WHERE ARE THE SEATS?
Very few trams need doors on both sides. Most have a loop at each end which means the trams don’t need to run in both directions like a metro. So GVB, please stop buying trams with unnecessary doors that take up space needed for the best and most comfortable seats.
Good seats face forward or backward with a view out the window, and space for your feet under the seat in front of you. The worst seats are the ones over the wheels, with no legroom. Also poor are the ones facing the aisle where people walk, with your back to your window. Watching Amsterdam go by is one of the joys of riding the tram.
THE OLD COMBINO TRAM WITH GREAT PLACES TO SIT
TODAY: FOOTSIE WITH A STRANGER
OR REVERSE COWGIRL
For a combination of reasons, the new ‘CAF Urbos’ (the 15G series officially) barely have any good seats. The all low-floor design already means crappy seats with no legroom above the wheels (three sets per tram — ‘bogies’ for the nerds). Then you have not one but two luxurious places for wheelchairs and strollers that also eat into scarce space. And when you take away four seats for each set of wrong side doors, that leaves only eight good seats on each tram. Yes eight!
Currently, almost no one in a wheelchair rides a tram, but let’s assume some will in the future. And we need three bogies to put the wheels on, so what could we give up for more seats? The doors to nowhere!
Thanks for the air conditioning, but Amsterdam deserves comfortable trams and good seats!