Zuid

The metro station shares its name with Amsterdam Zuid railway station, opened in 1978. For years it was called Zuid/WTC, after the neighbouring World Trade Center; that suffix was dropped in 2006.

A station between two motorway carriageways

Zuid station occupies an unusual spot: the central reservation of the A10 ring road, with traffic lanes on either side. The railway station opened on 21 December 1978. The metro arrived in 1990 with the Amstelveen line, the light-rail service of line 51. Until 2019 those vehicles switched here from third rail to overhead wires for the run through Amstelveen. The Ring Line followed in 1997, and on 22 July 2018 regular service began on the North/South Line, line 52, which terminates here.

There is no room to expand between the motorway lanes. Hence the vast Zuidasdok project: part of the A10 is being moved into tunnels so that a much larger station can be built, with wider platforms and more tracks. The plans place the metro platforms in the middle and give the metro four tracks.

The project has suffered major delays. It was originally due to finish in 2028 for just over a billion euros; in 2021 it emerged that roughly 1.2 billion euros and about eight years would be added. The last cycle and pedestrian tunnel, the Vivaldipassage, is scheduled for completion by 2036 at the latest.