To build or not to...finish the new metro line (Amsterdam)

In the middle of the project for building a new metro line in Amsterdam, a cloud of doubt floats over closing down this operation.

Here is an article from DutchNews.nl entitled "Amsterdam Metro go ahead was wrong"!

Amsterdam city council should never have given the green light to building a metro system to link the north and south sides of the city, the Volkskrant quotes a damning report on the project by a council inquiry team as saying.

The report states that technical, organisational and financial risks were played down because of politicians' desires to make the metro a reality, the paper says. [...]

Amsterdam did not have the expertise in house to calculate the risks, the project management was inexperienced and lacked authority and civil servants were not up to scratch, the report states. In addition, the council's executive board failed to let external experts assess the plan.

And the report concludes: 'the executive should not have put the motion to build the metro to the full council and the full council should not have taken the decision.'

Budget

The construction project has been dogged by unforeseen technical problems such as subsidence since it started.

The metro was originally budgeted to cost €1.4bn and was set to open in 2011. The cost is now put at €3.1bn and the opening date is 2017. In July the council agreed to press ahead with the development because of the investment made so far.

Geert Dales, the council executive who developed the plan, comes in for particular criticism for not keeping the council informed about the risks associated with the projects, the Volkskrant says.

Dales left the council to become mayor of Leeuwarden. His successor Tjeerd Herrema resigned this February following the publication of another report into the metro's problems.

People of Amsterdam voted against this project and still the city council decided to move on with it. Decisions are always made by those people having an interest in gaining a great deal of money and benefits when the project starts; then, once they get the money, they take off and enjoy the life somewhere. This is what I call a major holdup made by intelligent thieves.