About those problems in the Netherlands.

I think they reverted the system to the old system where you can buy a
train ticket on the train, if you have a good reason for it anyway.
That means that if you're a foreigner and can't use the ticket machines
nor is there any ticket office (open), you can get on the train and buy
it from the conductor.
It is ridiculous however that even in the new machines that are being
installed just now, you still can't use credit cards. i think Maestro
cards should work with most European debit cards though, but I'm not
sure of that.

But you're right, it's ridiculous how bad our railways can be when it
comes ot customer service and information at times, and we really need
to start accepting credit cards in a lot more places.

We are switching to integrated transport though; an OV Chipkaart, which
is basically like an Oyster card that you should be able to use for any
form of public transportation throughout the country in the end. Right
now they are only testing it in the bigger cities. You might have seen
the gates already in Amsterdam and Rotterdam if you have been there
lately.
Their website is available in Dutch only, but if anyone wants to have a
look: http://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/