Hi all -

Went to Amsterdam at the weekend; thought I'd share some of my public
transport experiences.

1) First Capital Connect London Bridge - LGW, afternoon
shoulder-of-peak. Full-ish, on time, fast. While the ex-TL route in
full-on peak time is horrible, it's one of my favourite services the
rest of the time.

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...

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.

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.

5) Nedrail back to Schiphol. More "pick a card, any card" fun at the
machines. 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...

6) BA to LGW. See 2).

7) FGW to Reading. Why is the North Downs Line so goddamn *slow*?
Still, at least the train was on-time, clean, comfortable, etc. No sign
of gripper.

8) FGW to Oxford. Why aren't there any fast trains in the evening? Slow
train was 15 minutes late (well, actually it was cancelled at Reading
due to a failed unit and restarted with a new one) and took 45 mins.
This is irritating, given that the fast trains take about 20.

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?

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

In message .com, at
06:15:55 on Mon, 22 May 2006, John B remarked:
The card experience was frustrating, though: do UK ticket machines
treat foreign cards as ineptly as the Dutch machines do?

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.
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 22 May 2006, John B wrote:

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.

Not sure what ticket machine setup they have there, or you'd want for
London. First in York have put machines in the new bendy bus, sorry i mean
'ftr'.

Now everyone queues in the rain while people in front buy a ticket from
said machine and go sit down - it was quicker with the pay the driver
system. The only times it works is when the machine is broken .. which is
quite often so far

I did hope the ticket machine would enable faster boarding, and people
would get on and buy their tickets on the move. I guess the HSE wouldn't
allow things like that, people not in their seats while the bus is on the
move.

Bring back the conductors! Apart from speeding up journeys, they can bring
in some "heavy duty" ones for late night busses for example.

Cheers

Chris
--
Chris Johns

John B wrote:

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?

I don't know, but my experience of the Schiphol machines is that you
sometimes have to try again if you pull your card out too quickly, as
that's when the strip is read.

The Centraal machines do not accept any UK credit cards, so far as I'm
aware, and only accept Maestro (not Visa) debit cards. This is the
same throughout .nl, except Schiphol (which could trip up a lot of
people).

Neil

"John B" wrote in news:1148303755.459166.188860
@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
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?



I use my Maestro to get train etc tickets at Amsterdam central station.
Never had a problem.

I know that many UK ticket machines do not accept Visa Electron from the
continent. In fact, many shops don't, for some reason.

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

4) Having ticket machines onboard is a brilliant idea
and I wish TfL would add them to the bendybuses.

I've noticed that some or most of the stops on the country end of (London's)
N29 have no ticket machine, instead having an instruction to pay at the
destination.... but for short journeys, this might not be possible at all.

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.

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.

They should accept Visa and Mastercard. I never bother, because Maestro
always works. Didn't you try that?

5) Nedrail back to Schiphol. More "pick a card, any card" fun at the
machines.

I hope you didn't try the old machines (the ones with buttons)? They
only accept coins and Dutch debit cards. They'll be replaced anytime
soon, luckily.

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...

Regards,

Rian

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

Rian van der Borgt wrote:

They should accept Visa and Mastercard. I never bother, because Maestro
always works. Didn't you try that?

Only about half the UK banks issue Maestro debit cards. The other half
(including mine) issue Visa Delta debit cards, which are accepted
pretty much everywhere Visa credit cards are. This is usually a bonus,
but can be awkward in .de and .nl where Maestro is far more widely
accepted.

Neil

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).
Lady Inspector went mad when she asked how old she was.I said I didnt
know she should pay adult prices, and would pay the difference(the
ticket was only around 8euro for adult, and 6 for child).
She said there is no choice, you will pay the fine.
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, we got
there, and I didnt see her again.
Are they on commision for the fines?
Alan.

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

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?

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.
--
Roland Perry