Rail Transport in The Netherlands - Fares and Tickets

Fares and Tickets

See also Nederlandse Spoorwegen#Fares and tickets.

There is partly a common tariff system. Increasingly operators apply separate tariffs, partly related to the gradually introduced OV-chipkaart, which combines ticket integration (also with other public transport) with price differentiation. However, a series of new passes introduced by NS in 2011 are now also valid in trains of other operators.

Even so these developments require traveller awareness of the various oprerators. For holders of an off-peak pass, a station where one has to change operator acts as a barrier in peak hours, see below.

Paper railway tickets are planned to be abolished in the course of 2013.

Meanwhile, paper tickets are available from the ticket machines; at the counter (if available) a supplement of € 0.50 per ticket (with a maximum of €1 per occasion) has to be paid (from June 2004), except by people over 60 years old.

For simple tickets for one journey with only one operator, the price of a paper ticket from the ticket machine is the same as the price with the chipkaart. For a journey involving multiple operators a paper ticket is usually cheaper. Some special discounts are available with the chipkaart only, some others with paper tickets only.

Passengers not carrying a valid ticket (paper or electronic) are fined €35 plus the fare, unless the ticket machines were all out of order or some other exemption applies. The fine has to be paid at once except if the passenger is able to provide a valid identification card, in which case one can receive a collection notice in the mail. For foreigners arriving at Amsterdam Airport (which has its own train station underneath) it is good to know that buying a ticket on the train is very expensive because then they actually have to pay a fine.

It is also possible to buy tickets online on the Dutch Railways website, but payment can only be made via a Dutch Bank account so this system is really only applicable to Dutch residents.