Lelylaan
5051- Opened
- 1 June 1997
- Level
- Elevated
- District
- Nieuw-West
- lines
- 50 51
Where does the name come from?
The station lies on Cornelis Lelylaan, named after Cornelis Lely (1854-1929), the Amsterdam-born engineer and minister who designed the Afsluitdijk and after whom Lelystad is also named.
The story
The station of the man who tamed the Zuiderzee
Cornelis Lely was born in Amsterdam in 1854 and became one of the country's best-known hydraulic engineers. As Minister of Water Management he saw his plan for the Zuiderzee Works passed into law in 1918, helped by the severe floods of 1916. He designed the Afsluitdijk, the largest dam of its kind when it was completed in 1932. Lelystad bears his name, and a statue of him by Mari Andriessen stands on the Afsluitdijk.
The railway station on the avenue named after him opened on 1 June 1986 with the rail link to Schiphol. Until around 1996 Intercity trains called here, with direct services to places including Brussels, Berlin and Leeuwarden. The station sits on a long viaduct spanning three roads.
The metro followed in 1997, with an island platform linked directly to trams 1 and 17. In the early 2000s fare dodging was a problem here: passengers ran straight from the train onto the tram. The stairs to the tram were fenced off, and the gates only reopened in early 2007, and then only during the day.
In the early 2000s the stairs to the tram were closed off because passengers without tickets ran straight from train to tram.
Comments
Do you know more? Do you live there, know your grandfather's story, or spot a mistake? Tell us here. That is how this register grows with what Amsterdammers know.