Amsterdam Centraal railway station

Amsterdam Centraal
Code	Asd

Amsterdam Centraal station at night

Amsterdam Centraal station from the side.

Amsterdam Centraal station in the 19th century.

Amsterdam Centraal (Asd) is the Centraal Station (Central Station) of Amsterdam. It is one of the main railway nodes of the Netherlands and is used by approximately 150,000 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 P. J. H. Cuypers and A. L. van Gendt, and opened in 1889. 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

History

The building of Amsterdam Centraal is situated on three man-made islands, themselves resting on 8,687 wooden poles 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 rumored to be fashioned after it, although there is little evidence to support the theory. Terunobu Fujimori, a scholar of the Western architecture, denied the rumor after studying the styles of Tokio's station architect Tatsuno Kingo, as well as the building itself^[1].

Railway Lines

Railway station layout

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):

Amsterdam Metro

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

See also

• Railway stations in the Netherlands
• - Station square (in Dutch)

References

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

External links

• Amsterdam Tourist Attractions
• Amsterdam Centraal railway station is at coordinates 52°22′44″N 4°54′00″E / 52.379, 4.900Coordinates: 52°22′44″N 4°54′00″E / 52.379, 4.900
• 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,