Light Rail Transit Association   URBAN TRANSIT NEWS 2004

Grote Markt station on 16 October. Note the validators are at platform level (eg orange column on the left).The other underground station at 'Spui' is of similar design. .

Den Haag tram subway opened: The 800-m tram subway (known formally as the 'Souterrain') built over the last 10 years beneath Grote Marktstraat and Kalvermarkt, the main shopping streets in Den Haag (The Hague) NL, was opened at 13.00 on 16 October 2004, and is now served by routes 2, 3 and 6. The project was approved in 1994, and digging started in March 1996, with the aim of opening in December 1999. However problems with water ingress put back the completion several times, and resulted in the original cost of EUR 127 million increasing to EUR 242 million. The scheme includes an underground car park for 374 cars, as well as the tram station Grote Markt.

The same date also saw a cavalcade to mark the centenary of overhead electric tramway operation in the city, with the museum cars making a last trip over the surface tracks that were about to be taken out of service. Featuring in the parade were:

Den Haag HTM 2 (of 1906) towed by the Unimog.

HTM 164, 265+505+614, 57+118, 810+769, 826, 215+780;

HTM PCCs 1022, 1101, 1165, 1210, 1304+2101;

HTM articulated trams 3001, 3061, 3101;

HTM works cars H41, 2, P1 (1302), 1315, 1139.

19 October 2004 Photo added 22 October 2004