Netherlands ticketing

Some people claim that there are no "loopholes" in the Netherlands as you always pay for the distance you travel.

Is this true?

Also what is their price per kilometre?

Where there are multiple routes you can take, are there different prices for different distances?

Presumably they have some journey opportunities that are like, say, Huddersfield to London, where you could go via all sorts of different routes (e.g. via Leeds or avoiding Leeds to Wakefield, or via Sheffield, or via Manchester; and then a choice of via Crewe or Stoke); for similar journeys to that, do you have to stipulate the exact route taken? If you miss the train you intended to catch do you have to pay a supplement if the next train takes a longer route?

People say the ticketing is wonderful and has no anomalies but I find it difficult to believe there is not a single anomaly in the country?

If it is like in the Czech Republic then I don't think it's that great. I asked, at Hostivice, to buy a ticket to Prague, however the person selling the ticket needed to know exactly which Prague station I was travelling to, as there were 3 trains within a short space of time, each taking different routes. Some of the trains took a more convoluted route than others, due to the terrain. As the person selling the ticket didn't speak English and I didn't speak Czech, it resulted in me initially being sold the wrong ticket and having to have it exchanged for another one. Is it like this in NL?

The Netherlands uses a touch in-out system (like a nationwide Oyster card) called the OV-Chipkaart, so there's a flat fare which I believe is based on the shortest possible route between the two stations, though you can travel any reasonable route between the two so long as you don't leave the system. (There's no concept of continuation exits - so leaving the barriers at an intermediate station, even if just to use the facilities, will mean you're charged for two separate journeys. That said, the vast majority of barriered Dutch stations where you'd be likely to interchange have numerous catering options inside the gateline)

There are regular offers from supermarkets and high street chains where you can buy single or day tickets at low cost.

https://www.treinreiziger.nl/goedkoop-treinkaartje/

This is cheaper than using the OV-Chipkaart, otherwise there wouldn't be any point using the offers. Even a regular off-peak day ticket (Holland Travel Ticket) costs 42.00 euros so that can be cheaper than two singles.

Not sure if any of those can be considered to be "loopholes" though.

Break of journey can be done using e-tickets if you want to avoid having to start a new journey at a gated station. Also with ticket machine tickets but there is a 1.00 fee for those.

Before the internet, to work out your fare you used to add up the distances on the map and look up the fare for that distance in a table. You can still do that today

The map is here:

https://www.ns.nl/binaries/_ht_1575...arieven/tariefeenheden-en-spoorkaart-2020.pdf

The tables are here (page 5 onwards):

https://www.ns.nl/binaries/_ht_1574418453005/content/assets/ns-nl/tarieven/tarieven-2020.pdf

1. No. A (very) common misconception about the OV-Chipkaart is that it is based on kilometeres (or miles for that matter) - it does for buses, trams, metros and regional (i.e. trains operated on behalf of a province, namely those with non-NS operators) trains, but not for NS services, where a system of "Tariefeenheiden" (~tariff units) apply, with each pair of station allocated a certain number of units and a number of units allocated a price. This means that very short journies (i.e. those of less than eight units) are extremely expensive, as the minimum price is - you could have guessed it - equivalent to 8 units. Many distances are linked (roughly) to the distance travelled, but various routes (e.g. between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, 86 units, roughly in line with the mileage via Haarlem) mean that some are cheaper per kilometere or more expensive. (more on that: https://wiki.ovinnederland.nl/wiki/OV-chipkaart)

2. It depends: https://wiki.ovinnederland.nl/wiki/OV-chipkaart

3. On NS-only routes: no. On routes with various operators: yes (as you take one journey to your interchange, one from there ...).

4. As answer number 3 - IIRC there are routes, where a NS-only and a NS+x (where x is another operator) option are offered.

5. There are loads: Take the line between Sittard and Maastrict, where NS operates the IC services and Arriva operates the stoppers: A journey with Arriva costs 5,22€ (base price + 21km), with NS it's only 4,90€ (21 units). Many others were fixed with various changes to the system over the years.

6. No.

For short distance trips it would be good if NS fell into line with other operators although the fare for 0 to 8 tariefeenheiden is 2.40 so isn't that expensive compared to other countries and especially the UK. With 40% off that is 1.44. The worst case is where you need a combination of a short train and short bus/tram/metro as you still have to pay the boarding fee (currently 0.98) as well as the distance charge. By looking at the fare table, it can be seen that train fares get progressively cheaper per "km" as trips get longer with a maximum single fare of 27.00. By contrast, with a long bus ride, the 0.98 boarding fee is dwarfed by the distance charge which doesn't go down regardless of distance. In some cases, it is cheaper to get a paper ticket or day ticket instead of using the OV-Chipkaart for long bus rides.

The Amsterdam to Rotterdam tariefeenheiden via the high speed line has to be inflated as otherwise it would be cheaper than the slow route, which would defeat the object of having a supplement on that line.

Belgium is widely known in having particularly cheap fares but even there the lowest fare is also 2.40 and they don't have railcards to make it cheaper. Of course, they have the Key Card that gives 10 trips up to 15 km from a selected station within 6 months for 24.00, so you can go a reasonable distance for 2.40 a trip.