Next week, the municipality and the transport region will commit themselves to the plan that two Amsterdammers came up with seven years ago: a cable car over the IJ.
–
“Every average Dutch person who hears the word ‘cable car’ thinks of mountains and ski lifts,” says initiator Willem Wessels in the Minervahaven, where an intermediate station should be built. “But then you don’t realize that in all kinds of cities worldwide in South America, North America, in Lisbon, Paris, London – that cable cars are being built there that really have a public transport function.”
Wessels, an engineer, and his associate Bas Dekker (economist) were and are often looked at strangely when they unfold their plans for a cable car in Amsterdam. There was therefore great joy when traffic alderman Egbert de Vries (PvdA) announced that Amsterdam and the Transport Region will participate in a “feasibility study” for the plan. Wessels: “We think this is a festive breakthrough.”
–
This means that the cable car, which leads from North via the Minervahaven to the Isolatorweg metro station and thus is intended to provide access to the future Port City, is far from a fact. The municipality does not pay. The two planned bridges over and the pedestrian tunnel under the IJ already cost enough, the financing will have to come from the market. “If you compare what a bridge or a tunnel costs, then this is peanuts”, said Wessels.
The initiators estimate the costs at 130 million euros and the IJbaan could be ready in 2030. Amsterdammers react differently, although a boy at CS enthusiastically pulls out his wallet. “Here, 50 cents, I like it super sick.”
–
