Dutch gov’t to spend 7.5 billion euros on transport, Amsterdam-Schiphol metro

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Monday outlined plans to spend 7.5 billion euros ($7.75 billion) through 2030 on improving transport, including extending an underground railway line to connect Schiphol Airport with Amsterdam.

Funding for the plans had been reserved under a pact struck by the four parties comprising Mark Rutte’s current coalition in December 2021, but allocations were determined only after lengthy negotiations with cities and provinces.

In all, the national government will spend 4 billion euros on public transportation projects including extending Amsterdam’s North-South Metro Line to Schiphol, 2.7 billion euros on improving roads, and 780 million euros on improving infrastructure on an already extensive network of bike paths.

The projects are clustered around improvements needed to improve the transport connections for 400,000 new homes being separately planned as part of efforts to ease a structural housing shortage in the Netherlands.

($1 = 0.9678 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)