From Monday, 21 September, through cars and motorcycles will no longer be able to cross the Catharijnesingel between Stationsstraat and Spoorstraat, the stretch that runs past Hoog Catharijne and Utrecht Centraal, the municipality of Utrecht announced on its website. The closure, known locally as "de knip" (the cut), splits what used to be a through-route into two dead ends for that traffic. All addresses and parking garages remain accessible, sometimes by a longer route. Cyclists, pedestrians, public transport, emergency services, Utrecht-certified taxis, coaches, commercial vehicles and permit holders are exempt.

The municipality says the change is meant to make the area safer for the growing number of pedestrians and cyclists around the station, free up space for greenery and reduce car traffic through the city centre. It follows the council's Mobiliteitsplan 2040, adopted on 15 July 2021, which rules out further growth in car traffic in the city even as Utrecht's population and jobs are projected to grow by roughly a third by 2040, favouring cycling, walking and public transport instead, according to a summary of the plan published by mobility consultancy APPM.

Cameras, not barriers

The municipality is not installing physical barriers. Instead, it placed a licence-plate camera on the Catharijnesingel earlier this year to measure traffic patterns, the city said in an announcement published in April. The camera will start registering violations when the closure takes effect. Drivers who cross the closed section will receive a warning letter until 1 January 2027; fines begin after that date.

The restriction follows Utrecht's restoration of the Catharijnesingel canal and its broader effort to reduce through car traffic in the city centre.

Courts declined to pause the closure

Hoog Catharijne, which owns the shopping centre and five parking garages along the route, used both administrative and civil proceedings to try to stop or delay the closure, arguing that it would make the area harder to reach and cost visitors.

Neither request for interim relief succeeded. On 1 July, an administrative judge declined to suspend the city's traffic decision while the underlying appeal proceeds. That was not a final ruling on whether the measure is lawful. In a separate civil summary proceeding on 15 September, the District Court of Midden-Nederland declined to block or delay the closure. The court found that agreements made between 2004 and 2008 promising "optimal" car accessibility set no measurable standard for deciding whether the city had complied with them.

KHN Utrecht and Centrum Management Utrecht continue to oppose the closure and say car access remains important to the city centre's economic health. The substantive administrative case is expected to be heard in the first quarter of 2027; until then, the refusal to suspend the traffic decision allows the closure to take effect.