News of: Tuesday, May 10 2005,
The GVB (the Amsterdam municipal public transport company) opened a central observation and control system today.
The centre, located at Arlandaweg near the Sloterdijk train station, is a traffic control system and central observation point.
Four employees will continuously watch over the safety of the metro stations. There are now 250 cameras, that produce images for 40 screens. The number of cameras will grow to 700 in the course of the year.
Passengers indicate they feel unsafe, particularly in the underground metro stations. This system enables the GVB to monitor and tape all activity. When an incident occurs, they can copy the footage onto a cd and hand it over to the police.
The system also has a speech system, allowing travellers to speak with personnel in the central communication centre.
