned stations.

 

[route101]

Seems a sensible idea to ask then, but ahead of even thinking of when to book my Amsterdam Metro/tram bash, this question comes up in light of the comment of avoiding south/west Amsterdam:

Are all the tram/Metro lines safe for bashing then? I've not looked at a map of where they all go yet but I am dubious about doing them if there's some places seriously recommended to avoid.

Also worth pointing out, even though a bit late, Lelyaan isn't too bad a spot either. South end of the platforms especially by the looks of it. I was going to mention Centraal to Schipol is supplement-free on Fyra, but that's been done. Did wonder why I didn't see any of those new sets out in use, they're really not having much luck with them yet!

Talking of Fyra, I guess that you get Class 28s working them still yet then? Would explain the 28 I saw through Brussels Nord (surprisingly not mentioned in my trip report!) last week going north non-stop on various liveried NS coaches. Only saw two 28s on such workings during the day in Brussels, don't know what other Amsterdam workings there were.

Finally, glad to see that I wasn't the only person to go to Amsterdam and not need to go to the Red Light District. Surprised one of the 'Do' suggestions was to avoid using a camera there mind, that I was warned about before I left but I didn't go anyway.

Pretty sure i seen one of them new Fyra sets a few weeks ago in Amsterdam but not sure if it was in passenger service .

 

[EWS 58038]

Pretty sure i seen one of them new Fyra sets a few weeks ago in Amsterdam but not sure if it was in passenger service .

Nope... In 3 days AnsaldoBreda will lose their "3 months of recovery" after which NS can pull the plug, not that they will as they will be signing the end of their concession which is kept on track by cap and collar at an astonishing €300.000 per day. Difficult to explain, but in the end this High Speed Train disaster will have costed the Dutch tax payer 10 Billion without 1 train operational on domestic services in stead of the agreed minimum of 94 daily services.

 

[Techniquest]

Jeepers, that's just crazy. There's still not exactly a through Brussels to Amsterdam service is there yet? I know I saw Fyra loco and stock workings at Breda on Sunday, then what appeared to be hourly Fyra runs from Roosendaal, but didn't observe if they were starting there or not, but I think so.

Either way, it's a very poor situation at the moment and it makes rail look bad to the average norm. Hopefully it gets sorted soon, and I guess the Fyra loco and stock still use the high speed line?

 

[EWS 58038]

Jeepers, that's just crazy. There's still not exactly a through Brussels to Amsterdam service is there yet? I know I saw Fyra loco and stock workings at Breda on Sunday, then what appeared to be hourly Fyra runs from Roosendaal, but didn't observe if they were starting there or not, but I think so.

Either way, it's a very poor situation at the moment and it makes rail look bad to the average norm. Hopefully it gets sorted soon, and I guess the Fyra loco and stock still use the high speed line?

There are 2 Fyra V160 services per hour from Amsterdam to Breda and 8 Benelux services from Hague to Brussels (weekends to Antwerp).

For 2014 new paths have been requested for re-introduction of the hourly Amsterdam-Brussels train.

 

[starrymarkb]

Basically you don't order from AnsaldoBreda - how are the IC4s doing in Denmark?

 

[Techniquest]

Cheers, let's hope it finally gets there soon!

 

[EWS 58038]

Basically you don't order from AnsaldoBreda - how are the IC4s doing in Denmark?

DSB has 48 of 84 sets available, but new trains will be send straight to DSB maintenance to get a technical re-fit.

It is reported that DSB got 50% of their money back to cover for expanses made to keep other trains in service.