Tram runs from December 16, bus 12 retires

For years, employees and students of University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and Utrecht University have been waiting for the more comfortable public transport journey between Utrecht Central Station and De Uithof. From 16 December, the bus in which passengers are swung back and forth packed like sardines during rush hour will be a thing of the past. Although the tram was initially intended to replace bus 12 in 2015, this has been realised four years later.

It was already announced in October that the Uithoflijn would start running as of the new timetable. It was still unclear at that time whether the tram, which will be called line 22, would ride six or ten times per hour. This required additional test drives with tram with two wagons. These went well, making it safe to run the tram ten times an hour. With this frequency, additional buses on the same route are no longer required.

The elongated buses will still be on display, though. A number of these will be deployed on line 28.

The tram line will be festively inaugurated on Saturday 14 December. Everyone can then ride along for free between 14.30 and 17.30 p.m. This is a special event, because the tram will not run during the weekend, according to the timetable. Line 22 only runs on weekdays until 22.00.