What happened to canal travel?

While attending an exhibition of Dutch painting in the 17th century, I read an explanatory label that detailed scheduled barge travel among the major cities and noted that the trip from Amsterdam to Leiden took an hour -- What happened to canal travel and why is not a part of the urban landscape?


7 Comments

Marjorie Lightman

I think I understood most of the Stichting description on its site. This is very interesting and contributes to the discussion I part of on Eshington DC where river transport is just starting up after a long time of no river transport.

Pablo Pinkus's picture
Pablo Pinkus

The height and condition of bridges in dutch cities and the polder is not a big issue in revitalisation of passenger transport on the water. Maybe on some spots connections between different canal systems and the operation of locks could be improved. This to create shortcuts and to avoid heavy cargo traffic.
The big issue here is the absence of a governance policy for energy infrastructure, and the governmental absence of a vision for a feasible transition to clean propulsion. No one wants to shift noisy road traffic with its air and water pollution to the canals. New and smart energy infrastructure for the waterways should be highly approachable and support traffic which is 100% emission free, only. Stichting Elektrisch Varen has a solution for that, see www.elektrischvaren.org

Marjorie Lightman

I would be interested if there is any study of the cost or feasibility of upgrading bridges etcc... to use canls s a psrt of the public transportation system since they are ubiquitous in towns and cities and form an extensive interconnected system

Nancy Zikken's picture
Nancy Zikken

How do you think we can boost type of travel again @marjorielightman ?

Pablo Pinkus's picture
Pablo Pinkus

You would need a fast boat to travel from Amsterdam to Leiden within an hour. That was impossible in the 17th century. Travelling by passenger vessels was for the upper class these days. Ordinary people joined cargo barges at times. It is a pity we don't make time anymore for this elegant way of travelling.

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