I have to say, I found navigating tickets in The Hague quite hard work.
I was hoping to get an HTM day ticket. I must have stumbled across an old HTM web page that stilled talked about ticket machines on trams. Only after I got on the first tram did I find that ticket machines were being phased out from 1st Aug. I ended up using OV-Pay and had to ration the number of journeys I made that day (well I didn't have to, but one wants to avoid going over the day ticket cost if one can help it).
The next day I got an HTM day ticket on the app. I find app tickets stressful and anxiety inducing. You are not always in the comfort of privacy or safety, and I don't want to have to get my phone out before I know it's safe. Getting through a transaction on a phone is always cumbersome. That's without getting into the having data dimension. If I got a tram and then got my phone out and spent 5 minutes faffing to get my day ticket on the app, would I be counted as travelling without a ticket?
Then I realised HTM's day ticket is for HTM only. This means that despite HTM services operating to Zoetermeer and Delft, I couldn't use the bus cutting across between the two. I also couldn't use the RET Metro E, despite sharing the Randstad-rail branding with HTM operated lines 3 and 4. There's South Holland Tourist Day Ticket, but that comes in at a hefty EUR17.50, compared to EUR8.60 for the HTM only day ticket. Yes, the Tourist Day Ticket covers a much larger area but that wasn't what I needed. What missing in the day ticket product range is an all-operator ticket with the HTM Day Ticket's area of validity. The Hague - Zoetermeer - Delft is one of the options for the Regio Vrij all-operator season tickets so is considered a sensible travel area - that the equivalent day product does not exist is just odd. One of the big criticisms of British ticketing is operator specific tickets, and yet one of the supposedly best countries for public transport and integration is in fact notorious for operator specific tickets.
That OV Pay has no capping is what bugs me the most. Yes, I can see the the logic of working out which cap to apply can be complicated, but this exposes a major (IMHO) flaw of having a national one-size-fits-all model.
I find Nottingham's system much more user friendly. The all-operator Robin Hood has a tiny mark-up on the equivalent single operator tickets as to be negligible. The Robin Hood day ticket is available from bus drivers and tram stop ticket machines. There's automatic daily capping though with one caveat. Trent Barton does not participate in the Robin Hood Day Cap as it operates its own Trentbartonland cap. I suspect the logic of automatically working out which cap to apply is too complicated - the Dutch certainly haven't managed it. For residents travelling occasionally, the Robin Hood PAYG Card applies the daily cap on all participating operators including Trent Barton (with a further caveat that to include National Rail trains you still need a paper ticket). These equivalent products or ways of purchasing are not available in The Hague.
Things are a bit better in Rotterdam. As Rotterdam has a metro with good coverage of the city, and all metro stations have ticket machines, getting the Rotterdam day ticket is much easier. Still, RET tickets also have their validity defined by the operator rather than a geographic area.
I was hoping to get an HTM day ticket. I must have stumbled across an old HTM web page that stilled talked about ticket machines on trams. Only after I got on the first tram did I find that ticket machines were being phased out from 1st Aug. I ended up using OV-Pay and had to ration the number of journeys I made that day (well I didn't have to, but one wants to avoid going over the day ticket cost if one can help it).
The next day I got an HTM day ticket on the app. I find app tickets stressful and anxiety inducing. You are not always in the comfort of privacy or safety, and I don't want to have to get my phone out before I know it's safe. Getting through a transaction on a phone is always cumbersome. That's without getting into the having data dimension. If I got a tram and then got my phone out and spent 5 minutes faffing to get my day ticket on the app, would I be counted as travelling without a ticket?
Then I realised HTM's day ticket is for HTM only. This means that despite HTM services operating to Zoetermeer and Delft, I couldn't use the bus cutting across between the two. I also couldn't use the RET Metro E, despite sharing the Randstad-rail branding with HTM operated lines 3 and 4. There's South Holland Tourist Day Ticket, but that comes in at a hefty EUR17.50, compared to EUR8.60 for the HTM only day ticket. Yes, the Tourist Day Ticket covers a much larger area but that wasn't what I needed. What missing in the day ticket product range is an all-operator ticket with the HTM Day Ticket's area of validity. The Hague - Zoetermeer - Delft is one of the options for the Regio Vrij all-operator season tickets so is considered a sensible travel area - that the equivalent day product does not exist is just odd. One of the big criticisms of British ticketing is operator specific tickets, and yet one of the supposedly best countries for public transport and integration is in fact notorious for operator specific tickets.
That OV Pay has no capping is what bugs me the most. Yes, I can see the the logic of working out which cap to apply can be complicated, but this exposes a major (IMHO) flaw of having a national one-size-fits-all model.
I find Nottingham's system much more user friendly. The all-operator Robin Hood has a tiny mark-up on the equivalent single operator tickets as to be negligible. The Robin Hood day ticket is available from bus drivers and tram stop ticket machines. There's automatic daily capping though with one caveat. Trent Barton does not participate in the Robin Hood Day Cap as it operates its own Trentbartonland cap. I suspect the logic of automatically working out which cap to apply is too complicated - the Dutch certainly haven't managed it. For residents travelling occasionally, the Robin Hood PAYG Card applies the daily cap on all participating operators including Trent Barton (with a further caveat that to include National Rail trains you still need a paper ticket). These equivalent products or ways of purchasing are not available in The Hague.
Things are a bit better in Rotterdam. As Rotterdam has a metro with good coverage of the city, and all metro stations have ticket machines, getting the Rotterdam day ticket is much easier. Still, RET tickets also have their validity defined by the operator rather than a geographic area.
