I always wonder if public transport in #TheNetherlands could have been free if we hadn't implemented this stupid billion euro check-in system.

[gina@fosstodon.org]

I always wonder if public transport in #TheNetherlands could have been free if we hadn't implemented this stupid billion euro check-in system.

[artfulsodger@fosstodon.org]

@Gina, as an outsider (non-European), I had a tough experience with the travel system during my first visit to Netherlands (for work) last year. I figured it out eventually but it felt outright hostile even while understanding that we are not the target users of the system. None of our “international” cards worked in places that they should have worked. Reloading the OV-chipkaart was impossible because of this unless one visited a blessed top-up machine (most of those were at railway stations)

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@artfulsodger that's because it IS outright hostile.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@Gina this past weekend I was in Luxembourg and it positively blew my mind that all public transportation is free… the trains and buses are gorgeous, modern and super clean. Returning to Paris was a bit of a culture shock 😅

[partim@social.tchncs.de]

@Gina I think this is backwards: Because public transport can’t be free,* this check in system had to be implemented.

* Just read the comments under any article suggesting a Dutch version of the Deutschlandticket.

[ainali@social.coop]

@Gina compared to all other countries I have been in, it's, unfortunately, still the best check-in system I have used. (Just being nation-wide goes an incredibly long way.)

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@partim wait why can't it be free?

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@ainali that's tragic. I remember being in the north-east of the Netherlands earlier this year, close to the German border, and they had regional trains there with a different check-in. I had to run around the train station looking for the specific check-in pole of that specific regional train company.

Idk all in all it just feels like a dumb system.

[martv@mastodon.social]

@Gina Interesting, I have always really loved this system. One card for everything is super nice. From what I have experienced in other countries, having to purchase tickets online from seperate vendors, or even having to go to a physical ticket vendor, this just seems like a superior solution.

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@martv but that's the thing. With what this ticketsystem cost to build and maintain and the fact that it's a public service, it could have also been completely free (like in Luxembourg).