Extreme rate increase Easypark is not April 1-jerk, on Wednesday short strike public transport in three largest cities

110 seconds-As long as the public transport companies in and around Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague stop their buses, trams and subways on Wednesday afternoon. From 2 p.m., the start of a parliamentary debate over the public transport, GVB in Amsterdam, RET in Rotterdam, HTM in The Hague and the regional carriers Connexxion and ESB a short action against new cuts on city transport.

From 2026 the city transporters will receive 110 million euros less. Indeed, hence the duration of the promotion. The amount is approximately 10 percent of the annual budget for public transport in and around the three major cities.

« If the cutbacks continues, the knife in the timetables must rise considerably, » say the carriers and their clients, the local authorities. « The accessibility of jobs, care, education and recreation is at stake. Also come. housing projects in dangerbecause there is no money to make them easily accessible with public transport. « 

The cut is the result of a different way in which the government wants to finance the municipalities, we explained here. The government wants to shorten on specific benefits (Spuk’s) that municipalities receive from the government to finance (temporary) projects. City transport is also (improper, you could say) via the Amsterdam Transport Region (VRA) and the Rotterdam The Hague (MRDH) Metropolitan Region paid as such a ‘temporary project’.

The discount on city transport was one mistake during the coalition negotiationseveryone says in The Hague, but nobody seems to be able to recover that mistake. The city transporters want the cabinet and coalition to include in the Spring Memorandum that the 110 million is going on.

Monday, during a meeting in The Hague about OV and NetcongestieMinister Sophie Hermans (Climate and Green Growth, VVD) was on the plain about the financing of public transport and the discussions in the coalition about the Spring Memorandum. State Secretary Chris Jansen (Infrastructure and Water Management, PVV) assured that the accessibility of each region has, even though coalition parties NSC and BBB seem to think more about villages in rural areas outside the Randstad than disadvantaged neighborhoods in large cities.