Because that's the date when the North - South metro connection starts operating. In its wisdom, GVB has decided to reroute a substantial number of tramlines. Basically, people are forced to use the new metro to make their trips between CS and Ceintuurbaan. Which means that many trams that used to depart from CS now do so from Leidseplein and have new, circuitous routes.

Please google translate this page for the changes:

https://www.gvb.nl/reizen/nieuwe-tij...le-wijzigingen

Thanks for this info. As a result I am seriously considering changing our hotel for our August visit.

Wow!

In English: https://en.gvb.nl/reizen/nieuwe-tijden

Thanks hetismij. I'm quite shocked by GVB's audacity.

Seems wise. Especially the changes to the #1 line are far reaching.

I'm not interested in Line 1 but rather 2 and 5

#2 remains the same if I read it correctly.

Fascinating. I'm not planning a trip back to Amsterdam soon, but I am very interested in public transit in various cities and how they handle expansion.

I just got back from Portugal, my first time there. Lisbon, apparently, has seen enormous growth in tourism in the last few years. Their public transportation system clearly hasn't kept up with the crushing demand. Many buses and trams I tried to board were so full that I could not get on and had to wait for the next one. Others simply ended early without explanation and everyone had to get off and re-board another vehicle. It was quite frustrating, and it made getting around take longer than expected. And I'm just a tourist. I can imagine how incredibly frustrated locals in Lisbon must be with all of this overcrowding if they are just trying to get/from work.

I glanced at the changes in Amsterdam, but I am not familiar enough to understand whether the new metro line and the re-routing of trams will be an improvement or a nightmare. But, at least they are trying to do something about it. Is Lisbon? I hope so.

To me it's clear that the tram changes are meant to "nudge" people to use the new metro line. Of course, it means that the entire network will become less granular. Also, Leidseplein will now become more of a transport hub, as many new tramlines route through there. So those stops will now have to deal with more travelers, whereas the importance of CS as a terminus for many tramlines is now declining.

this is from february last year and concerns the #14

https://www.ovpro.nl/tram/2017/02/27...-te-schrappen/

And this about the fact that many buses to Waterland now have Noord as their terminus and no longer Amsterdam CS, and again protests against closure of the old east to west tramline

https://www.ovpro.nl/tram/2016/12/15...018-amsterdam/

Thanks for posting this Menachem, that is beyond annoying!