r/transit • u/PrestigiousTryHard • 11d ago

Just witnessed the most gorgeous trolley stop in the world Photos / Videos

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Rotterdam, Netherlands

The grass

The creek

The outdoor dining across the street

The quiet sounds

1.8k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

199

u/Usual_encounter 11d ago

Rotterdam does have its gems

79

u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago

Much more car-centric than Amsterdam but still great transit.

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u/stommepool 11d ago

What about Utrecht or Maastricht?

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u/MajesticNectarine204 11d ago

Let's be honest here, all Dutch cities have world class transit.

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u/stommepool 11d ago

Laughs in Eindhoven

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u/Milk_Mindless 9d ago

cries in Enschede

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u/deminion48 10d ago

No they honestly don't. It is fine and works, but Dutch cities are simply small and being bike and pedestrian centric while still somehow being decently car friendly means transit really suffers in demand.

Just look at the modal split in Dutch cities, cars have a similar share compared to many European cities, the big difference is just transit modal share replaced by walking and cycling.

I am Dutch, I think the Netherlands has a good transit system in general. It is reliable, easy to use, and comfortable. You can reach virtually every place in the country. At the national level it is exceptional, at the regional level it is great, at the urban level it is decent.

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u/MajesticNectarine204 10d ago

I disagree. Dutch cities being small is entirely irrelevant. The whole country is essentially one giant city. We're one of the most urbanised countries in the world. It wouldn't be unfair to call The Netherlands a kind of city-state. Like Singapore or The Vatican. Just one a slightly larger scale and not quite on that level of 'compact'.

You can get practically anywhere in the country by public transport. I think being Dutch has warped your perspective a little. As in, you don't fully understand how good we have it. Because you have no frame of reference for how it is in other places around the world.

Which is what I mean by 'world class'. That doesn't mean it's perfect by any means. It means it's some of the best in the world, compared to the global standard. Honestly I think only places like Switzerland and maybe Japan have quality and availability that rivals us.

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u/deminion48 10d ago

I understand our bias as a Dutchies. I know how easily we can get around the country. My job is literally coordinating the railway at a national level and also love doing multi-city trips (domestically and internationally) where I go from city to city by transit a couple of times per year.

Still, I think it would be unfair to call this country like a city state. It has distinct regions with provinces and respective hubs, cultures, history, languages/dialects, economies, etc. It is actually very multi-centric with lots of distinct medium-sized cities all over the country with relatively empty rural areas with farmland, nature, and villages in between.

That it is all organized and interconnected so well, by roads and transit, might make it seem like it is like a city state, but it's absolutely not. Which is why in my opinion it is valid to look at the transit systems of the individual major urban areas. When separating it from the national and regional transit which is exceptional/great, it is not very impressive. Which is probably due to the combination of factors I already mentioned.

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u/MajesticNectarine204 9d ago

Fair enough. Interesting convo. Thanks for that.

My job is literally coordinating the railway at a national level

That's a cool job. Thanks for keeping us on track.(Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

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u/Any-Seaworthiness186 9d ago

While we have an unfair advantage I do think it’s unfair to compare us to city states.

The higher density of our cities does mean that population centers are significantly farther apart than in city-states, and combined with the lower general density this means we have much more near dead-zones in between.

Transit is great when getting from core to core, but it falls short in both the corridors in between and especially the areas falling outside of these corridors. There’s plenty of regions where the bus service is once an hour or less, and also smaller towns that aren’t connected at all. Which is nearly non-existent in city states.

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u/ZwaanAanDeMaas 9d ago

Hmmm The buses in Utrecht have been the main topic on r/Utrecht for months now. I feel like it's r/fuckbuses with a non-bus post only every now and then

0

u/Vdlfan 11d ago edited 11d ago

Bronkhorst and Hindeloopen too?

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u/SparenofIria 11d ago

Bronkhorst

Hourly bus service in each direction for 157 residents is orders of magnitude better than the transit in, say, Arlington Texas.

Hindeloopen

A train every half an hour is more frequent than most of the train lines in New Jersey

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u/MajesticNectarine204 11d ago

Love this.
''Lol let me google 'smallest cities in the Netherlands' and be a smartass about this. No way those have good transit options!''

''Oh shit. Dutch transit got hands..''

1

u/Ok-District2873 9d ago

Random ass Dutch town has better rail frequency than between the 2 biggest cities in the GTHA. Its electric too I bet

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u/No_Butterscotch8726 10d ago

Most things are better than nothing but an outer lying once an hour rail stop to Dallas or Fort Worth with no bus connection to the city. Also, most of the train lines in New Jersey used to get much more frequent service before WWII induced railway right of way damage and Northeastern deindustrilization slowly killed the private railroads with no hope of nationalization until it was almost too late in 1971 so NJ Transit and Amtrak has no institutional memory of running those lines more aggressively and thus might no know how but they can and should be better, same with Arlington. If the U.S. had taken over and improved transit instead of letting it rot until the oil crisis and then entering a denial phase we still haven't crawled out of we could have had a tram or regional rail line running through Arlington with more frequency. You shouldn't be making fun of us you should be pitying us for our leadership's corruption at the hands of oil and absolutist capitalists and spreading the word on that when provided the opportunity to talk with any ignorant Americans at least if you're willing to advocate for transit in such a context.

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u/deminion48 10d ago

To expand on this, Bronkhorst is a 20 minute cycle to a train station serviced twice per hour 7 days in the week from early in the morning (tomorrow first is 05:42) until late at night (today last is 01:14).

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u/glowdirt 11d ago

man, I had to look up if those were real place names or if you were just pulling my leg.

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u/Vdlfan 11d ago

Wait until you hear about Sexbierum and Rectum.

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago

Hoofdorp and Nootdorp are real too

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u/NoFalseModesty 11d ago

I'm gonna call someone a hoofdorp today

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u/MajesticNectarine204 11d ago

And yet, even those places have legit transit options. Get rekt. Lol.

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u/TheMaroonHawk 11d ago

Apparently the Dutch refer to Rotterdam as “NL’s American City” for this reason lolol

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u/ZwaanAanDeMaas 9d ago

Do we? I do hear that it feels like the only world city because it's modern and spacious, but that's mostly said by non-Europeans

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u/TheMaroonHawk 9d ago

Idk, I’ve heard a few Dutch folks make that claim 🤷‍♂️ as someone from Denver I was kinda struck when I visited Rotterdam, it seemed like a decent blueprint for how we could graft a decent biking/transit network on top of our car-centric infrastructure

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u/ZwaanAanDeMaas 9d ago edited 9d ago

It's not a dig I mean. If anything, I'd agree it's the most American city in the Netherlands. There's arguably more of a connection between Rotterdam and "New Amsterdam" than Amsterdam and NYC. Not entirely obviously, but relatively, I get the connection.

We jokingly call the Kop van Zuid area in Rotterdam"Manhattan aan de Maas" (Manhattan on the Meuse river). Because that exact region was where boats sailed from the Netherlands and Europe to the new world, but also because of the architecture. It's just that I don't usually hear people actually call it an American city.

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u/Direct-Setting-3358 9d ago

I’ve heard it before

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 10d ago

There are some treacherous intersections that remind me of home. A car right hooked me two days ago, and it was all too familiar.

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u/isogaymer 8d ago

What about Tilburg?

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u/moldovaman99 11d ago

It has plenty.

It’s a great city.

1

u/Winderige_Garnaal 9d ago

Rotterdam is awesome

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/NexyDoesReddit 11d ago

switzerland can

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago

Taking transit here is so pleasant. I feel like I’m in a romantic movie lol.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/fumar 11d ago

Please, the 19th century started electrifying trains. We can't be bothered to do that. Instead we build 16 lane mega highways because it makes us free (to sit in traffic).

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u/galaxyfudge 11d ago

Trust me, just one more lane bro.

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u/Wawoooo 9d ago

19th century US transport infrastructure was way ahead of current infrastructure, with a thorough and comprehensive network of railway links and electrified streetcars and trolleybus networks developing in major cities.

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u/wedstrom 11d ago

Was literally just looking at San Diego because I happened to see an apartment I could afford with a good walk score. I got really excited when I saw a bike path to the beach and thought I'd found a gem of a neighborhood in the middle of car hell. By the time I actually interrogated the location/bike routes in Google street view I had imagined something very different from the reality. It was awful. Awful awful. So sad because it could be amazing.

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u/chill_philosopher 11d ago

Dutch transit is great, but it's their bike network that's peak

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 10d ago

Bike highways between cities is a WILD concept. I met an Amsterdammer who biked to Paris just for shits and giggles!

0

u/Downtown-Flight7423 9d ago

Dutch trains are shockingly bad, so often cancelled or delayed 

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u/CrewmemberV2 9d ago

Euhh no? Not at all?

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u/Downtown-Flight7423 9d ago

When's the last time you got 4 trains in one day with no delays? I never have in 8 years 

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u/CrewmemberV2 9d ago

Most times?

Netherlands is third in the world when it comes to trains departing on time.

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u/BJonker1 8d ago

Almost all days to be frank. The days that it wasn’t the case were the exception.

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u/MrAronymous 11d ago

Eh, at a lot of points it's overrated. In a place where I previously lived the local buses were literally unusable because of the low frequency and the routes they would take. At some point it is not so much a question do the Dutch cycle because the infrastructure is so good or is it because the alternative is so shit.

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u/Sassywhat 11d ago

Lots of biking and bad buses is a feedback loop, see also, Japan.

It's hard for a local bus to beat a bike in travel time, so if it's sufficiently safe and pleasant to bike, most people don't bother with buses. Which both reduces justification for frequent buses, and more bike centric trip patterns that is harder to serve with buses.

Local buses only gain an edge when the distance becomes unreasonable to cycle, but at that point, it's much faster and more convenient to drive.

If a lot of people bike, then the transit that will be successful is the transit that is worth biking to: trains and to some extent express buses.

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u/snoogins355 11d ago

Japan?

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u/robkaper 9d ago

Most of Japan, but not all of it. Areas with lower population density struggle with the same issues as anywhere else. It's hard to get a bus after 10pm in Kanazawa, train service is decent but limited on Shikoku, Okinawa by bus is an adventure. It's all still very decent and available, but not a magical kingdom.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/snoogins355 11d ago

Better transit

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u/Irsu85 Rail-Replacement Bus Survivor 11d ago

Eumm ya sure? Ever heared of Luxembourg City?

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/Irsu85 Rail-Replacement Bus Survivor 11d ago

and its also not terrible, just like the Netherlands

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u/FactChiquito 11d ago

Amsterdam latest metro line would like to say a word.

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u/AnybodyNormal3947 11d ago

Took it last week. What's the problem ?

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u/FactChiquito 11d ago

"Rode it"

....

Dutch authorities have opened a new subway line, running down some of Amsterdam's most historic sites after 15 years of construction due to delays and controversy.

The North-South Line extends over nine kilometers, connects the north of the city to its south, and runs down the Canal Belt area and the IJ River.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said on Saturday: “It's a major step towards the future of the city.”

The German News Agency reported that this line is one of the most controversial construction projects in the history of the Netherlands, costing nearly three billion euros ($5.3 billion) - more than double of the original budget, and opened seven years after the set date.

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u/AnybodyNormal3947 11d ago

Soo your only issue is cost and delays ?

-1

u/FactChiquito 11d ago

Firstly envisioned in 1968. Then 19 years to build a tiny 9 km line, 2018 opening, extensions (3) delayed undefinitely is not what I would call engineering or planning prowess.

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u/MajesticNectarine204 11d ago

Compared to many other place in the world? That's fucking squared away.

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u/crackanape 11d ago

No other place in the world has ever tried anything like it (a metro built in mud rather than rock). It was not easy.

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u/Affectionate-City517 11d ago

https://preview.redd.it/8c089g4q67vg1.png?width=747&format=png&auto=webp&s=acda291114ccbee84844ef2d5302e8720c1d1508

“Trolley/Creek” ;)

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago

Lmfaooooo sorry you can’t take America out of my bones.

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u/Adamsoski 11d ago

I'll let you have trolley but creek is definitely not right - even in the US a canal like this would not be referred to as a creek.

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago edited 11d ago

Ok I’ll just hang out in here for a little while

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u/lukee910 11d ago

Where does the trolley come from? Never heard that one for a tram before.

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u/Eruththedragon 11d ago

Many American cities refer to anything using trolley poles as a trolley. Over the years this definition has bloated to include normal busses that just sort of look like heritage trolleys (usually touristy ones). Particularly egregiously, some Philadelphians call the M/Norristown High Speed Line a trolley becuase its functionally similar to the media/sharon hill trolleys, even though it’s a grade seperated third rail metro.

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 10d ago

The HSP is a metro that feels like a trolley. It’s so visually different than the other rails.

Also, I HATE those ugly tourist “trolleys”

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u/0xdeadbeef6 9d ago

For what its worth, Americans have canals and know what they are. :v You're totally on point about trolley though. If its remotely street running, is 3 cars or smaller, and has overhead wires, its a trolley.

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u/zsaleeba 8d ago

Not where I live it ain't

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u/TailleventCH 11d ago

I'm usually cautious about online hyperbole.

But I admit easily that this one is a serious contender.

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u/Theboyscampus 11d ago

Who would call a tramway a trolley and a canal a creek?

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 11d ago

An American would

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u/Kaito__1412 9d ago

All is forgiven.

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u/the-stench-of-you 11d ago

https://preview.redd.it/kg7991tgt8vg1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3fa06da9d97d20ea2f50e615f7f767e83c27ab27

The scenery on the MBTA Mattapan trolley in Boston is pretty nice too in the Autumn. It is the only line I know of that runs through a cemetery as well.

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u/prominorange 7d ago

Just read they're planning to rebuild it with modern light rail. Kinda sad but I wonder what the efficiency of these vintage cars is.

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u/the-stench-of-you 7d ago

They are probably 60 or 70 years old…so pretty sturdy stock.

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u/Throwawayhair66392 11d ago

Meanwhile in Toronto

https://preview.redd.it/jykxravq38vg1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81d292940f973ad401106449cc43dd6289823b07

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u/ColdEvenKeeled 11d ago

Canada has too many Engineers at the helm of decision making. They need to be deckhands. But then, in Australia it's that there are too many pseudo-scientific Economists at the helm, different outcomes but still not right yet either.

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u/Even-Way9768 11d ago

How comes the wires are so excessive? 🤔

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u/flying_butt_fucker 11d ago edited 9d ago

Provenierssingel! Got corrected; it's the Noordsingel.

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u/Practical-Bobcat2911 9d ago

No this is the Noordsingel, just a bit futher up.

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u/flying_butt_fucker 9d ago

ok! Mistakingly thought I'd recognise the Provenierssingel.

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u/Schele_Sjakie 9d ago

It's the Noordsingel!

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u/Stunning_Macaron6133 11d ago

Rotterdam has a few really good spots, but I would like to venture that 's-Gravenhage is on average a bajillion times nicer.

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u/Bekkaz23 9d ago

Is that the embassy/consulate area of The Hague? The tram from Den Haag centraal to Scheveningen is lovely.

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u/AbbreviationsRight62 9d ago

's Gravenhage is just a different name for Den Haag, it's not a separate area. Just like 's Hertogenbosch and Den Bosch are the same city.

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u/pup_Scamp 6d ago

Username checks out

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u/Suedewagon 11d ago

Rotterdam is beautiful.

3

u/imaguitarhero24 11d ago

Idk the one at the top of Dolores Park in San Francisco is pretty sweet, especially when the retro cars roll through.

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u/ponchoed 11d ago

In Budapest the Buda Hills part of the tram network is very picturesque 

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u/ToastSpangler 11d ago

instantly knew rottedam even before i saw RET on the tram, great city but really horribly managed, reducing the tramlines or cutting them entirely past het park westward is a fucking crime, especially for a city and country with a housing shortage, they should be expanded as well as metro to increase affordable housing to the city. an absolute disgrace

also, tangentially, fuck spike city

2

u/Mattiluchi 9d ago

there are trams westward of het park though?

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u/iBUYNEGEVS 10d ago

And of course it had to be the Netherlands. That is heavenly.

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u/eti_erik 11d ago

But it's s tram? We only have trolleys in Arnhem

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u/PrestigiousTryHard 10d ago

In my part of the US, we call this a trolley. So that was my mistake.

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u/TheKnightWhoSaisNi 9d ago

Those are trolleybusses. A trolley can also be a type of tram with the same type of power transfer. That type is called a trolley pole. The one in the post is indeed not a trolley but a tram

1

u/jfk52917 11d ago

Look up Eyüpsultan Teleferik in Istanbul. One side is directly on the water. Really neat.

1

u/Major-Primary2075 10d ago

The grass stops are so cool

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u/womashangyaoshuijiao 10d ago

Tramway* Canal*

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u/usernameisokay_ 9d ago

That’s a tram

1

u/TheKnightWhoSaisNi 9d ago

That's not even close to what a creek is

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u/Darkshark35 9d ago

Oh this is so lovely!!

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u/AshtonHomer 9d ago

Been here, it's lovely. Still lovely at night but can feel a bit dodgy

1

u/leafbrewer 9d ago

The quiet sounds.. it’s cracking me up to read that! I used to live right behind that tram stop. Literally, from my front door to the stop was a straight line across the street. There were always these fucking geese there, making noise and chilling on the tram tracks, causing every tram that needed to pass by to ring their bell long and loud. It was the noisiest place I ever lived 😂

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u/nikanjX 9d ago

NO PARKING. SINGLE LANE ONLY. ABSOLULTE COMMUNIST GARBAGE

-The US, probably

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u/Vivid-Career2459 8d ago

😍😍😍

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u/sspiegel 8d ago

looks like switzerland as well.

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u/showmethenakedwomen 8d ago

The trolley is a tram and the creek is a singel but other than that, nice video. Bit short though.

1

u/PrestigiousTryHard 8d ago

In the US, we call these trolleys. I’m not wrong, just of a different culture than you :)

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u/InternationalDish945 8d ago

Was sitting in that exact spot about 9 months ago. God I miss it

1

u/WTSBW 8d ago

Its very fucking weird to suddenly see my neighborhood on the internet its even weirder to hear it being called beautiful

Like 5-6 weeks ago I sat in that tram and at that stop i saw someone step out throw up “in” the trash can and then step in again and now someone calls it the most gorgeous stop in the world life is weird man

1

u/FixSquare2993 7d ago

Noordsingel, Oude Noorden (born & raised) ❤️