Netherlands advice required

[Techniquest]

Hi all,

I'm off to the Netherlands again on the 14th of April (well,13th if you include the Hereford to London leg of the trip after work),but I've a few questions regarding my plans.Hopefully someone will know the answers!

1) What is the day ticket that covers all of the Netherlands actually called?Dagkaart?As I'll need to ask for it at the ticket office in Eindhoven it'll be handy to know (I'd use a ticket machine but my card doesn't work in the NS machines)

2) Does said ticket cover the stuff run by Arriva,Veolia and Synthus? I did look on the NS website by the way but couldn't really find any useful gen.

3) Finally, as part of the trip I'm looking at doing Heerlan to Aachen to get the cross-border line in.Or the bit east of Venlo into Germany.Question is,can I buy a ticket on the day to do that?I was going to do the Heerlan to Aachen bit on the 14th but it's buses into Germany.I'd rather buy on the day when I have firmed up my plans a bit.

Cheers in advance all!

 

[radamfi]

The Dagkaart has recently changed and unfortunately is no longer valid on other train companies. It is also now only available on an OV-Chipkaart so you will have to buy one of those if you want a Dagkaart. The paper version has been withdrawn. InterRail is still valid on all companies as far as I know.

http://www.ns.nl/reizigers/producten/producten/losse-kaartjes#overige-ns-kaartjes

Een Dagkaart laadt u op een anonieme of een persoonlijke OV-chipkaart.

Hiermee kunt u de hele dag vrij reizen. U moet wel in- en uitchecken met uw OV-chipkaart.

Een Dagkaart is verkrijgbaar voor zowel de 1e als de 2e klas bij de NS-kaartautomaten.

Een Dagkaart 2e klas kost € 49,20.

Een Dagkaart 1e klas kost € 83,60.

Een Dagkaart is geldig op de dag van aankoop; voorverkoop is niet mogelijk.

Een Dagkaart is alleen geldig bij NS, niet in treinen van andere vervoerders.

Translation:

A Dagkaart can be loaded onto an anomymous or personal OV-Chipkaart. With it you can get unlimited travel for the whole day. You must check in and check out with your OV-Chipkaart.

It can be bought for 1st or 2nd class from the ticket machine.

It costs €49.20 in 2nd class, €83.60 in 1st class.

It can only be used on the day of purchase. Advance purchase is not possible.

It is only valid on NS, not on other operators.

The website implies you can no longer buy the ticket at the ticket office. You can top up an OV-Chipkaart at the ticket office using cash (including notes) without charge. What I'm not sure is if it is possible to load the Dagkaart onto the OV-Chipkaart using the balance on the card as payment, or whether you have to make a payment at the machine. If you have to pay at the machine that could be a problem as you would need €50 in coins as they don't accept notes. Maybe you can get a Dutch person to buy the ticket and then pay them back in cash.

Some publicity has called the ticket 'Dag Vrij' since it became a smartcard ticket. However the website still seems to call it 'Dagkaart'.

For Aachen to Heerlen, you might be interested in the EU-Regioticket. It is valid on most buses and trains in the border areas of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, including places like Hasselt, Maastricht, Liege and Aachen.

http://www.delijn.be/en/vervoerbewijzen/types/dagpas/euregio.htm#geldigheidsgebied


Map of validity:

http://www.avv.de/fileadmin/sites/avv/download_FTP/Tarif_Ticket_Flyer/euregioticket.pdf

 

[Techniquest]

That Euregio ticket looks like incredibly good value, €17 for all of that travel is very good indeed. Gotta admit I'm tempted by it, as all I'd need in addition is an Eindhoven to Roermond day return to get me to the area of validity, which I can't imagine being more than €20.

I knew I should have invested in an OV-chipkaart when I was over there last month, however I was put off by not only paying €7.50 but putting another €20 on it then, by the reading of the information I had, I then needed to put additional funds on to cover journeys anyway. I see an anoymous one is definitely going to be my best option, so will have to pay the €7.50 regardless but will almost certainly find it handy on future trips. Should be able to use it for loading an Amsterdam Metro/trams ticket onto as well if memory serves too, not to mention buses to/from airports.

Shame the Dagkaart is no longer valid on Arriva, Veolia, Connexion and Synthus, will have to get those lines done on a future Interrail bash or pay the ching via an OV-chipkaart sometime.

Looks like then my best bet then is to pay cash for a single from Eindhoven Airport on the 401 to Eindhoven Central station, get an OV-chipkaart and load a Dagkaart onto it for the Sunday. Then on the Monday possibly do that Euregio ticket. In case you're wondering, I'm particularly interested in doing the cross-border lines as I've never been to Germany and I'm rather keen on changing that.

Thanks for the very helpful response, I hope you may be able to help clear up the above noted confusion with OV-chipkaarts too! Thanks in advance for it

 

[radamfi]

Be careful, the Euregio ticket is not valid from Roermond to Heerlen. That line is shown in grey, indicating that the ticket is not valid on that line. You can only use the blue lines. The list of lines is given on the De Lijn website.

Yes, you have to have a minimum balance of €20 before any train journey. For buses, trams and metros, you only need to have a minimum balance of €4. You also have to go to a ticket machine to tell it whether you want to travel by 1st or 2nd class before you can use it on trains.

You might be able to get an OV-Chipkaart in a shop at Eindhoven airport but you might not be able to top it up without a Dutch bank card. Topping up at shops is usually done at a yellow machine that only accepts Dutch cards. Again, you could ask someone to top it up for you and give him the cash.

You may want to consider whether you need to get a day ticket. Single tickets are capped at €24.60, including usage of non-NS trains. So you could go Eindhoven - Roodeschool, using Arriva for the last part of the journey, and back to Heerlen for €49.20. You should buy this using paper tickets as you have to pay separately for Arriva (touching out of NS and touching in for Arriva at Groningen) if you use an OV-Chipkaart.

 

[Techniquest]

Hmm,seems this is going to be a more awkward trip than I imagined it to be when I booked the flights.A lot of trouble to get an OV-chipkaart and to top it up and use it!

Good point regarding singles there,I like the idea of getting the Dagkaart as I could do more track,but I shall consider exactly what I want to do.As it's such a PITA to get a Dagkaart then I'll have to do my next major track bashing in the Netherlands on another Interrail at some point.

Thanks for pointing out that about the Euregio ticket,shall re-examine the map when not on my phone

 

[radamfi]

Before OV-Chipkaarts, if you didn't have a Dutch bank card, you had to pay at the ticket office (and pay a fee for doing so), or use the machine and pay in coins, which was the only way when the ticket office was closed or the station was unmanned. At least now you can top-up the card with notes at the station at your leisure and not have to worry about being able to have enough coins, as long as you have €20 on the card.

Having an OV-Chipkaart is going to be essential for train travel in the future (according to Dutch Wikipedia from autumn this year) as paper tickets will be abolished and the card will be required to enter and exit barriers. From what I can make out, these barriers will be unmanned in most places.

Presumably from that point onwards, the through capped fare between NS and other operators such as Arriva will no longer exist. It is likely that the whole fare system will be revised at the same time. Paper tickets for international travel (and presumably InterRail) will still be required and it is not clear how that will work with unmanned barriers.

Maestro debit cards are accepted by ticket machines, but few British banks issue Maestro cards now. Last time I looked, only Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank did and they charge a high fee for using the card outside the UK. Northern Ireland banks charge less, but when I tried to apply they refused to accept me as I live in England.

 

[atillathehunn]

Whilst it may be true that you can't use the dagkaart purchased directly from the NS on the other operators, there are other dagkaarts which can be used on other operators and the NS. You can purchase these from various supermarkets at various times. Albert Heijn has just finished selling them, so it will be the turn of another supermarket soon. If not, I might be able to lay my hands on one for you, as people buy them to sell them on again at a later date.

These cost 17Euro, and you can use them on any operator.

 

[radamfi]

Whilst it may be true that you can't use the dagkaart purchased directly from the NS on the other operators, there are other dagkaarts which can be used on other operators and the NS. You can purchase these from various supermarkets at various times. Albert Heijn has just finished selling them, so it will be the turn of another supermarket soon. If not, I might be able to lay my hands on one for you, as people buy them to sell them on again at a later date.

These cost 17Euro, and you can use them on any operator.

I was aware of these offers but I thought they were available only at very selected times. Are you saying that there is nearly always an offer on?

 

[atillathehunn]

Not constantly, no. But they are regular. Especially at this time of year as the snow has finally gone and people are travelling more. There's usually one to coincide with the bulb season in the north.

One finished reasonably recently, but they're still available as people have spares they are willing to pass on.

The Kruidvat, Blokker and AH do them regularly.

 

[radamfi]

I was in NL last week and I tested out the machine to see how it is possible to pay for the dagkaart, and as I expected you can only pay in coins, Maestro or Dutch bank cards. You cannot use the prepay balance to pay for the dagkaart.

However, I noticed that the supplement for paying by MasterCard/Visa at the few stations that allow it is only 50 cents. I thought it was a lot more than that, unless the fee was reduced.

 

[Cheds]

Just in case any of you posters on this thread want it: I will happily give someone gratis a ticket for a canal trip in Amsterdam from outside Central station which I wasn't able to use.the expiry is 23/5/13 and was priced at 15e so should be ok!

People on this board have been helpful to me, so I hope someone can use it.

Cheers