Ya know...these companies always strike when they don't like the deal. The public should rally and stop riding the services if they don't like the deal. If they accept prices will only go up. Don't be sheep against these wolves, you do have rights.

By AW | January 19, 2010 8:11 AM

I looked into the situation of return tickets on the trains a few weeks ago. Two OV-chipkaart single journeys DO NOT cost more than a paper return. Actually it costs LESS. Currently everyone who uses an OV-chipkaart gets a 10% discount for all train journeys. This is the same percentage as the reduction you used to get by buying a paper return. However, this reduction is currently being phased out stepwise on both the OV-chipkaart and paper tickets so that sometime in 2011 return tickets will no longer exist. In July 2009 the price of a single paper ticket fell by 3% and a return rose by 2%.

Therefore, if you have a photo OV-chipkaart you can currently travel slightly cheaper by train than by using paper tickets. When anonymous cards (no photo) can be used on trains has not yet been announced.

By simplastic | January 19, 2010 9:06 AM

Taxes on cars get more expensive, fuel prices soar (of the most expensive in the whole work in NL) and now public transport prices double. Will our salaries double also? (irony)

By kos | January 19, 2010 9:08 AM

Who's idea was it to introduce a system that costs 3 times as much as the previous system? This is the most ridiculous decision ever! So, now the travellers will have to pay for this huge mistake. This whole ov system is a disaster. Big waste of money and inconvience. A good way to deter tourists and rip them off.

By J P | January 19, 2010 9:19 AM

"running the chip card system cost three times as much as issuing paper tickets"
All along I thought that the move to the chipkaart was for reasons of efficiency!! What was the point?

By AC | January 19, 2010 10:56 AM

I remember when here in Limburg we could travel 2 ways on a 1 euro ticket! Then we had all those damn strikes and to make the drivers happy, the price went up to 2.50 and now it's 3 euro! To take a 10 min bus ride to town and home again!!!

By LJK | January 19, 2010 11:22 AM

So as usual the gov chose yet again for us, and the TOTALLY UNNECESSARY OV-CHIPKAART SYSTEM replacing the strippenkaart (Since 1980)is turning out to be a waste of tax payers money.

This present government is a reflection of it's own ideology, a flop!

By stevie | January 19, 2010 12:46 PM

Also what if you "vergeet uit te checken met uw OV-Chip"?? Where is all that money going?? The strip was easy, you could take your guests on it, now you have to have a few spare cards for them or they pay 2.60. Insane.

By Beeeee | January 19, 2010 2:02 PM

Whilst I'm not compeltely convinced by the OV-chipkaart system, I think that the point of introducing it was to sharply reduce fare dodging (zwartrijden), which is a particularly severe problem in the Netherlands. I guess that would go some of the way to covering the higher costs of running the system.

By simplastic | January 19, 2010 2:08 PM

I predicted to friends years ago that the govt "say fares won't increase" but will come up with SOME excuse to increase anyway. I predicted they'd use the cost of installing the infrastructure in the first place as a reason.

For a country who already taxes the shit out of its ordinary citizens and then still expects them to be able to afford "dodgy expensive" public transport is laughable. And the worst part is, most of the cloggys just sit back and take it. If that happened where I'm from, the ordinary workers would be on strike to complain to the govt that they're doing a shit job, have no clue about the life of the ordinary man and that we're not taking this crap lying down anymore.

Come on Netherlands....WAKE-UP and stand up to these cronies!! PLEASE!!

By Caycu | January 19, 2010 2:21 PM

I found the OV-Chipkaart System to be a pain in Rotterdam in '08. At that time I could board on any tram in Amsterdam and pay for the fare right there. In Rotterdam not the case. I ended up riding for free (I know, not very wise) because I thought for sure there would be some sort of way to pay on the tram. If a passenger doesn't board the tram at a metro station but doesn't have OV isn't that sort of saying "that's nice you want to ride our trams but you can't since you don't have the right form of currency." To charge tourists for perhaps a one time use of the card is also absurd. There should be a system of recycling tourist cards (a drop slot at a payment machine) that would allow tourists to have the cards for free. Better yet, have a paper form of the OV card that costs a euro at the most. It just seems weird to have all these tram stops but only a limited number of areas to purchase the OV.

By CLulu | January 19, 2010 2:41 PM

My daughter is charged differing amounts via the OV card for traveling the exact same number of stops on her way to school.
As usual, our city planners and ministries think up and then okay these schemes before thoroughly thinking them through, i.e. the metro north/south line. They sell it to you by telling you it's going to be easier and cheaper... 90% of the time it turns out to be the opposite. We are guinea pigs.

By Buzzer | January 19, 2010 4:20 PM

Of course, one forgets to check out sometimes, like when you're in a hurry to catch a train or while reading a book. Bang, there goes Euro 10, a very expensive tram trip indeed. As for tourists, the system is insane.

By judith weingarten | January 19, 2010 4:21 PM

OV-Chipkaart is an expensive, clumsy and messy system, far worse than the paper strip cards. And now it is apparent that nobody else benefits, but the companies that introduced it. To me this is a case of corruption, combined with abuse of monopoly power. And there should be criminal investigation about that, not "government assessment".

By George | January 19, 2010 4:33 PM

What can they do if everyone just pushes through the doors and refuses to use the system?

They cannot arrest everyone...

By Patrick | January 19, 2010 5:59 PM

How utterly retarded this situation is...Unlike say, London's Oyster Card, there's absolutely NO incentive to use the OV chipcard.Do the decent thing, BOYCOTT
the new system.At least you then KNOW what you're paying.And if they try to force you, travel black..you know it makes sense.

By Edward Ka-Spel | January 19, 2010 6:11 PM

What is so amazing is that there is no apparent reason for needing an OV card system in the first place. So what is the real reason for it?

Fare dodging - Based on the number of people I see getting on public transport and not waving their OV card in front of the reader, I think fare dodging is just as high as it ever was.

Lower cost of travel thru increased efficiency - It appears that it will in fact be more expensive even after efficiency is factored in. Moreover, it appears that many people are charged MORE than they should be due to errors in the system, forgetting to "check out", etc.

Tourist revenue - no benefit. In fact, the opposite, a disincentive.

And add to it all of the technical problems with different companies not accepting each others' cards, no treating your guest to a fare, and the fact that the OV card system has been proven to be easily hacked (by a teenager in one day if memory serves!), it would seem that there is simply no advantage to the system at all.

Now we have to consider why it was introduced if there is no reason for it (and the government knew this in advance). We can compare this to the proposed kilometre tax with GPS readers in the cars. There is no reason for that measure either since petrol tax can easily be increased to cover the per kilometre use and avoid all the technical problems. In the case of the kilometre tax, it was later acknowledged by the government that, well, of course, by the way, the GPS info would be made available to law enforcement so everyone in the country could be tracked. I can only wonder if the entire OV card system, clearly and demonstrably unnecessary, must have been forced thru for a more sinister motive - the power to track where we go anywhere in the country by car or public transport.

By Matt | January 19, 2010 7:12 PM

As a regular visitor to The Netherlands I wonder now whether I can even get on a tram or a bus. It all sounds so confusing and expensive. I use to just buy a strippenkaart and be done with but now it seems the simple way isnt the obvious way. It was no better when i wanted to park my car in Leiden but to pay at the parking meter i could not use my credit card or money, a friendly local had to pay for it with his own bank/charge card(forgive me but its some sort of top-up card). so now i cant use local transport or park my car and I am not fit enough to ride a bike!! The Netherlands is my favourite place to visit but its becoming a problem. I wonder if all these price rises will help pay for the white elephant north south metro?

By barry critchley | January 19, 2010 8:05 PM

I am not against this OV-chipkaart but rather its efficiency. It has not been well thought off. I mean i saw a lady come off the bus in Almere and quickly had to run back to the bus to touch the exit door otherwise the card keeps running on Km. This system is similar to the oyster card in London. Oyster card is running smoothly, conveniently, efficiently and much cheaper. Maybe the dutch government ought to go get some tips there.

By Nance | January 20, 2010 6:58 AM

The chipkaart has no redeeming qualities as far as I can tell. I thought it was going to save money by stopping illegal riders - but the R'Dam transport company RET still pays armies of card checkers - so much for saving money - I did discover in Rotterdam if you go to the downtown RET office you can get money back from not checking out - one of my cards had 16 Euros of wrong charges on it - of course, it costs money to get downtown....

By Bruce | January 21, 2010 11:49 PM

I find the chipkaart much more expensive. Using a strippenkart It cost me under a euro for a single zone journey. Now it costs me 1.28 for the same trip.

By Mike | February 18, 2010 7:38 AM