Weesperplein metro station

A part of the unused section

In Weesperplein, planners had to consider the possibility of an additional East–West Line.[10] Since the second line was almost guaranteed to be built at the time, the decision was made to start work on the bottom platform in advance as building it afterwards would have been too complicated.[11] An extra area below the platform used by the East Line was created, which consisted of large open areas made out of concrete.[12] This area only had the space to fit in an island platform, as columns supporting the entire station structure above limited the size of the tunnel. In the original plan, the line would have run under houses and caused their demolition.[11]

After the East–West Line was cancelled by the municipality on 19 March 1975,[13] the area was converted to be used as a fallout shelter.[12] The whole station has a capacity to house up to 12,000 people,[14] 5,000 of them inside the shelter.[15] The shelter included beds, water tanks, and garbage chutes for disposing of radioactive clothing.[16] There are showering areas at the very bottom with bulkheads, but the shower heads and disposal systems were removed later.[15] The doors are watertight and undergo annual testing to ensure functionality. Public shelters in Amsterdam, including the shelter at Weesperplein, were not maintained from 1999 onwards.[16] In 2004, the equipment was removed to make way for smoke extraction machinery in case of a fire.[12] The former shelter can be accessed via sliding doors at the top level of the station.[15]

Weesperplein in the original plan

The Bureau Stadsspoor (City Track Bureau) was formed in 1963 following a 1960 report and concluded that Amsterdam needed a new rail system to move large numbers of people. The bureau released five reports by 1966 and laid out a final plan for a total of four metro lines in the city, which was presented to the public in the same year during a press conference by alderman Roel de Wit.[17] The plan included two East–West lines, which would intersect each other twice: at Looiersgracht[18] and at Weesperplein.[19] The municipal council and the mayor of Amsterdam came together in April 1968 to debate on the metro. A month later, the council approved the plans based on the advice of the bureau and reserved 5 million Dutch guilder for the design of the eastern branches of the two East–West lines, which was the first phase of the project.[17] Expectations were that the lines would be running within five years and that the total cost would be around 250 million guilder.[19]

An aerial photo showing a caisson of the station being built

The platform during its construction

Weesperplein was the first Amsterdam Metro station to begin construction, work commencing in August 1970. It was expected to take 4 to 5 years to finish the station.[20] Most underground areas of the East Line were constructed by using caissons, which made pumping out groundwater unnecessary. The caissons were built above ground on-site, and generally had a length of 40 metres (130 ft) and a width of 10–18 metres (33–59 ft). At Weesperplein these were 40 metres wide, even wider than those at Amsterdam Centraal, which were 30 metres (98 ft). The earth below the caissons was rinsed with water and pumped out, allowing the caissons to be lowered into place.[21] There were protests against the construction of the metro, as this method required the demolition of the houses above the line.[22] A tram stop with multiple amenities dating back to 1923 had to be destroyed for the metro.[23]

The station was reported to be almost complete by June 1974; operations were expected to start years later.[24] During the process of digging the station, two former freshwater storage basements were found. In the city centre of Amsterdam within the Singelgracht are 33 of these basements, but not much is known of them as they have not been in use since the mid-19th century.[25]

The platform six days before opening

A train was first rolled into the underground tunnels by the Gemeente Vervoerbedrijf (GVB) on 25 January 1977, and mayor Ivo Samkalden drove the metro under supervision.[26] The section from Weesperplein to Amsterdam Centraal was not completed yet at the time.[27] Before the public opening, journalists and members of the municipality council were given a ride from Amsterdam Amstel to Weesperplein.[28]^{: 0:23–0:38} Testing of regular metro operations started in late August 1977, after training of staff was completed.[29]

The metro line, including Weesperplein station, opened to the public on 16 October.[30] For the first few years, Weesperplein was the terminus of the system: trains that came into the station were turned around with a switch that was located just after the station and ran the other direction towards Bijlmermeer.[28]^{: 1:33–1:41} At Bijlmermeer the line split into two, one line ending at Gaasperplas and the other at Holendrecht. The section towards Centraal station was opened later on 11 October 1980 and Weesperplein was no longer a terminus for the two lines.[31] Braille patterns were installed on the handrails at the station in 1984 to assist blind and visually impaired people.[32]

In 1990, a tram-metro hybrid named sneltram (high-speed tram) started operations as line 51. Using special trains, the metro line would convert into a high-speed tram line at Amstelveen and run alongside regular trams.[33][34] A high-speed tram caught fire at the Weesperplein station on 12 July 1999 due to a blocked disc brake. Although the tram was carrying no passengers at the time, the smoke coming from the fire caused all levels of the station to be evacuated.[35] Two people were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, but were discharged quickly after their injuries were determined to be minor.[36]

During a 2011 renovation, asbestos was found in one of the emergency stairs of the station, which prevented metro operations for another two months. An internal review of the renovation found that the quality of repairs fell short of standards and that these had to be redone regularly.[37] In 2014, an exact replica of the station was built in Vught, North Brabant, to enable police, first aid, firefighting, and military personnel to train for emergency situations.[38] The GVB started to play music through the speakers of underground metro stations in April 2017 as a test. The type of music would depend on the time of day: slow and calming music during rush hours, and energetic music during the afternoon.[39]

The station hall after renovation

A renovation of the station started in May 2017 with one of the entrances. The renovation was split into five phases to allow the station to be kept open, each phase taking three to four months. Concrete was replaced with glass to make it seem lighter and more spacious.[40] As the payment gates located before the stairs from the hall to the platform frequently caused congestion on the platform due to passengers not being able to leave quickly, they were moved to the actual station entrances, creating one large central hall.[41] A new elevator from the hall to the platforms was constructed, and the three existing ones were renovated. Two new staircases to the tracks were also built. Supply of new and disposal of old material was done by using the rails at night, when the Amsterdam Metro does not run. This was done to avoid creating traffic jams above ground.[42] Walls were given smooth curves to direct passengers.[7]

Writing for Het Parool, Marc Kruyswijk commented that before the renovations, the station was a place "where you would prefer to spend as little time as possible," but after the renovation, it "suddenly looked as if it was not only a part of the past but also a part of the present".[43] The same newspaper had previously called it an "underground labyrinth" where travellers had difficulties in finding the exits.[44] In 2018, Het Parool reported that the station was already somewhat done in case a new East–West Line was planned. This would make Weesperplein a station where travellers could connect from one line to the other, as originally intended in the 1970s.[45] Weesperplein was the fifth most used station of the Amsterdam Metro in 2018 with 36,373 passengers per day, behind Amsterdam Centraal, Amsterdam Zuid, Amsterdam Amstel and Amsterdam Bijlmer.[46]