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Now You See Them… Now You Don’t…
In recent weeks, Amsterdam city streets were suddenly graced with a number of bright red, open top double-decker buses used as hop-on, hop-off sightseeing buses for tourist.
The initiative is part of City Sightseeing Worldwide which operates in some 70 cities around the world.
However, this morning inspectors of Holland’s Transport and Water Management Inspectorate prohibited the company from running its buses in Amsterdam due to safety concerns.
Turns out that at some spots in the city, the open top is too close to the live electricity wires used by the Amsterdam trams. This could lead to potentially dangerous situations — with tourists risking electrocution.
Inspectors also noted that the top layer of the bus is too high according to European standards. Permission to operate the buses in the Netherlands had therefore already previously been denied.
Officials of the Amsterdam-Central Borough do support the City Sightseeing iniatiave, and together with inspectors and traffic police are discussing possible solutions.
Earlier City Sightseeing Amsterdam caused some consternation amongst competitors by flouting some rules, including a prohibition against the hop-on, hop-off system, and against handing out leaflets.
Owing in part to Amsterdam’s narrow streets, only buses and trams that are part of the public transport system are allowed to have passengers board and exit at stops throughout the city.
A writer for Dutch news daily Het Parool was not impressed with the taped information provided during the tour.
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