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Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

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Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#61

Post by gpvos »

t0mas88 wrote: post #45
gpvos wrote: post #6

Only valid during the two summer months. It's a rather weak simile of the German Deutschlandticket (now 58 euro/month but valid all day on bus/tram/metro and local/regional trains, but not on long distance trains, in a much larger country).

It started out as an idea to introduce the same concept as the Deutschlandticket in NL. But the government has a budget deficit and the national railway company expected a capacity issue during peak hours. As a result the ticket is only valid in off-peak hours and the low price is only for 2 months.

and the bus companies didn't want to play ball.

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#62

Post by eigenspace »

gib444 wrote: post #43
bowsamic wrote: post #28

Significantly worse than the Deutschland ticket

Dutch trains run mostly on time though and with far less disruption than DB, right?

Really depends on where you are in Germany.

Overall, DB Regio (the regional trains which are covered by the Deutschlandticket) has around a 89% punctuality score[1], which is very comparable to the Dutch numbers. There are certain hotspot regions though where the regional trains are truly fucked, but for most of the country they're totally fine and quite reliable.

It's mostly Germany's long-distance high-speed ICE trains which have punctuality problems (the much discussed 60% punctuality [2] score), but those are not covered by the Deutschland ticket, and the Netherlands has no comparable service to these trains anyways, so if one is envious of the state of Dutch trains, they can happily pretend that German ICE trains simply don't exist. In my experience though, the ICE's are a pleasure to ride.

_____________________________

[1] https://ibir.deutschebahn.com/2025/de/zusammengefasster-lage...

[2] https://ibir.deutschebahn.com/2025/de/zusammengefasster-lage...

Sidenote, but the ICE punctuality score is not really directly comparable with the Regional train scores, since they measure different things. The ICE score is about the passenger arriving at their final destination with less than a 15 minute delay including connections, whereas with the regional trains they don't have granular passenger level data, so they measure whether or not a train gets to the platform within 6 minutes of the scheduled time.

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#63

Post by Gys »

andrepd wrote: post #49
netule wrote: post #4

That’s the introductory price. It’ll be €127,95 after that period is over. Kids travel for free, though, so that’s pretty nice. In hindsight, I think I underestimated the value of my OV card while I was a student: travel whenever, using all types of public transport, for free.

Note that 128€ is the monthly price for 100% discount, but 6€ is the monthly price for 40% discount. It brings the prices of rail travel in the Netherlands from "fucking ludicrous" to just "reasonably expensive".

Try Switzerland

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#64

Post by tonfa »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #23
wavemode wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding of that ruling is that, the intent of the constitutional clause is not only to prevent ticket prices from being raised unfairly, but also to prevent ticket prices from being so low that they no longer cover the cost of running the network, which would shift that cost to the general taxpayer. Still frustrating (if the taxpayers want it, might as well let them have it), but not purely a semantic techni…

Does the Swiss rail not receive public funding? It seems to me that undercharging would only necessitate more public funding, not some fundamental change where taxpayers suddenly have to pay for something they didn't before.

[dead]

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#65

Post by sandworm101 »

usrnm wrote: post #29
netule wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure. I currently live in the US (fairly rural) and I would kill to have my transportation-related costs reduced to about $150/mo. But where I live, I simply need to have a car to do any basic thing since the moment I step off my driveway, there aren’t even footpaths.

I live in the Netherlands and have absolutely no need for this ticket. When I need to go somewhere, I just walk or bike there, never takes more than 20 minutes. I cannot even imagine living in American suburbia

I work with a guy from holland. There, he lived in a condo. Here, he owns 40-acers, a couple horses and is trying to grow his own corn. He can play out his rural lifestyle dreams and still work a desk in a city, something that isnt an option without personal transportation. (I would say "car", but he rides an R1 to work most days.)

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#66

Post by close04 »

milesvp wrote: post #17
comrade1234 wrote: post #9

Nice pass. Would be perfect for my wife and I since we don't commute for work. There is something similar here in Switzerland but not as good. Funny fact: there are cities here that have tried to make public transport free. But the constitution says public transport must have a "reasonable charge". It's obvious that law was created to not overcharge but the courts have ruled that it also means that there can't be no…

That sort of begs the question about elevators and escalators. I’ve never been charged riding those, and I can’t imagine fares tacked on in Switzerland. Have they been ruled on? An elevator in a public building is very much public transport. I know it’s stupid, but I’m genuinely curious now.

> An elevator in a public building is very much public transport.

Every country defines what counts as public transport - it could be a snowmobile, a boat, or a helicopter if needed. The simple definition of "transports people in a public place" would cover a lot of funny things as public transport, like a carousel in a playground.

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#67

Post by quickthrowman »

pocksuppet wrote: post #25
AndrewDucker wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of abuse are you thinking of?

i've seen this argument before, normally they're talking about homeless people sleeping on trains or in stations

Switzerland (2.5 per 10,000) has just under an order of magnitude less homelessness per capita than the US (19.5 per 10,000)

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#68

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

rootusrootus wrote: post #56
usrnm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Netherlands and have absolutely no need for this ticket. When I need to go somewhere, I just walk or bike there, never takes more than 20 minutes. I cannot even imagine living in American suburbia

I live in American suburbia and that's how I live. I can walk or bike whenever I feel like it, drive if it suits me. I sometimes wonder what the average European assumes American suburbia to be. Endless tract homes? Such places do exist, true. But that is far from universal.

I'd be curious what metropolitan area you live in for this to be true! If you're not comfortable sharing for privacy reasons, that's all right. But it seems like this is the case in inner-ring suburbs in the Northeast megalopolis.

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#69

Post by MagnumOpus »

rootusrootus wrote: post #56
usrnm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Netherlands and have absolutely no need for this ticket. When I need to go somewhere, I just walk or bike there, never takes more than 20 minutes. I cannot even imagine living in American suburbia

I live in American suburbia and that's how I live. I can walk or bike whenever I feel like it, drive if it suits me. I sometimes wonder what the average European assumes American suburbia to be. Endless tract homes? Such places do exist, true. But that is far from universal.

Of course you can walk. But can you walk to your workplace, your kid’s nursery, your local bakery/supermarket, your doctor, your dentist, the pharmacy?

Re: Dutch Railways offers unlimited off-peak train travel nationwide for €49/month

#70

Post by eigenspace »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #58
dewey wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"money handling system" scales quite well, and more money is good to have if it's affordable enough for many people?

but wouldn't the whole system be cheaper if it were paid for by taxes? because at that point you don't have to maintain a point of sale? hundreds of fare boxes, communication systems, physical barriers, auditing, accounting, printing cards, employees to maintain and operate it all... you even save a little time it takes tapping a card to get people on the tax system is also progressive, so the people who are most cap…

No, it's not even close. Those fares don't cover the whole operation of the train system, but they actually go a long way to covering a very large chunk of it. The cost of operating the fare system is a rounding error relative to the sums of money talked about here.
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