Transportation within the city of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

is characterised by

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

s and

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

. Large

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

s only exist around the city, terminating at the A10 Ringroad. Navigating by car through the city centre is discouraged, with the government sponsoring initiatives to reduce car usage.

Local

Bicycle

Amsterdam is known as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world and is a centre of bicycle culture. 38% of all journeys in the city are made by bicycle. Most main streets have bike paths. Bike racks are ubiquitous throughout the city. There are about 1,000,000 bicycles in the city. Each year, about 100,000 of them are stolen and 25,000 end up in the canals.

Boat

Amsterdam has a large collection of

canals Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

. In total over 150 of these waterways crisscross the city and its surroundings, dividing the city of Amsterdam into approximately 90 mini islands. This network of islands is joined by a vast number of bridges, totaling over 1,000. For many centuries, these canals or waterways were used as the main transportation routes in Amsterdam. Everything ranging from water to coal, from food to spices used to be transported over these canals. Today these canals are only suitable for smaller barges, pleasure craft and the canal tour boats. There is however one main exception:

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

has its own DHL parcel boats that deliver packages across town using the old waterways.

Public transport

Public transport in Amsterdam consists of metro,

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

, bus and ferry routes operated mainly by GVB, the city-owned public transport operator. Regional buses, and some suburban buses, are operated by

Connexxion Connexxion formerly Transdev#Netherlands, Transdev Netherlands, Veolia Transport Nederland, Veolia Transport Nederlands and Connex Netherlands is a large Public transport in the Netherlands, public transport company in the Netherlands, operatin ...

and EBS. Currently, there are 16 different tram routes, and five metro routes. There are also privately operated water taxis, a water bus, a boat sharing operation, electric rental boats (Boaty) and canal cruises, that transport people along Amsterdam's waterways. The GVB Tickets & Info office (just outside Amsterdam Centraal) offers a free public transport map. During the construction of the Amsterdam Metro, plans to demolish the entire former Jewish neighbourhood near the

Nieuwmarkt Nieuwmarkt (; ) is a square in the centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The surrounding area is known as the Lastage neighborhood. It is situated in the borough of Amsterdam-Centrum. The square is considered part of Amsterdam's Chinatown, next ...

led to strong protests. Wall decorations at the

Nieuwmarkt metro station Nieuwmarkt is an underground metro station in the city centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Served by metro lines 51, 53, and 54 of the Amsterdam Metro, the station was constructed by sinking Caisson (engineering), caissons with a length of . Thi ...

are a reminder to the protests, which have become known at the Nieuwmarkt Riots. The metro was built nevertheless, but plans to build a highway through the neighbourhood in the centre of Amsterdam were abolished. A new underground line, the North/South Line (''Noord/Zuidlijn''), has been constructed since 2002. The completion date was 22 July 2018.

Car

Transportation by car is discouraged by the local government, with initiatives such as ''Autodelen'' and ''Meerijden.nu'' being sponsored, and steep

parking Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and usually leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the bu ...

fees and a great number of streets are closed off for cars in the city centre. The A10 Ringroad surrounding the city connects Amsterdam with the Dutch national network of freeways. Interchanges allow cars to enter the city by transferring to one of the eighteen ''city roads'', numbered s101 through s118. These city roads are regional roads without

grade separation In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...

, and sometimes without a

central reservation A median strip, central reservation, roadway median, or traffic median is the reserved area that separates opposing lanes of traffic on divided roadways such as divided highways, dual carriageways, freeways, and motorways. The term also ap ...

. Most are accessible by cyclists. The s100 is called the centrumring, a smaller ringroad circumnavigating the city centre.

National

Rail

There are 10 train stations in Amsterdam. See Amsterdam railway stations for more information.

Car

There are many roads in Amsterdam. See highway system of the Netherlands for more information.

International

Eurolines Eurolines is a brand of intercity bus service owned by an international non-profit organisation formed under Belgian law. Using the Eurolines brand, partner bus companies operate service in Europe and Morocco. History Eurolines was founded in ...

has coaches from Amsterdam to destinations all over

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, these depart from

Duivendrecht railway station Duivendrecht station (DVD) is a combined rail and metro station in Duivendrecht, Netherlands. The station opened on 23 May 1993 as part of the extension of the Zuidtak of the Amsterdam Ringspoorbaan, between Amsterdam RAI and Weesp. This stati ...

. IDBUS operates coaches from Amsterdam to

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, departing from

Amsterdam Sloterdijk railway station Amsterdam Sloterdijk is a major Train station, railway junction to the west of Amsterdam Centraal railway station, Amsterdam Centraal station. It is at a rail-rail crossing, with an additional chord (Hemboog). It is on the railway line from Amst ...

. Megabus operate coaches from Amsterdam to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and other UK cities, departing from Zeeburg P&R site, on Tram 26 (Stop Zuiderzeeweg). Amsterdam Centraal is an international train station. From the station there are regular services with destinations in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Among these trains are international trains of the

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

and the

Thalys Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...

Nightjet Nightjet (stylised as nightjet) is a brand name given by the ÖBB, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to its overnight passenger train services. ''Nightjet'' operates in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switze ...

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

and

Intercity-Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this Train categories in Europe, category) is a high-speed rail in Germany, high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland an ...

. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is less than 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam Central Station. It is the biggest airport in the Netherlands, the 3rd largest in Europe and the fourteenth largest in the world. It handles about 68 million passengers a year (2017) and is home base to KLM, since 2004 part of

Air France-KLM An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmospher ...

DFDS Seaways DFDS Seaways is a Danish shipping company that operates passenger and freight services across northern Europe. Following the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010, DFDS restructured its other shipping divisions (DFDS Tor Line and DFDS Lisco) in ...

is one of the main companies to operate in and out of IJmuiden.

References

{{commons category, Transport in Amsterdam .