Will OV-Fiets ever be opened up to tourists?

[johncrossley]

Will OV-Fiets ever be opened up to tourists? The main barrier at the moment is the need for a personal OV-Chipkaart which can only be posted to the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. The OV-Pas will replace the OV-Chipkaart, and the OV-Pas will be available in digital form, meaning no need to post the card. So that is one barrier gone. Another issue is that payment requires SEPA direct debit.

The Belgian equivalent (Blue-Bike) can be operated using an app and can be paid for using Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, so is fully accessible to foreigners.

 

[rvdborgt]

SEPA currently includes 41 countries, including the UK. I'm sure there are banks in the UK that support SEPA direct debit. If not, you can get a free Revolut account.
I agree that getting a personal OV-chipkaart is a pain if you don't live in one of the countries mentioned.

 

[johncrossley]

SEPA currently includes 41 countries, including the UK. I'm sure there are banks in the UK that support SEPA direct debit. If not, you can get a free Revolut account.
I agree that getting a personal OV-chipkaart is a pain if you don't live in one of the countries mentioned.

I agree the SEPA direct debit isn't a major issue for UK residents, but UK tourists (and probably tourists from most non-European countries) are not accustomed to using direct debits for this kind of service and are far more used to using bank cards, so that requirement would put off a lot of potential users.

It is technically possible for a tourist to get a personal OV-Chipkaart (various internet searches describe the process) but most tourists wouldn't be prepared to go through this. Only the very few people who are very determined to get the card will bother.

Tourists no longer need the OV-Chipkaart for public transport now that OV-Pay is nationwide, so the only real reason for a tourist to get an OV-Chipkaart now is for OV-Fiets.

 

[DanielB]

The availability of OV-fietsen is already a problem at some stations now, so I don't think opening it up to tourists is very high on the priority list. They barely cope with regular demand.

For example last weekend there was a festival in Amersfoort, resulting in the OV-fiets rows in the bicycle parking being completely empty around noon (there are 350 of them available for rental, to give an idea of the demand)

 

[johncrossley]

Ironically, NS International advises Dutch residents how to use Belgian Blue-Bike:

https://www.nsinternational.com/en/story/blue-bike-in-belgium

Conclusion: why is Blue-bike practical for residents of the Netherlands?​

1. No Belgian train pass needed: One of the biggest advantages for residents of the Netherlands is that you do not need a Belgian train subscription to use Blue-bike. With an annual subscription, you can simpy show up and cycle away.

 

[Struner]

trying to find bike hire in the rail system in england, please help

 

[Bletchleyite]

trying to find bike hire in the rail system in england, please help

There aren't any directly associated with the railways*. Lime and Tier are your main operators, just download the apps and sign up with a credit card or Visa/Mastercard debit card (probably not V-Pay or Maestro I suspect as they don't exist in the UK) or Apple/Google Pay.

A few larger cities also have their own docked scheme, e.g. Bee Bikes in Manchester or "Boris Bikes"/"Sadiq Cycles" (properly called Santander Cycles) in London; Milton Keynes also has this but availability and locations are a bit poor. The Bristol scheme (WESTbike I think) is just operated by Tier and works via their app rather than a special one. There are also Brompton hire facilities in some places. If you say where you're going specifically where you need to use one we can probably help further with specific information for that place.

* Greater Anglia and Merseyrail did offer a "Bike and Go" scheme similar to OVFiets (indeed because they were operated by Abellio i.e. NS, though it is now a UK company owned by its management) but this was closed in 2019. It wasn't a very good scheme because the bike had to be returned to where you got it from, whereas most other schemes offer one way hires.

 

[rvdborgt]

The availability of OV-fietsen is already a problem at some stations now, so I don't think opening it up to tourists is very high on the priority list. They barely cope with regular demand.

I suspect the main reason is that NS just regard it as one of their subscriptions, for which their system is that you need a personal chipcard and and payment via SEPA direct debit.
I agree that the possibility to pay a subscription by credit card would be a very useful, but NS just don't want to put effort into that. They've never cared much for people from abroad who want a discount card or a suscription in general. They made direct debit mandatory for their discount cards a few years before SEPA direct debit was introduced, thereby dumping all their discount card holders without a Dutch bank account, and it seemed they couldn't care less.

 

[johncrossley]

* Greater Anglia and Merseyrail did offer a "Bike and Go" scheme similar to OVFiets (indeed because they were operated by Abellio i.e. NS, though it is now a UK company owned by its management) but this was closed in 2019. It wasn't a very good scheme because the bike had to be returned to where you got it from, whereas most other schemes offer one way hires.

OV-Fiets allows you to take the bike back to another location, but you get charged 10.00 EUR for doing so. Bike and Go required you to queue at the ticket office to pick up a key. By contrast, at OV-Fiets manned locations you just had to pick up a bike and get your card and bike key scanned on exit. With the new unlocking method, you simply unlock the bike by tapping your OV-Chipkaart against the lock, so no human is required and therefore it is even more convenient. It is really superb, which is why it is so frustrating that foreigners can't use it easily!

 

[Struner]

thanks @Bletchleyite

 

[andersj]

Is the revenue covering the full cost of the system? If not, that could be the reason for limiting access for subsidized bikes to dutch citizens only.

4,65€ for a day is very cheap compared to other bike rentals or bike sharing providers. I would love to grab a fiets when visiting dutch cities for a few hours, but it's always way too expensive just for a joyride without a greater purpose.

 

[AdamWW]

Is the revenue covering the full cost of the system? If not, that could be the reason for limiting access for subsidized bikes to dutch citizens only.

By that logic foreigners ought to be banned from using an awful lot of trains in most countries.

 

[andersj]

By that logic foreigners ought to be banned from using an awful lot of trains in most countries.

Well that depends on who is subsidizing it. If it's the government you can argue that foreigners should have the same access, but if it is NS subsidizing it as a service/bonus for loyal customers and commuters then it's a different story.

Also bike-for-hire is not a product normally subsidized, because it's typically available on the free market without other subsidies than free rent of public space for parking. Public transport is subsidized everywhere.

 

[johncrossley]

Is the revenue covering the full cost of the system? If not, that could be the reason for limiting access for subsidized bikes to dutch citizens only.

4,65€ for a day is very cheap compared to other bike rentals or bike sharing providers. I would love to grab a fiets when visiting dutch cities for a few hours, but it's always way too expensive just for a joyride without a greater purpose.

Belgian Blue-Bike is also cheap. EUR 3.50 for 24 hours for members, although there is a EUR 12.00 per year membership fee. Alternatively you can pay EUR 6.00 for 12 hours and not get membership. It works in a similar way to OV-Fiets. You generally pick up the bike at the railway station and bring it back to the same place. In a few towns you are allowed to take it back to another location in the same town.

When it started, it wasn't easy to use for tourists as you had to get a card in advance. But now it works fully off smartphones so a casual visitor could easily sign up and use it straight away.

Obviously OV-Fiets is vastly more successful if you compare the number of users, so in that respect you can't really argue with the Dutch strategy. OV-Fiets may well be more successful because Dutch cycle infrastructure is better and so people are more likely to want to cycle in general. Cycle infrastructure in Flanders is one of the best in Europe but not on a par with the Netherlands. In Brussels and Wallonia cycle infrastructure is generally very poor and the terrain is much hillier.

 

[DanielB]

OV-Fiets may well be more successful because Dutch cycle infrastructure is better and so people are more likely to want to cycle in general.

Though OV-fiets was already quite succesfull before, the usage really exploded when the annual subscription was no longer needed and NS-Flex was introduced (where OV-fiets is included as standard). As NS Flex replaced almost all subscriptions, now anyone with a subscription for trains can also rent an OV-fiets without any further actions required.

Also OV-fiets is significantly cheaper than taking a bike with you on the train, while in Belgium it's cheaper to take your bike instead of hiring a BlueBike.

 

[MisterT]

Is the revenue covering the full cost of the system

I'm pretty sure it is. The bikes themselves are really cheap.
I think the real reason it's hard for foreigners to get a subscription is basically Dutch culture. We're really not used to (online) credit/debit card payments. Subscriptions are done by direct debit from the bank account for basically everything, from utilities to mortgages. And also train subscriptions.
And because it's so common and everyone is just used to that, I guess that NS just didn't felt the need for any other payment method.

It is only since this year that the large banks are rolling out debit cards that can be used online as well, so there might be a shift in payment methods, but knowing NS (I mean, I work there ) it will take a few years to catch up with new things like that.
Together with the new OVpay and the digital OVpas, it might create possibilities for foreigners.

So in short: I don't see it happening in the short term, but maybe in the longer term it will be easier.