Dutch railways

[expat]

How does paying for a train ticket work in NL these days?

Used to be (apart from Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal) a choice of only 2:

1. pay with your Dutch bank card.
Oh dear, you're not Dutch?
2. Go get cash out of a cash machine at rip-off charges; queue at counter because machines don't take notes; pay an extra fee for paying in cash.

Any progress for non-Dutch people on Dutch railways yet?

[petergriffin]

Yes, you can only pay with I-Deal. It's a sort of ethnic control on foreigners.

The good news is that I've stopped buying train tickets because I've never found a ticket controller on board, but I'm in the South.

Anyway you don't need to be Dutch to have a Dutch bank account.

[Mich the Tester]

How does paying for a train ticket work in NL these days?

Used to be (apart from Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal) a choice of only 2:

1. pay with your Dutch bank card.
Oh dear, you're not Dutch?
2. Go get cash out of a cash machine at rip-off charges; queue at counter because machines don't take notes; pay an extra fee for paying in cash.

Any progress for non-Dutch people on Dutch railways yet?

They didn't really think about this when they set up the OV Card thingummy. That's normal; the NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) don't seem to be very good at 'thinking'.

[barrydidit]

Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Dutch Poor Waggon? Is that really what they call their railways?

A commendable lack of turd polishing if that's the case. I wish Northern Rail would adopt a similar approach.