The Dutch must have the best public transport system in the world, but here's an important piece of information for the newcomer.

If you travel with a second class ticket make sure you sit in an area marked '2' rather than '1' - apart from this, other differences are subtle, but the fines are not - I know!

As is generally the case on the continent, remember to stamp your ticket in the yellow machines before getting on the train.

For suburban travel (bus, tram and metro) the strippenkaart is the answer - until end of 2008.

PS. While on the theme of rail travel, for those whose gateway is Schiphol and who have not yet explored the Netherlands outside Amsterdam, let me say that Den Haag and Rotterdam (and a few other towns along the way) are very accessible from Schiphol. Den Haag is only 25 min away and Rotterdam about 45 min, and there is a good supply of luxury hotel rooms which can be had at reasonable prices if you book in advance. (If going to Den Haag, just make sure you know which of the 2 main stations, CS or HS, you are going to arrive at).

Hey thanks for that. Yes, the "1" and "2" sections look remarkably similar - I do not see the point of 1st class when its hardly any better - I remember going in the wrong carriage many years ago but the conductor let us off because we were tourists.

Now the machine stamp you mention. I have never seen this. Whether travelling between the airport or going to Haarlem for instance, I have bought tickets from a teller or a machine but never stamped it? Are you sure about this?

You are very unlucky to be fined for being in 1st with a 2nd class ticket! As a regular traveler in 1st on NS I have seen lots of people asked to move by the conductor but only seen fines for no ticket at all.

A clarification:
If you select "Vandaag geldig" when buying a ticket from the machines it will have the day's date on it so does not need to be stamped.

Additional tips:
Tickets are only valid on the day that they are dated/stamped. Do not buy a return ticket if you plan to travel back on a different day. Sometimes when I arrive at destination I buy the return ticket "zonder datum" to save time later.

On the NS website http://www.ns.nl/ follow the English option you can find a demonstration of the touch-screen machines that can, like the machines themselves, be switched into English.

Yes, there is no need to stamp the "today" tickets. A return ticket can not be bought if you return on a different day.
If you go from Amsterdam central station then it takes about 50minutes to Den Haag and about 1 hour to Rotterdam. Schiphol is closer to those cities.

To have a conductor fine a tourist for mistakingly sitting in first class instead of second class is a little odd or so it seems to me even more so if the tourist has a second class ticket in hand.

I was not the only one - another tourist in the seat opposite got the "full treatment" also. The fine was imposed by a policeman - there were 3 of them besides the conductor.

You don't normally see police on the train, unless someone has been naughty.

Rather than the normal guard checking tickets I suspect that you were caught by a team of inspectors. They usually travel in gangs of three or four and tend to gather around when they catch someone.

On reflection I cannot remember seeing them ever give someone a break, but I am still a bit surprised that they fined a foreigner. Perhaps they have targets.

B61

i always find a bloody long queue of stupid idiots around the ticket machines at schipol.
some trying to insert a credit card in the slot where you put cash and vice versa.

i now go straight to the counter and get a single to CS, and buy the return at the same time, MAKING SURE the clerk is informed of the correct day you are returning to schipol.

inspectors/ticket inspectors love the SCHIPOL-CS route especially the 05.25 CS-schipol

hmm I've never found a problem grabbing a machine. In fact, there seem to be more than ever.

Just stick my debit card with maestro symbol on it and select English.

In fact, I normally found more queues at the counter but I guess the reverse can happen if you're unlucky.

I'm with both Greenhof & Cocksure on this: some times the machines are knee deep in newbies and others there are no problems at all. My solution is to buy two or three tickets when the going is good or I have time to wait, so that when I do not get held up when in a rush.

B61

Edited for clarity

lol cocksure.. i must be very unlucky then......pmsl

It depends on where you buy the ticket. The central stations has often long queues but for example at Schiphol I have never found any queues. The longest queues are often to machines that take coins, so if you pay with credit card it is often faster.

For people not using the machines there is now a new ticket area at Amsterdam Centraal station. You select the type of travel you require (national, international etc), take a ticket and wait. It's a large area with lots of counters and seems to work better than the old system.

So if on my next trip, I was to buy an open dated single for my return journey to Schiphol, how / where do I go about getting the ticket date-stamped on my day of return?

Thanks
ss

Undated single (or return) tickets bought from a ticket machines are validated by inserting the end without silver strip, face up, into a yellow machine, approx 30cm tall, at the entrance of the platform (usually) or station (sometimes). At Schiphol they are just to the right at the top of each escalator, I think they are at the bottom of stairs at Amsterdam Centraal. The machine will stamp day/date/time and zone, so do not validate until you need to!

Sometimes when travelling I get open undated tickets from my employer. These are like (old) airline tickets and it is not possible to stamp them. Unless clipped by a ticket inspector during the journey they can be re-used ;-).

Not sure what format the ticket is when you buy at the desk, suggest you ask what to do when you buy.

B61

Edited for clarity.

Thanks for the info. I'll try that on my next visit in 10 days (woohoo!)

SS

never ever smoke a joint of nyc diesel on the last train of the night from alkmaar to amsterdam.

peace -fb

The prodigal FB returns to us!

Hope you're doing well, man

H

There is a 50c charge per ticket if you buy your ticket at the desk and not at the machine. It's not going to break the bank but every little helps.

indeed...save 50c one hundred times and you can have your next session with a girl for free!