Rotterdam metro extension to the beach opened

[DanielB]

Last Friday, the extension of the Rotterdam metro line B the beachside station Hoek van Holland Strand was opened for passengers. Together with the opening of the extension, the new Hoek van Holland Haven station was opened as well.
This station now is no longer directly besides the ferry terminal, but across the road next to the bus station.

Compared to the former NS station, the new beachside metro station is almost in the North Sea as this departing metro from the new station illustrates...


Between Strand and Haven stations, the line is mostly single track. During the winter season an half hourly service is offered, which increases to every 15 minutes during summer. At the busiest summer days this will even be increased to 8 metros per hour, meaning the single track section being in use almost continuously

Being so close to the sea, the last bit of track is constructed on concrete blocks instead of sleepers, allowing sand to be blown underneath the tracks instead of piling up...


Some more photo's of the new terminal station...

 

[AndrewE]

Clever solution to burial risk from blowing sand... I thought that NR should have done that through Dawlish station to deal with the sea water! Presumably the Dutch will have a rail-mounted vacuum cleaner/sand blower for when it gets half way up the rail, or maybe just a huge flushing mechanism and a deep sump...

 

[AlbertBeale]

Re the note about the moving of the port station across the road ... it was already (last time I went that way) a longer trek from the boat to the train/metro than it had been some years earlier (I think because the ferry berth/gangplank was further away, not that the station had moved); so how inconvenient does it feel now - do you come out of the port terminal and simply go over a pedestrian crossing - ie does it still feel like an integrated system [like Shepherds Bush Underground/Overground!]?

And if the harbour station tracks have been slewed across to point the right way to get to the new beach station, does that leave the old track space as a potential rail terminal for specific ferry link trains? (OK - I'm still dreaming of getting off the boat and getting straight onto a through international train to somewhere, like years back...)

 

[DanielB]

The platforms at the harbor station may even be closer to the terminal than the last few months. Approvals took so long that the new station is already on StreetView. So it's just crossing over the bus station, turn right and cross over the road to reach the station.

Regarding your remark on the longer trek last time you went: when this has been somewhere in the last year or so, it actually was the station that had moved. Metros departed from a temporary platform along the sidings next to the Stena freight terminal for a while, while tracks where being laid to connect the new station to the rest of the line.

 

[Bemined]

Main reason for the station redesign is that they wanted to straighten the platforms for accessibility reasons. The old through platforms were in a curve, in order to straighten it they needed to move the platform slightly further down the line and relocate the crossing to the other side of the station as well. It's not that much further, less than 100m, but you do have to cross the road now because of the relocated railroad crossing.

 

[AdamWW]

The platforms at the harbor station may even be closer to the terminal than the last few months. Approvals took so long that the new station is already on StreetView. So it's just crossing over the bus station, turn right and cross over the road to reach the station.

Regarding your remark on the longer trek last time you went: when this has been somewhere in the last year or so, it actually was the station that had moved. Metros departed from a temporary platform along the sidings next to the Stena freight terminal for a while, while tracks where being laid to connect the new station to the rest of the line.

Unlike at Harwich, the ferry berth is a considerable way from the terminal and there's a long corridor with travelators to walk down. I don't know how long it's been like that. Quite a while I suspect.

The annoying thing is that the temporary platform was just opposite the ferry berth so you had to walk down the corridor to the terminal then back (outdoors) to almost where you started.

And if the harbour station tracks have been slewed across to point the right way to get to the new beach station, does that leave the old track space as a potential rail terminal for specific ferry link trains? (OK - I'm still dreaming of getting off the boat and getting straight onto a through international train to somewhere, like years back...)

It would be lovely, wouldn't it? But I don't think the Metro platforms have suitable clearance for regular European rolling stock. There is a short section near Rotterdam that has interlaced track on one line to allow freight trains to pass platforms. Not that it would happen anyway.

I'd settle for through ticketing coming back.

 

[DanielB]

It would be lovely, wouldn't it? But I don't think the Metro platforms have suitable clearance for regular European rolling stock. There is a short section near Rotterdam that has interlaced track on one line to allow freight trains to pass platforms. Not that it would happen anyway.

Clearance is one thing, but also the voltage on the overhead lines is different so you'd be restricted to using diesel trains.

 

[Mountain Man]

Having used it last weekend I can confirm the ramp down from the ferry is significantly longer than the short crossing of the road to the station.

I'd note a couple of things the Stena Britannica on the route seemed a notable step down in quality from the E Flexers Stena use on the Irish Sea. And secondly as per usual with rail connections at ports and airports there was a serious missed opportunity to have multi lingual decent travel information, for example I'd expect a decent portion of foot passengers will be heading to Amsterdam, some basic info on a board as to where to change would be very helpful given the quickest way is not to go into Rotterdam itself. So often these travel connections get built costing millions and their customer experience could be improved dramatically with so better signs and information

 

[AdamWW]

Having used it last weekend I can confirm the ramp down from the ferry is significantly longer than the short crossing of the road to the station.

I'd note a couple of things the Stena Britannica on the route seemed a notable step down in quality from the E Flexers Stena use on the Irish Sea. And secondly as per usual with rail connections at ports and airports there was a serious missed opportunity to have multi lingual decent travel information, for example I'd expect a decent portion of foot passengers will be heading to Amsterdam, some basic info on a board as to where to change would be very helpful given the quickest way is not to go into Rotterdam itself. So often these travel connections get built costing millions and their customer experience could be improved dramatically with so better signs and information

At least the ramp has travelators.

Nice to see that the new station is open anyway - they can retire their golf cart for getting people to the temporary station.

I'm surprised by your comments about the ferry itself. I haven't used any others recently to compare with but I was rather impressed.

 

[Mountain Man]

At least the ramp has travelators.

Nice to see that the new station is open anyway - they can retire their golf cart for getting people to the temporary station.

I'm surprised by your comments about the ferry itself. I haven't used any others recently to compare with but I was rather impressed.

Compared to old ferries it's decent. But E Flexers are taking over Northern European routes with Stena, DFDS and Brittany all ordering them recently and they are a definite step up in class inside.

 

[johncrossley]

I'd settle for through ticketing coming back.

That will probably never come back now that the Netherlands has nationwide touch in touch out contactless. Through fares to England would of course be cheaper but there is no longer the hassle of having to buy separate tickets for travel within the Netherlands.

 

[AdamWW]

That will probably never come back now that the Netherlands has nationwide touch in touch out contactless. Through fares to England would of course be cheaper but there is no longer the hassle of having to buy separate tickets for travel within the Netherlands.

I can't see though how this is all that different to accepting tickets from neighbouring countries, which I presume they still do.

So they must have the ability to cope with journeys that aren't made using their contactless system.

When I was there last year you could also travel on e-tickets if you chose (or indeed physical tickets from a machine, at a premium).

 

[johncrossley]

I can't see though how this is all that different to accepting tickets from neighbouring countries, which I presume they still do.

So they must have the ability to cope with journeys that aren't made using their contactless system.

When I was there last year you could also travel on e-tickets if you chose (or indeed physical tickets from a machine, at a premium).

Of course there have been reasonable options for paying for the Dutch part of the trip but nothing is as easy for British residents than using their existing debit or credit card. There have been posts on here complaining that they needed to use the ticket machine at Hoek van Holland.

It is often worth splitting tickets when crossing the Dutch border. For example, if you use the RE train from Germany to Arnhem.

 

[AdamWW]

Of course there have been reasonable options for paying for the Dutch part of the trip but nothing is as easy for British residents than using their existing debit or credit card. There have been posts on here complaining that they needed to use the ticket machine at Hoek van Holland.

Contactless is certainly smoother than having to use a machine. It's still not as easy as the previous through tickets were though.

And contactless travel is not quite so convenient if you have children in tow.

 

[Trainbike46]

The Netherlands also uses e-tickets with a scannable barcode for trains, but I think the metro is very much contactless/OV-chip only (paper tickets are effectively single-use ITSO-like cards)

 

[DanielB]

No, RET also offers barcode tickets in their own app.

 

[Trainbike46]

Ah, well that means there is no technological reason preventing through tickets from coming back at least!

 

[DanielB]

Apparently somewhere else (I don't see that message in this topic) @rvdborgt mentioned the problem is actually with NS and not with RET.
It's NS who doesn't want to sell e-tickets via third parties anymore due to extensive fraud with e-tickets. They'll now only accept tickets printed from their website or loaded in their app (or at least any app, I believe Glimble by Arriva and the 9292-app also offer e-tickets which can be used with NS, but those are also bound to one smartphone as fraud-prevention). QR-codes now also have a limit on how often gates can be opened with them.

It's said NS had been testing a solution with Stena selling a coupon-code, which needed to be exchanged for a ticket on the NS website, which failed to the complexity for the customer.

 

[Trainbike46]

Apparently somewhere else (I don't see that message in this topic) @rvdborgt mentioned the problem is actually with NS and not with RET.
It's NS who doesn't want to sell e-tickets via third parties anymore due to extensive fraud with e-tickets. They'll now only accept tickets printed from their website or loaded in their app (or at least any app, I believe Glimble by Arriva and the 9292-app also offer e-tickets which can be used with NS, but those are also bound to one smartphone as fraud-prevention). QR-codes now also have a limit on how often gates can be opened with them.

It's said NS had been testing a solution with Stena selling a coupon-code, which needed to be exchanged for a ticket on the NS website, which failed to the complexity for the customer.

An alternative solution would be for NS to be selling the whole sailrail ticket, or maybe for the stena line website to use an API so that NS is still the one issuing the e-ticket?

NS does accept international e-tickets issued by foreign railways like Eurostar, Thalys and DB, so I don't really see how this is different?

 

[DanielB]

Well, doing something IT related that involves NS is a poor idea. Their systems are notoriously broken.
Buying an e-ticket via the Dutch website sometimes involves waiting more than an hour for the mail confirmation to arrive, but switch the language to English and after payment you'll instantly end up at a page to print your ticket or load it into the app.

 

[TheHSRailFan]

This is cool, I remember first hearing about this line being converted into metro. I don't get why it only went as far as the ferry terminal before the beach extension opened, for some time the old NS beach station was left to overgrow and rot.

 

[DanielB]

The old NS beach station was nowhere near the beach anymore as settling of sand near the dam that marks the end of the Nieuwe Waterweg resulted in the beach moving away from the station.

In the time the metro terminated at the harbour, a new section of line was build with a new beach station only metres away from the beach (and actually with a short tunnel under the dunes as well)
The new section partly uses the old alignment and a new harbour station had to be built as well, that's why it couldn't be used as a temporary solution for the time in between.

 

[rvdborgt]

An alternative solution would be for NS to be selling the whole sailrail ticket, or maybe for the stena line website to use an API so that NS is still the one issuing the e-ticket?

NS does accept international e-tickets issued by foreign railways like Eurostar, Thalys and DB, so I don't really see how this is different?

It's different because they're international tickets and generated another way. I haven't heard much about any problems issuing them.
It's the domestic e-tickets issuing that always has problems. Every few weeks the NS community is full of them.

 

[AdamWW]

It's different because they're international tickets and generated another way. I haven't heard much about any problems issuing them.
It's the domestic e-tickets issuing that always has problems. Every few weeks the NS community is full of them.

Well:
1) Sailrail tickets are of course international tickets, even if NS chooses to handle the NS part as a domestic ticket.
2) If NS can accept printed international tickets for through journeys to/from the Netherlands by rail (and I'm sure they still do) then I find it hard to see what technology would prevent them from doing so for a SailRail ticket if they chose to.

 

[Bemined]

This is cool, I remember first hearing about this line being converted into metro. I don't get why it only went as far as the ferry terminal before the beach extension opened, for some time the old NS beach station was left to overgrow and rot.

The old through tracks at the harbour station were in a tight curve that would not allow level boarding. So the entire curve had to be reconstructed, making the old beach station inaccessible for a couple of years.

 

[Nicholas43]

I think it would be helpful if Stena sold RET 2-hour tickets in the disposable chipcard version, and brief instructions for paying for onward travel by NS from Schiedam or Rotterdam Central or Alexander using any contactless debit card.

 

[rvdborgt]

I think it would be helpful if Stena sold RET 2-hour tickets in the disposable chipcard version, and brief instructions for paying for onward travel by NL from Schiedam or Rotterdam Central or Alexander using any contactless debit card.

RET started accepting tapping in/out with contactless cards (OVpay) last month. For now metro only but that's enough if you want to catch a train.

 

[duesselmartin]

RET started accepting tapping in/out with contactless cards (OVpay) last month. For now metro only but that's enough if you want to catch a train.

That is good news as I will take the ferry in June. A system that suits most visitors even if the end cost is sometimes a little higher.

 

[Roast Veg]

I took the ferry overnight on Monday/Tuesday, and the first metro to arrive was headed towards the haven station, so we elected to pop down and see it. Very tidy affair, certainly one of the most attractive parts of an otherwise very industrious area.

There's some remaining demolition work just outside the ferry terminal where the old platforms used to be, but it doesn't materially affect how easy it is to get to the metro platforms.

 

[AlbertBeale]

I took the ferry overnight on Monday/Tuesday, and the first metro to arrive was headed towards the haven station, so we elected to pop down and see it. Very tidy affair, certainly one of the most attractive parts of an otherwise very industrious area.

There's some remaining demolition work just outside the ferry terminal where the old platforms used to be, but it doesn't materially affect how easy it is to get to the metro platforms.

Yes - the Dutch do often work hard; and it's also rather an industrial area...