GVB Schedules 2026

GVB runs Amsterdam's public transport — trams, buses, the metro and the free ferries across the IJ that connect Centraal Station with Amsterdam-Noord.

The ferries are part of the network, not a separate ticket

The IJ crossings behind Centraal Station carry commuters, cyclists and scooters between the city centre and the northern bank, running frequently and at no charge. They are how Noord functions as part of Amsterdam rather than a place across the water.

Paying with what is already in your pocket

OVpay lets you check in and out with a debit card, phone or smartwatch — no separate transport card, no top-up, nothing else to arrange. For visitors the Amsterdam Travel Ticket covers several carriers from the moment you land, and a GVB day ticket gives unlimited travel on trams, buses and the metro, day and night.

The summer timetable ends earlier for the ferries

Worth noting because it catches people out: the summer timetable runs from 4 July to 18 August — but for the ferries only to 9 August. The two do not end on the same day.

Disruption

GVB publishes planned diversions, unexpected disruptions and — separately — lift and escalator outages, which matters if you are travelling with a bike, a pushchair or a wheelchair. Summer brings substantial track maintenance; check the journey before setting out.

One crossing, 785 sailings, and it never closes

The scale of the Buiksloterweg link is easy to miss. Our data holds 394 departures from Buiksloterweg and 391 from Centraal — 785 in total on a single four-minute crossing, running from 00:00 to 23:58. There is no closing time. A boat leaves somewhere on this route in every hour of the day and night, which is why Amsterdammers treat it as a moving pavement rather than a ferry.

Behind that sits an unusually complex calendar: the departures carry fourteen different day patterns between them. Most are invisible in practice because the frequency is high enough to absorb them, but on the quieter IJplein route — 160 departures each way, 06:26 to 23:50 — the day of the week starts to matter.