Another financial setback and further delays for Amsterdam’s new north-south metro line have led to the resignation of the council executive in charge of the project.

Tjeerd Herrema quit after the publication of new estimates showing that the cost of the project has gone up by a further €290m and that the metro will not be ready until 2017, two years later than the last target date.
The cost of the project has now risen to €2.4bn, compared with just €1.4bn when the metro was given the green light in 2002.
At the time, the national government agreed to shoulder almost €1bn of the cost, on the condition the city paid the rest and all unforeseen costs.
Much of the extra costs are the result of subsidence along the city’s Vijzelgracht street last summer.
‘We have been more realistic than ever in these new prognoses,’ said Heerema in the Volkskrant.
The north-south metro line, which will link the capital’s southern business district with Amsterdam north on the other side of the IJ estuary, has been beset with problems since work started.
Herrema (Labour) will be replaced on an interim basis by the green party Groenlinks’ Maarten van Poelgeest (GroenLinks).

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