Roland Perry wrote:
I bought 2 adults and 1 child ticket (it is 16yo in the uk before adult
prices).

What's the age in Holland?

Are they on commision for the fines?

I dunno, but from conversations overheard on the train I get the
impression that a lot of tourists dodge the Schiphol-Centraal fare;
either because the machines defeat them, or they "genuinely" think they
can buy a ticket on the train.

Not unreasonable if you're a Brit, given that Airport Express services
all offer on-train ticket sales (and the Schiphol trains look more like
express stock than local stock).

OTOH, the EUR35 penalty fare is roughly equivalent to the cost of an
SOS on HEx or StEx, so the only difference from the tourist's PoV is a
bit of being-shouted-at-by-grumpy-Nederlander.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

Roland Perry wrote:

I dunno, but from conversations overheard on the train I get the
impression that a lot of tourists dodge the Schiphol-Centraal fare;
either because the machines defeat them, or they "genuinely" think they
can buy a ticket on the train.

There aren't obvious notices stating that you can't on display, and
it's accepted UK practice that unless there is a barrier check or
penalty fare scheme (the latter being well-publicised in most cases)
that it is acceptable to pay on the train so long as you want a
full-fare single, just as it is in Germany (with a surcharge).

There's always the ticket office at Schiphol (though there is a small
surcharge).

All this suggests to me that while NS is operationally very efficient,
it is highly customer-unfriendly.

Neil

Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 16:49:19 on
Mon, 22 May 2006, A.Lee remarked:
I bought 2 adults and 1 child ticket (it is 16yo in the uk before adult
prices).

What's the age in Holland?

4 - 11yo for child fares.
This Country isnt bad at all if you have children, compared to that.
Alan.

--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

On 22 May 2006 14:56:43 GMT, (Rian van der Borgt)
wrote:

On 22 May 2006 06:15:55 -0700, John B wrote:
2) BA to Schiphol. An hour late arriving. Surly service, no apology for
delays. I wish through tickets on the E* and Thalys didn't cost
£300...

Eurostar tickets NL-UK start from around 100 euros. I'm sure there must
be something comparable the other way around.

I'm sure there is but try finding it. Rail Europe's site is singularly
unhelpful - it quoted me a fare of almost £500 for a First Class return
to Amsterdam as apparently only business fares are available. I know
this to be incorrect but there are no options for a first class leisure
fare.

The other issue is that you can get to Brussels but Thalys is often full
and it is impossible (IME) to get a ticket covering the slower service
to Amsterdam via Eurostar's site.

I'd much rather do the journey by train but the whole system is so
unfriendly that I won't put myself through the needless complexity. The
only people who lose are Eurostar, Dutch Railways and the tourist
industry in Holland - I'll go on holiday somewhere else.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Mon, 22 May 2006 17:07:33 +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:49:19 on
Mon, 22 May 2006, A.Lee remarked:
I bought 2 adults and 1 child ticket (it is 16yo in the uk before adult
prices).

What's the age in Holland?

Child fares up to 11. When they turn 12 it's adult fares.

Are they on commision for the fines?

There's been a new policy regarding selling tickets on the train since
October last year: no tickets are sold on the train, under any
circumstances.
When you end up on the train without a ticket *and it's not your fauult
(of course this still happens), it's best *not* to pay the fine but tell
the inspector you tried to buy a ticket but failed. You will (or should)
get a "postponement of payment" paper and the central services in
Utrecht will get back to you. If they still demand the 35 euro fine, you
can then object and they may replace that by the normal fare.

Regards,

Rian

--
Rian van der Borgt, Leuven, Belgium.
e-mail: www: http://www.evonet.be/~rvdborgt/

On Mon, 22 May 2006 16:49:19 +0100, A.Lee wrote:
Rian van der Borgt wrote:
Grimmest gripper ever - even surlier than the BA staff. I'd
hate to imagine how he'd have acted if we'd given up on the infinite
card shuffle and boarded ticketless...

"That'll be 35 euros then please". Alternatively, you could not pay
directly but wait for the invoice from Utrecht...

We had a similar encounter last October, we were doing Haarlem to
Centraal, myself/girlfriend and 13yo daughter.
I bought 2 adults and 1 child ticket (it is 16yo in the uk before adult
prices).

The ticket machines (the new ones with touch screens) do mention the
maximum child age BTW...
http://webdemo.ns.nl/e2000.html

A commuter at the side of me then defended me (in Dutch), saying I was a
tourist and didnt know the age limit for children (which was true), the
inspector calmed down a bit, and said she would see me off at Centraal,
and buy the proper ticket, which I thought was a little strange [...]

The incpectors do not have means anymore to issue tickets on the train.
If they don't want to give you a fine, they don't have many options.

Regards,

Rian

--
Rian van der Borgt, Leuven, Belgium.
e-mail: www: http://www.evonet.be/~rvdborgt/

Credit cards acceptance in the UK is much higher than most of
Continental Europe. I share your frustration when buying tickets in
Holland. Brussels was just as bad pre-Euro, although I think they've
upgraded many of the machines since. They'll take banknotes anyway -
another blind spot in Holland.
--

It's because there is quite a lot of consumer resistance to credit
cards especially in Germany where it's a cultural thing to not like
them.

Over here, of course, we eat them.

"John B" wrote in message
oups.com...

2) BA to Schiphol. An hour late arriving. Surly service, no apology for
delays. I wish through tickets on the E* and Thalys didn't cost
£300...

BA European short haul. Variable, very very variable. I used to use EasyJet
from Liverpool, newer planes and the staff were happy too.

3) Nedrail to Centraal. Ticket machines still rubbish; we tried six
different cards on the machine at the airport that claimed to take
international credit cards before finding one that it would deign to
accept. Train fast, double-deck, clean.

Things have changed since I was out there - it costs more to queue and buy a
ticket now. Don't think the trains go that fast though. Mind you if it was a
busy time, you'd not have difficulty going faster than the traffic on the
motorway out of Schiphol.

4) Trams are good. Having ticket machines onboard is a brilliant idea
and I wish TfL would add them to the bendybuses. Overall (and
uncontroversially), Amsterdam's public transport system is one of the
best I've ever used. Haven't tried the underground, though.

The tram fleet has benefitted from the recent delivery of 155 Siemens
Combinos, which has enabled all the trad Amsterdam tri-artics to be
replaced. There are AFAIK only 37 all high floor cars in the entire fleet
now (plus 45 low middle ones).

Apparently the older Metro cars have been recently refurbished. Probably as
well, I remember the original grey LHB sets as being particularly grim.

When you have a monthly ticket for the street PT, you don't miss not having
a car (and parking in Amsterdam is expensive, and you have to feed the meter
all week long, except I think Saturday night and Sunday morning).

--
Tim

Selective killfiling - because life's too short

On Mon, 22 May 2006 17:52:11 +0100, (A.Lee) wrote:

Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 16:49:19 on
Mon, 22 May 2006, A.Lee remarked:
I bought 2 adults and 1 child ticket (it is 16yo in the uk before adult
prices).

What's the age in Holland?

4 - 11yo for child fares.
This Country isnt bad at all if you have children, compared to that.
Alan.

That can't be right - I thought everything PT-related in the UK was
worse than mainland Europe!

;-)

Overall, not a bad PT experience on either side of the Channel - and as
usual, the weakest link was the plane. The card experience was
frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines treat foreign cards as
ineptly as the Dutch machines do?

Foreign credit cards work better in the UK but there is a draw back it is
more likely for a European traveller to use debit card as credit cards are
seen as radioactive material - these debit cards (as far as I know) won't
work in the UK unless they're of a VISA or Maestro variety, for those using
their own countries debit cards it can be a real problem.